We need mixtapes again

Music used to come with character

One of the things I miss about the way I used to discover music is that somebody often 'gifted' it to you. They put on the vinyl and jumped to the right groove. They made you a tape. Played a track in the car. Lent you their CD. Put something on at a party and watched the room change. Someone older had a collection they wanted to share. Someone cooler discovered the next band before you did.

Music travelled through our connections with each other. And because of that, the song often arrived with a person, a place and a memory already attached. There are still songs I cannot hear without being transported somewhere else. A student kitchen at 3am. The scratchy carpet in my grandad's living room. 'That' club. That moment. 

1. The algorithm knows what I like. My friends know why.

Today, finding music has never been easier. I can ask for something new and, within seconds, an algorithm can produce hours of music matched to my taste. I can Shazam it. It's amazing. But it doesn't come with connection.

The algorithm might know I like a certain artist. A friend knows which song we played on repeat on a holiday twenty years ago. The algorithm knows what I have listened to. A friend knows what I was like when I was seventeen. 

2. I am bringing back the mixtape

Not literally - although does anyone else remember those tiny card indexes and the joy of filling them in?! I'm bringing back the spirit of them. My rules are simple:

• Choose someone.
• Take it in turns to pick a theme.
• Send each other one song at a time. 
• Wait for yours to arrive.

To date I have run with:

• Songs that make me feel 17.
• Songs with the word rain in them.
• Songs for a kitchen disco.
• Songs that got us through something tough. 
• Songs that have speaking parts we know all the words to.

3. Memory has a soundtrack

One of the more interesting things about getting older is accumulating a longer soundtrack. At 20, songs remind you of last summer. By midlife, one piece of music can apparently contain an entire former version of you. Three minutes and thirty seconds and suddenly you remember the coat you wore, the person you fancied and exactly what somebody's parents' sitting room looked like in 1989.

Music provides access. Access to selves we no longer inhabit every day. And sometimes reconnecting with those selves is funny, moving, embarrassing and surprisingly useful. Because ageing can make us very focused on who we are becoming. Music has a habit of reminding us how many people we have already been.

So this is the week's Joyspan experiment. Choose your person. Choose your theme. Send one song. Not twenty. And tell them why. Then let them send one back.

Perhaps the modern mixtape isn't really about music at all. Perhaps it is simply another excuse to keep discovering the people we already know.

What is the first song you would send, and who to? I'd love to know. As always, email me at rebekah@mpowder.store.