I'm old enough to remember the days when pirating music meant three hours of siting beside your radio/cassette player, dutifully listening to the entire "Top 30 Countdown" just so that you could record your favourite song on to a blank cassette when it came on. I remember the rage when a DJ would talk over the first 30 seconds of the song, ruining your recording and ensuring yet another night of fastidious Top 30 Countdown listening. I made these tapes for friends, my first crush and even gifted my poor mother with a mix-tape of my 7-year-old-self singing Australian Christmas Carols, what a treat.
Though I don't miss wasting countless hours of my life hovering over a tape player (which back in those days had to be in a particular part of the house to "pick up the signal"), and I rate my Spotify subscription as one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life, there is one thing I really do miss about mix-tapes - and that's the spine and cover art.
People used to go to town personalising and customising their cassettes, and when I came across these pics on Boing Boing, I was instantly taken back to that time when teenaged silverchair reigned supreme.
Check out Steve Vistaunet's Pinterest for more.
I absolutely love these! I like to make mix CDs and I always decorate those- but these are wayyyy cooler
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