Kelefa Sanneh’s NY Times article Mixtapes Mix In the Marketing That Fuels the Hip-Hop Industry makes the interesting point that mixtapes can be considered:
a trailing indicator of the music industry. In the late 1980’s, as CD’s were booming, mixtapes were literally mixed cassette tapes. Now mp3’s are booming, and mixtapes are on CD. And you don’t have to be a nervous record executive, sweating over the latest SoundScan numbers, to know that no CD boom lasts forever.
While it’s an interesting point, it seems surprisingly off-target for Sanneh, as does his inaccurate generalization that mixtapes are "unlicensed collections of new and unreleased hip-hop tracks" and that "it’s illegal to sell them (because they’re full of copyrighted material)" when he’s previously pointed out that:
When an artist as popular as 50 Cent is releasing new material directly (and sometimes exclusively) to mixtapes, and when hip-hop crews like the Diplomats are supplementing their underground mixtapes with official (that is, licensed and legal) mixtapes, then the boundary between street and store gets harder to maintain.
Although I usually appreciate Sanneh’s insights and excellent writing, the notion of CDs as trailing indicators is problematic because it leaves out the fact that cassettes remained easy for hustlers to mass produce at a time when low cost equipment for CD copying just wasn’t readily available.
It also doesn’t account for the fact that DVDs are currently hot on the streets and in the stores. Recognizing that DVD duplication equipment is also now relatively cheap and available provides a much more likely explanation for their accessibility on the streets at a time when DVDs are still doing quite well via channels traditionally considered more legitimate.
Besides, MP3s aren’t really that easy to sell on the streets unless you burn them onto a disk.
The level of creativity on mix tapes is at an all-time low. For instance, I peeped the Pharrell Gangsta Grillz and couldn’t decide which one was more disappointing, his album or the mixtape. Whatever happened to the days of classic tapes via Lloyd Banks, Joe Budden and occasionally, 50 Cent?
I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t keep up with mixtapes enough to track their aesthetic ups and downs.
Thanks for the insight.
I think a key point thats being overlooked isthat a large portion of the mixtape market is new underground artists. ANdthese artists are creating albums using other intrumentals and production already released.
gnxmusic, actually I think just the opposite is happening. Your statement about underground artists is totally accurate in my mind but they join the mixtapes increasingly put out by famous folks that do fit Sanneh’s description of using unlicensed material, though often with the verbal approval of the djs or mcs.
What I’m trying to partly get at is that since folks do put out legal mixtapes from time to time, saying that they’re all illegal, especially if you’re a highly visible writer who has previously stated the opposite, is simply inaccurate.
On the other hand, in terms of a broader look at mixtapes, I would guess without having any sales data or many written and/or verbal accounts on which to draw that, as well known artist have flooded the mixtape scene with their product, the ability to break new artists via mixtapes is being increasingly undermined.
So thanks for expanding the conversation.
Mixtapes promote the individual tracks, and make people want to buy the album.
The album with a 16 page booklet and a nicely printed disc. People download the song only to try out the song. People want to buy the full quality music on CD. mixtapes will help the industry to move Hiphop genre. It is the best advertising medium for the branding artist, where they dont even have to pay a cent, but instead get paid, even if a little, it is better than paying money to the mainstream media.
Different to rock music or dance music, if you look at it from a business point of view. Rock is to go crazy, dance is to have fun, hiphop is about the streets,
Graffiti, is visual rebellion,
underground mixtapes, is verbal rebellion,
not about cool, that had it evolved
from the crime that fed the hungry
its all a rebellion
rebelling for a cause