editor's note
O
f all the things that have shaped my musical sensibilities, perhaps nothing has been as powerful as the mixtape. My older sister, Patrice, went away to college, got cool and became a campus DJ; she mailed her younger sisters mixtapes of her sho. We listened to them until they garbled and wore out or broke. To this day, I can’t hear Duran Duran’s “Union of the Snake” without imagining it segueing into “Original Sin” by INXS; The Pet Shop Boy’s “Suburbia” merging into New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle.” Her tapes were like a Godiva sampler box—meant for experimenting, finding favorites, sharing. With them, my sister was shaping a new identity for herself and offering us a glimpse into her world. Those pink-and-yellow Sony 90-minute cassettes whet our appetites for more and different music of similar and complementary flavors, and our sensibilities were transformed. I became a mixtape master myself, sometimes copying from those original Sonys to create totally new experiences and forms of self-expression. Chill mixes, dance mixes, road-trip mixes, teen ennui mixes layered thick with Depeche Mode. When I went to college and fell for another student who was a legit, beyond-campus DJ on Cincinnati’s alt/ indie station 97X, I’d tape his show and listen with an ear for unlocking his sensibilities—and his heart. We became friends but I was terribly shy, dazzled by his ease and charisma. The only way I could reach him was a mixtape of my own. The carefully selected, melodramatic run of Sinéad O’Connor and The The and XTC was the perfect medium to say what my words couldn’t, wrapped in coded lyrics, carefully chosen order and the element of surprise: I get you. I see you. Please see me. It worked, even if our subsequent relationship didn’t; what real-life college connection could surpass the perfection of those perfectly curated musical maps of our souls? Although the format may have morphed, from plastic cassettes to burned CDs and Spotify playlists, the essence of the mixtape remains the same: the mixtape is, as writer Andee Tagle quipped in and article in The Atlantic on the
MORE THAN WORDS by CARA MCDONALD
subject, a love language of its own. The curation, the assemblage and flow, from A side to B side, were painstaking creations that led the listener down a musical path toward some inevitable feeling or conclusion. For me, every magazine we create feels like a mixtape— I’ve often used the metaphor to explain what an editor does, and the curation angle is on point. But more deliciously and shamelessly riffing on the concept is our story this month “Your Summer Mixtape,” a deep-dive into the Northern Michigan music scene profiling the vanguards, the up-andcomers and those on the cusp of discovery. Baked into the story are the songs we can’t stop thinking about, and the story itself flows in mixtape form, artist choices and song picks perfectly paced from beginning to end. If you want to get right to the tunes, we have—because we love you—put it all into mixtape format with a Spotify playlist: link.mynorth.com/summermixtape. From the annual Red Hot Best picks to songs just right for a porch beer with some friends, this issue is our way of saying, “I get you. I see you.” We hope it sets the stage for a magnificent summer. Cara McDonald Executive Editor cara@mynorth.com JUNE 2023
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