throwback thursday :: mixtapes

First and foremost, I'm sorry this Throwback  Thursday post comes to you on a Friday, not a Thursday. Fail on my part... chalk it up to a busy day at work with tons of meetings and it's pouring down rain and I had things to do. But I'm making up for it right now! :)

Today I'm talking about one of my favorite throwback trends: the mix tape.

[via google image]

(Because who doesn't love that tradition?!)

I was so into these little guys in high school. Just picture me for a second, cruising around in my white Ford Taurus station wagon... yeah, I was pretty badass. The sad part is how much time I spent actually making mix tapes. Do you remember how freaking long that used to take?! I used to sit by my stereo, making sure the tape was in the exact place not to record over something new but definitely record over something old, and madly concentrate on hitting the REC button. This would go on for hours. And it was super frustrating when it got screwed up or you couldn't hit STOP fast enough before commercials kicked in. But it never felt like a waste of time when it was all said and done.

I had such a Top 40 obsession in high school, too. Here's what my mix tapes consisted of!

1. Anything Britney or Christina
2. Usher (He can sing to me any day.)
3. Eminem (Oh, I loved my Eminem.)
4. That old Pepsi commerical with Beyonce (Not even kidding. I loved it.)
5. That other Christina (Milian.... remember how she had that one "AM to PM" hit?)
6. Pink. LOTS of Pink. (To satisfy the angry chick in me.)
7. Matchbox Twenty. (Still kind of obsessed.)
8. OutKast (Hey Ya!)
9. Beyonce and Jay-Z (Just made it better that they ended up together!)
10. Nelly and any mash-up of him with other rappers (Shake Ya Tailfeather, anyone?)
11. Ludacris (Credited with improving my white girl rapping skills)
12. Avril Lavigne (Loved)

I'm kind of sad that the art of making a mix tape is dead. As much of a pain as it was, it was kind of nice to have a little project to create yourself and have it be totally you. If anything, mix tapes were an absolute, true expression of our high-school, angsty selves.

On that note, maybe I'll turn back time and make a present-day one just for kicks :) Sometimes re-living high school is a good thing! And I'd love to hear what was on your mix tapes!