What's the story? (Mixtape glory): Why presentation matters

It’s no secret that the landscape for musicians has changed dramatically. When you compare it to twenty-plus years ago, where physical releases reigned supreme, and all anybody wanted was their MTV, it's a different game entirely.

In this fast-paced environment, where streaming and socials are reigning supreme — and not going anywhere anytime soon — it’s all about presentation and what better way to present yourself than by having a good run up at figuring out who you are? These days it’s not uncommon for artists to test the waters with a release of a mixtape/EP/project or whatever moniker they deem fit for a collection of songs, all mostly worthy of an album.

While this is indeed a good way of establishing yourself in the world — particularly if leveraged correctly — it can also be a way of trudging fans through years of waiting for you to move forward. There’s no doubt these smaller projects are good for figuring yourself out but they can equally be a good way to test the endurance of those following you. Sure, singles are what get put on playlists and hook people in, but it’s the fans who want a full-length. They want you to have faith in yourself and to put a line in the sand between you before and after an album.

But just what is it about an album that holds so much weight? They’ve always been benchmarks for acts, similar to authors and novels — it’s a way of proving that you’re more than capable of compiling a project, and seeing an idea through from its basic form to taking its place in the world. It’s where you can expand, or at the very least cobble together a setlist that can be pored over, where future ‘deep cuts’ manifest, and even help compile the inevitable ‘XYZ’s Albums Ranked’ listicles on every music website.

These expanding options also invariably wind up with you putting weight upon yourself. As an artist, you want to keep pushing yourself and finding your best work to put forward, which creates an expectation of your output. If you’re building up with a variety of smaller projects, the heaviness gathers, so once that big moment arrives, with bated breaths everyone will most certainly cast a larger eye upon it than had it been relatively soon in your journey.

It’s also just plain confusing. If you’re releasing projects/mixtapes that are easily an album's worth of material, where does that sit in your story? An album is a definable point — it’s what the audience is most likely to use as markers for your growth — but a mixtape? Sure, if it’s a massive success, then it’ll become something akin to an album in the longterm, but then that also just means that you’ve got to one-up yourself with what comes next. And if that’s your debut album it’s not going to make an easy task to say the least.

Take Megan Thee Stallion. An undoubted superstar who's been releasing music since 2017's Make It Hot EP, the fact that she's reached the level she has and her debut album only came out in 2020 is staggering. While Good News was a brilliantly strong effort, there was just something special in the mixtapes — particularly 2019's Fever — that felt it was building so by the time her debut album dropped it was less of a moment and more of a straight-line continuation her previous works had built.

You want people to be able to visualise your growth. Through those chapters and steps — which, granted, can happen with anything other than an album — but if people are investing time in you as an artist they generally want a return.

There’s also a chance you could be selling yourself short. When a release is called something other than what it clearly is, it can be seen to demean the effort. It’s easy to see why people tend to fear the album. It does carry weight. Even in this day and age of singles and playlists ruling the roost, people look to your album for a definable substance of what you, as an artist, are capable of. It has a ceremony to it, it has majesty, and maybe it always will.

Similarly, although now people aren’t consuming music in the same way, they certainly still like knowing there’s an album of your music out there. A very misunderstood point is no one knows how to categorise them. Spotify, depending on your pull, will either place anything non-album under Singles & EP’s which will often be far less focused upon by casual listeners than the larger Album section. A minor point certainly, but when you’re trying to establish yourself in a sea of other artists and bands, making things as easy as possible for your audience is key to the game.

The lexicon for these terms has also changed dramatically. Mixtape once upon a time was a series of tracks you’d cut to a physical tape in the hopes of defining yourself to a pal or a lover (or even a movie soundtrack, see: Guardians of The Galaxy). Similarly, a project was just that, a project you’d keep to yourself hidden away while you figured out what you’re doing. It might have simply existed as a folder on the desktop of your computer that you’d refer to when approaching an album.

However, the use of these terms can be played to your advantage. They do still have the aforementioned connotations, which gives your career a three-dimensional look. By sharing a ‘Mixtape’ is that you find confidence in your ability to compile some tracks under a theme, or with a project, it feels like your best friends band sharing their demos with you on a still-warm-to-the-touch CD with scribbled handwriting on it. And the simplest usage is just to bridge a gap, maybe you’re looking to develop ideas and want to keep traction on yourself, which is key.

Capitalising on her winning 20201's Brit Rising Star award, Griff released her debut mixtape One Foot In Front Of The Other. A perfect example of knowing when to strike without rushing into a grander idea while still on the most exciting part of being an artist — exploring just what it is you want to do.

Now, what this all means for you as an artist, is up to you. This isn’t an article to sway you one way or another, but with these new ways of sending your work into the world becoming far more commonplace, it’s good to realise the impact they can have.

Plus, the fact that the world is changing, people and ways of communicating are more accessible — it’s a wide-open field that means you can make of it what you want makes this all ripe for your taking. Music has never been so open-source. This also has its caveats. In a world so vast and open, it’s important to distinguish who you are. Throwing everything at the wall is a sure-fire way to dilute yourself, your artistic mission and to confuse people looking to get to know you. Building a brand is a vital aspect of being an artist — it’s predominantly unspoken but a true facet. You need to establish your motives, what you represent, and just who you are.

Whatever you choose to do, how you choose to share yourself with the world, as long as it’s with purpose and true to you — that’s the only essence of being an artist. Making sure people understand what you’re trying to do is only secondary to this - plenty of artists in the past have been outside of the box. Everyone’s doing things a little differently, just make sure you’re doing you.