iTunes playlists vs. mixtapes

During the summer of my 22nd year, I was in my first and only relationship that involved consistent sexual intercourse over a period of a few months. It was the relationship that I thought I could be miserable in for the rest of my life, but I tried to think of ways to make it fun. In much the same way that the woman of the 1950's might have bought a skimpy teddy to spice things up in the bedroom, I flaunted a 50-minute long iTunes playlist called "devious," sure to get him in the mood after a long day of work.

So I really thought about it, or at least I considered the ideal length. The play list had to be the perfect accompaniment for the one activity we enjoyed together, having sex. The songs should be chosen for their individual rhythms and ability to meld to each other in such a way to simulate climaxing. It's how you should think of any play list, you know. It's not rocket science, but if you don't provide some shape to the mishmash of songs written by other people, you might as well have your iTunes settings on "random".

I'm currently listening to it, two years after it's conception, doubting my choices. Why did I put in that Simian song? It's far too obvious...those lyrics, "Here it comes...." ?? and that heavy bass line?? Perhaps I was still nostalgic about my college boyfriend who once put the same song on a mixtape sent to me during the summer I worked at a camp upstate. I searched for hidden messages in that tape and whichever ones I found were apparently not compelling enough, I inexplicably broke up with him once we moved back onto campus in the fall.

The Jefferson Airplane song on this play list was a good choice, but why not just listen to the whole album? It's pretty hot. I wonder if I even cared how "devious" sounded in it's entirety or if I just got bored one day waiting for the guy to come home and didn't mind waiting the 2 minutes it takes one to burn a cd before we had sex. An iTunes playlist was as committed I could be, quick enough to put together and could be burned on other cds for other lovers. After all, he made it fairly clear that he couldn't fall in love with me and he didn't pay too much attention to music anyways. Why go through all the trouble of a mixtape? That'd be like baking a cake from scratch when all I needed was a new negligee.