The mixtape is the most personal object in the history of recorded music. Nobody made a mixtape for money. Nobody made a mixtape for fame. Somebody made a mixtape because they had something to say and the only way to say it was with other people's songs arranged in a specific order. The mixtape is a letter written in music. Every song is a sentence. The order is the grammar. The whole thing is a confession.

A kid in nineteen eighty-two sits in his room with a tape deck and a stack of records and he makes a tape for a girl. He does not say I love you. He lets Otis Redding say it. He lets the Cure say it. He lets the Smiths say it. He arranges these songs in the exact order that tells the story he cannot tell with his own words. Side A is how I feel. Side B is what I hope you feel back. That is the mixtape. The most vulnerable thing a person can hand to another person. Here. I made this. It is not mine but it is mine because I chose it and the choosing is the art.

The DJ understood the mixtape before anybody. The DJ on the radio arranged songs in an order that told you what kind of night it was going to be. The DJ at the club arranged songs in an order that told your body what to do. The DJ was the first curator and the word curator had not been invented yet because nobody needed a word for it. The DJ just did it. Three songs in a row that made sense together and then a fourth that changed everything. That is the mixtape played live. Every great DJ set is a mixtape that only exists once.

The playlist killed the mixtape. The algorithm killed the playlist. Now a computer decides what songs go in what order and the order means nothing because the computer does not love you. The computer does not know that track five needs to be a slow song because you just had three fast ones and the listener needs to breathe. The computer does not know that the last song is the most important because the last song is the thing that stays in the car after the engine turns off. The computer does not know any of this because the computer has never been in love.

Make a mixtape. I do not care how old you are. Get a blank tape or open an app or burn a disc or write a list on a napkin. Pick the songs. Put them in order. Give it to someone. Do not explain it. The explanation ruins it. The mixtape is a test. If the person listens to the whole thing and calls you and says track seven, then you know. You know they heard you. That is all any of us are trying to do. Be heard. The mixtape is the shortest distance between two people who have not figured out how to talk to each other yet.