Whatever Happened to the Mix Tape?!?

So I'm sitting here ripping some kids' music onto our desktop computer.  I'll eventually make a CD for Luke for the car so he can have a positive, predictable experience when we do all the driving that we do.  I feel like my NPR might be boring him (ha!), the local jazz and classical music stations have too many commercials, and I have almost had my fill of "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "The Farmer in the Dell," and "B-I-N-G-O." 

Have you heard Tom Chapin?  He's incredible.  I've found myself listening to his music without Luke in the car.  And yes, I've even carried his Great Big Fun for the Very Little One into my classroom because I knew I'd never be able to get his "State Song" out of my head. 

While I sit here ripping (a word, by the way, that was not in my lexicon 15 years ago) the CDs I am also scanning the album covers so I have them in my files on the computer.  I realize this is probably completely redundant, because all I have to do is Google them, and all the information is right there.  Better than that, as soon as Windows Media Player finishes ripping the album it will probably just appear from some magical database of album covers and be forever imprinted on our desktop computer. 

But that's not all!  After I get the last of the CDs ripped, I'll probably move them over to the fancy hard drive Jeff just got us with something like a terabyte of free space.  Terabyte?  I'm not even sure if I'm using the correct word! I realize that there is probably a better way to do this, too.  I'm probably using outdated software, hardware, or something. 

I also realize that when Luke is a teenager he'll probably just have to wiggle his nose and the music will appear in a chip in his ear.  So it all makes me feel very nostalgic for the days of the mix tape.  Remember the mix tape?  Getting a mix tape from a boy was the most obvious sign of love, and my friend Jessica and I thought we were in heaven because we could copy all of each other's cassettes on our reel-to-reel cassette stereos and have twice as much music.  I remember the day Garth Brooks' "Rodeo" single was released--my friend Audrey and I sat on the phone, next to our stereos, anxious to press "record" at just the right time to record the song on our cassettes. 

And what do we do with those cassette tapes now?  I couldn't even get my students to pay me 10 cents for the ALL George Strait mix tape that a boy made for me once.  I'm having a sale I call my "Cheaper than Gum" sale to get rid of all the stuff I don't need in my classroom, and I'm really at a loss for what to do with all the junk that is no longer useful, like the mix tape.  Did I mention that the GS mix tape was in a grab bag with a bunch of other neato stuff that no longer has a use?  Alas, will the hours of enjoyment from my teen years translate into one more thing in the overgrown landfill?  At least cassettes are some of the smallest out-of-date things we have....

And what happens when I get Luke hooked on Tom Chapin's "Cameling" song, only to watch it become obsolete in 25 years?  My sister and I recently found ourselves singing a couple of songs from our old favorite Cabbage Patch Kids album.  RECORD album.  We don't know what happened to the record, let alone the songs, and even then we decided we didn't really love the songs enough to buy a record player just to relive some old songs--and old memories.  Or do we love the songs that much?  If we didn't love them so much, wouldn't we be able to get them out of our heads?  ("Sybil Sadie... Oh Ramie... We've got to get away from Cabbage Jack and get back home and then...there'll be laughter in the cabbage patch again..."  Ahhh!  The memories!) 

Funny how, as I'm writing this, someone is already working on a way to make all of my efforts to rip this music--into a perfect mix--obsolete.  I guess I'll keep practicing my finger motions for the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song.  :)