Listening to the newest single or the latest up-and-coming artist has never been easier. A few taps here, the occasional swipe, and that’s it. Gen Z has it good in terms of instantly listening to music, but it wasn’t always so. Before the iPod were CD players, and before them were small, rectangular cassettes known as a mixtape.
Gen Z makes its introduction to mixtapes in Netflix‘s new release Mixtape, starring Gemma Brooke Allen and Julie Bowen.
Mixtape is set in 1999 during the downward slope of the trend. Allen is Beverly Moody, a 12-year-old girl living with her grandmother (Julie Bowen) who discovers a broken mixtape made by her late parents.
Learning the Mixtape
Allen was born in 2008. The 13-year-old has only even known the likes of Spotify and Apple Music her entire life. She winces when asked how much she knew about mixtapes prior to filming.
“I knew, like, a little bit. Not that much. Before filming I knew everything ’cause my mom saw a mixtape in the garage and she was like, ‘okay, I’m so excited. This is my mixtape and this is how it works,'” said Allen. “I was like, gosh, music used to be so complicated, so hard!”
The mixtape is a tangible metaphor for the generational gap between Allen, her parents, and really people outside of Gen Z. It serves as a marker, really an artifact, of pop culture.
“I didn’t realize the luxury that we have of current-day technology.”
Julie Bowen
Bowen lies on the other side of the generational gap between her and her co-star. She made her acting debut on a 1992 TV series known as Loving. She is probably best known as Claire Dunphy of ABC’s Modern Family, where she twice took home the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Modern Family ended in 2020 as one of the most successful sitcoms in television history, at one point drawing in more than 10 million viewers per episode, according to the Washington Post. Its legacy is one that sticks with Bowen and manages to find its way into her answer about grief in Mixtape.
“… it dovetails with this journey of grief that Gale, her grandmother, who’s raising her as a very youthful grandmother, is going through because they both have lost something in their lives,” said Bowen. “One doesn’t really know what it is and the other can’t even look at it. So that was not easy to do, to spend so much time thinking about loss and grief, and I have to admit it made me yearn sometimes for the Dunphy house.”
While Bowen and Allen may differ in their age and their characters, they do bear certain similarities among each other.
Shared Interests
One thing that stands out about the two co-stars is their bright personalities. Their effortless chemistry is apparent from the beginning of the interview when they remember how they first met through a Zoom meeting. They engage with each other in their answers, sometimes resulting in Bowen letting Allen take the lead on questions meant for Bowen. Their matching personalities are enough to make one see Bowen as an adult variation of Allen.
Then there is the musical side of their similarities. When asked who would be on her mixtape, Allen ponders a beat before Bowen chimes in, “Lil Nas X! Lil Nas X!”
“Yes, I love his songs,” said Allen. “I love my old school Mariah Carey, to be honest. Like, Fantasy. And I really love Heat Waves by Glass Animals.”
It’s at this point Bowen affirms. “We’re on the same page! Gemma!”
“Love that song,” said Allen.
“We have to do a dance break to that,” said Bowen.
A dance party briefly ensues. Their shared interest in music and its power to bridge generations personifying their on-screen chemistry.
Watch Mixtape on Netflix today and the full interview below.
