During the pandemic, when every day felt the same and time lost all meaning, my boyfriend and I got weirdly nostalgic. We couldnāt go anywhere, we had already rewatched all our favorite movies, and we needed something fun, something different.
Thatās when we had the best idea everācassette mixtapes. Not a Spotify playlist, not a YouTube link. Real, old-school, rewind-with-a-pencil cassette tapes.
Step 1: Finding a Cassette Player (Not as Easy as Youād Think)
This all started after I thrifted a cassette playerāone of those chunky, battery-powered ones with a built-in speaker and a handle. I wasnāt even sure if it worked, but after some cleaning (and a lot of banging it against my hand), it came to life.
So naturally, we decided to go full 1990s romance movieĀ and make each other mixtapes.
Step 2: The Song Choices ā A Personal Time Capsule
The rule was simple: fill a whole tape with songs that reminded us of each other, our childhood, or just random bangers from the 90s and 2000s.
His tape for me had:
š¶ Goo Goo Dolls ā IrisĀ (Obviously.)
š¶ No Doubt ā Donāt SpeakĀ (Dramatic. Love it.)
š¶ OutKast ā Hey Ya!Ā (Because duh.)
š¶ Michelle Branch ā EverywhereĀ (Iconic.)š¶ Nelly ā Ride Wit MeĀ (I screamed when I heard this one.)
And my tape for him?
š¶ Green Day ā Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)Ā (Because Iām cheesy.)
š¶ Britney Spears ā LuckyĀ (Because I amĀ that girl.)
š¶ Eminem ā Lose YourselfĀ (Because I have range.)
š¶ Dashboard Confessional ā Hands DownĀ (My emo phase was real.)
š¶ Mariah Carey ā Always Be My BabyĀ (No explanation needed.)
We even recorded our own voicesĀ between tracks, leaving little messages like, āIf you donāt sing along to this, do we even know each other?ā
Step 3: Actually Playing Them ā The Moment of Truth
When we finally sat down and listened, it was magical. Thereās something about hearing music on a cassette that makes it feel warmer, more special. Maybe it was the tiny sound of static in the background, maybe it was just the effort we put into it. Either way, it felt like a memory in the making.
After that, we kept making tapes, filling them with random playlists, inside jokes, and even some songs we wrote ourselves (donāt ask, they were bad). It was such a simple thing, but honestly? It made that weird, slow time feel a little more special.
Final Thoughts: Mixtapes > Playlists (Sorry, Not Sorry)
I know Spotify is easier. I know you can send someone a playlist in seconds. But thereās something about physically makingĀ a mixtape that feels different. More personal, more effort, more real.
Even now, when I see those tapes sitting on our shelf, I remember those long, slow days and the way we turned them into something fun, something meaningful.
And if cassette tapes ever make a full comeback? You already know Iām ahead of the trend.Ā š¶š
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