My Old Mixtapes
If you're my friend, there's a good chance I've made you a mixtape or two at some point in our friendship. It was likely burned on a CD-R, cleverly titled with a Sharpie, and now exists below the floor-mat of a car you have long since sold.
And so, because I'm nostalgic AF, I decided to recreate as many of my old mixtapes as I could recollect in today's version of the CD-R: the Spotify playlist. Please note that these mixtapes are not meant to be exhaustive in any form except in capturing my own personal tastes at very particular moments in time.
Thanks for listening,
Ryan
emo inside©
| Timeframe: | 2001-2003 |
| For: | My cool emo friends. |
| Reason: | To show my cool emo friends just how cool & emo I was. |
| Notes: | Unfortunately missing from these playlists is the cool logo and liner notes that I put together for each mix CD designed in MS Paint. You had to be there. |
Songs You Can Sing To
| Timeframe: | 2004-2015 |
| For: | My fellow band members & friends. |
| Reason: | Originally started to introduce new songs to the Six:Forty praise band I led back in New Philadelphia, Ohio, I continued these worship music mixtapes on for a few more years after I moved to KC for my own sake. |
| Notes: | Some of these "old" worship tunes are bonafide bops, so I'm including a few additional worship/praise mix playlists just because. |
Favorite Artist Mixes
| Timeframe: | Timeless |
| For: | Anyone |
| Reason: | My favorite tracks from my favorite bands/artists. |
| Notes: | Listen to an old haunt or gain yourself a new one... |
Misc. Playlists
| Timeframe: | Timeless |
| For: | Anyone |
| Reason: | This is the digital version of the grab bin at the end of the shelf at your favorite record store. |
| Notes: | Mixtape is my "Currently Listening To" playlist so subscribe to that if you want to know where my tastes are at *this week*. Hard Times/Stay Away is my COVID-19 playlist (Find more here: tunesforhardtimes.com). The rest are here because they don't fit into any other category. |
Jordan's Mixes
| Timeframe: | 2010 - Present |
| For: | Jordie |
| Reason: | Because I love you. |
Genre-Specific Mixes
| Timeframe: | Timeless |
| For: | Me, and maybe you too! |
| Reason: | Just a place to throw all my favorite tunes from a specific genre into one spot. |
| Notes: | See also: my era-specific playlists. |
the eras of ryan
| Timeframe: | 1981 - Present |
| For: | Me, and likely only me |
| Reason: | What else sounds like fun to someone who is serially nostalgic than putting playlists together around the different "eras" of your life and the musical styles & artists that defined those eras? Currently I have playlists covering songs played on the lite-rock radio station (101.7 WJER) from my hometown in '94, late-90's alternative rock, early-00's college rock, and some mid-00's radio rock/pop. More to come if/when I get overwhelmed by nostalgia for the background music from a specific period of my life. |
| Notes: | See also: my genre-specific playlists. |
The Boss
| Timeframe: | 2008 - Present |
| For: | Mostly just me, but also for anyone else looking for somewhere to dip their toe into Springsteen's deep musical catalog. |
| Reason: | After I became the biggest & most annoying Boss fan any of my friends had ever met back in 2008, I started burning some of my favorite live versions of his songs as mix CDs. Recently, some of those annoyed friends have become fans of The Boss themselves and now request my mixtapes for their own points of entry into his music. |
| Notes: | Springsteen's Spotify concert releases are woefully short of all the live material he has released via non-streaming methods over the years, so I've had to sub in less than optimal versions of some songs. Here's to hoping he eventually opens up more of his live & bootleg music to Spotify. |