Mixtapes: The Greatest Show of Romantic Love
A humorous journey down memory lane to the age of meaningful lyrics
When I perform stand-up comedy, very often I’ll engage with young couples in the audience and ask them what the most romantic thing that they’ve ever done for each other is.
Almost always, the answers I get allude to something being bought. Rarely do I get a response that talks about an investment in time and effort.
Today I’d like to take you back in time to the greatest show of romantic love that my generation had at their disposal — the mixtape.
Love in the time of analog
The late '90s were a time of romance. The smallest thing you could do for a girl was to give her flowers and chocolates.
If you had the brains, you’d write her a poem. If you didn’t, you’d go to a card shop, copy one down and give it to her. But by far the most romantic thing you could do was to give her a mixtape. A compilation tape.
You see, millennials, in our generation, we had something called an audio cassette. It was used for storing and playing music. And giving a girl a mixtape was the greatest show of commitment. It’s not like now when you can drag three files into a device and give it to her.
