Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 10:20:56 -0400

From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA

Subject: Re: new word? mix



dale said:

I just submitted a new word to John Algeo and realized I ought to have posted

it here first. My teenagers are always trading mixes with each other. I had

never heard this before this year. It's a cassette audio tape on which you

tape a collection of your favorite songs from other albums. A Beatles Mix

would have your own favorite Beatles songs on it. Anybody else heard this?

and when and where?



the word isn't very new--there have been dance mix albums for a number

of years. what seems to be new is that people are calling their

homemade tapes mixes as well as the commmercially available mixes

(usually on cd). it probably started with the dance scene, since

people typically don't want to buy whole albums of dance bands (of

such genres as techno, house, trance, etc., but perhaps this goes as

far back as disco--i dunno), but instead just want the songs they

know from the clubs. so, there are commercially available albums of

current hits (the modern version of the k-tel record) called mixes,

with names that frequently use the word "mix"--like "it's in the mix"

or "all mixed up" or "dance mix 96". i see these more in south

africa (where they make up at least 60% of the top 10) than in

the states, because the rave culture is more widespread here. i

believe the situation is similar in europe--with dance mixes

comprising a great proportion of pop record sales. the european-made

ones tend to use the word "mix" more, though. american-made ones

like mtv's "party to go" series don't seem to use the word "mix" as

much.



but, i wouldn't be surprised to learn that this all started with rap

music, where a mix is less a collection of songs than a

conglomeration of songs--mixing of samples. but this all gets

back to the DJ culture and playing songs over a constant beat (or

matching beats among songs in order to make them flow into each

other). thus, both in rap culture and in rave culture you have

people called "mixmasters".



pretending to be hip,

lynne



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