I recently unearthed some old tapes (and by "some," I mean "hundreds")...and now you have to pay! Kidding. Ignore this all you want. In this post are very specific relics from a very specific childhood: six mixes worth of songs taped off the radio. My obsessive media gathering began as soon as we got a VCR and hasn't really changed since -- I burn shows obsessively in the event that they'll somehow cease existing (not everything goes to iTunes, I'll have you know!). Music's a different story, though -- thank god I no longer have to rely on timing to have in my possession new songs that I may or may not want to listen to recorded until they're officially released! The medium contained in this post is officially extinct.
As opposed to whole listening experiences, these tapes mostly represent cataloging -- I recorded many of these songs as I heard them for the first time, and given the obscurity of much of this junky, poppy house stuff, it was also the last time. I was completely justified in my paranoia of never hearing this stuff again with good reason: not much of it was worth hearing again.
But still, I listen to this stuff and I'm mesmerized -- being exposed to this much dance music as a 14- and 15-year-old kid certainly shaped my current listening. The comparably small proportion of hip-hop I apparently listened to from 1992 to 1993 (when these were made) has remained pretty much constant. That said, when listening to these tapes again after almost 20 years, what hit me the hardest was hearing Grand Puba's "360 Degrees (What Goes Around)" (on Radio 8) -- hearing that joyous, tactile hip-hop coming off tape felt like home to me.
I was also clearly obsessed with Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross' "The Best Things in Life Are Free" (it pops up no fewer than three times), as well as the weekly countdown American Dance Tracks, hosted by the excruciating Downtown Julie Brown (stick around for a bit and you'll hear her assert that she was "gettin' down" with every single artist on her weekly lists). That countdown was particularly great because it allowed me to finally hear so much of the stuff that I'd read the names of when I'd scan the Billboard dance charts (which I would do whenever I could, though I remember as a child only rarely being able to swing the $6 per issue that Billboard charged).
It's funny how much this stuff seemed to matter then and how little it matters now. This used to be my playground, truly.
(Added bonus: My voice can be heard on a few of these, mostly calling in with hot-or-not type of votes for new songs. This happens immediately after the first song on Radio 4.)
(Note: You can download any mix by click the button with the picture of a down arrow in its player.)
There's no way to convey how much joy this has brought me over the past few days. I did this exact same thing, only I had much worse taste.
Posted by: b | June 10, 2011 at 04:40 PM
This makes me so nostalgic for my 80's childhood, making tapes of the radio when i was too young to afford to buy music, how the radio would actually play a variety of music, how the songs all sounded uniquely different. The 80's and early 90's were a great time for pop and R&B music.
I used to stay up late and record the dance mixes broadcast live from the clubs in my hometown of San Francisco and wish my little tween self could be at the club they were playing these mixes at.
I'll take listening to these 80's mix tapes of the utter blandness of Lady GaGa any day. She's only trying to ape these sounds anyway. Why not just direct your ears straight to the source?
Posted by: Bryan | June 11, 2011 at 04:00 PM
i. love. you.
Posted by: janemonster | June 12, 2011 at 04:29 PM
This is amazing. I wish I had saved all of my tapes.
Posted by: MeanLittleBumbleBee | June 12, 2011 at 08:59 PM
I love this. I've always made mix tapes for myself and friends, making them suffer through some and love others. Before I started to buy records, I started by recording music on the radio. Sometimes you would rewind when you didn't like the song and re-record leaving bits and pieces of the original around. Or you cut off the DJ. Or you cut the songs short. Man, does this take me back and those memorex tapes were hot. Thanks, Rich!
Posted by: Bobby | June 13, 2011 at 08:38 PM
This really brought a tear to my eye. I lost my tapes but I remember the craft that went into making them. LOVE it!
Posted by: Katie | June 15, 2011 at 12:41 AM
PS Best Thing In Life Are Free was my jam, too!
Posted by: Katie | June 15, 2011 at 12:42 AM
Love your radio call in. Cute!
Posted by: Bobbie | June 15, 2011 at 01:02 AM
awesome! this is like someone made me a wonderful wonderful mix tape...i'll be listening to these all day while i work at my desk :)
Posted by: Steve | June 23, 2011 at 08:41 AM
RICH!!! Hello I haven't talked to you since the late 90's! my friend Julia just forwarded me these insanely appealing mixes and then I realized who's blog this is. Hope you are well. xoxo
Posted by: George Alley | June 23, 2011 at 11:21 PM
We must be the same age, I was making mix tapes of the same songs from the radio. When I saw that you had "Can We Talk" by Tevin Campbell, I had to jump right to that.
So many of these songs sound familiar that I'm not sure if I remember them, or if it's just that everything sounded the same :)
Posted by: Lauren | June 27, 2011 at 06:45 PM
Folks might enjoy these videos of Jimmy Fallon and Gwyneth Paltrow's 90's R&B group Shazzazz:
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2011/01/jimmy-gwyneth-paltrow-do-it-again-with-shazzazz/
Posted by: Lauren | June 27, 2011 at 06:55 PM
This is seriously my most favoritest thing on the innernetz EVERS. Forreals. <3 Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Joy | June 27, 2011 at 08:17 PM
Bless you. I love cassettes and loved making my own tapes back in the day. My radio tapes though were done on a reel-to-reel.
Posted by: antbee | June 27, 2011 at 09:53 PM
I love 90s House and Miami Bass so this is a pretty cool throwback. I too used to record my own tapes but a lot of the ones I had got wrecked a few years ago.
I'd like the current dance craze so much better if it were aping Miami Bass rather than just squeezing what's left of a rather dated, tinny sounding mock-Europop-meets-Garage ringtone ready sound that has been over since '05 or so. I was tired of the sound by the time Madge's Confessions and Britney's Blackout were released yet the youngins are still hanging on to it.
Posted by: anonm | July 27, 2011 at 10:36 PM
I am simply out of words after reading your blog. I want to appreciate the way you handled such a complicated subject. Nothing better than this could be written in such a simple manner! Hats off dude!!!I
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