PUT A TAPE IN, HIT PLAY, IT'S WIND BACK WEDNESDAY

Clearly not one of my tapes as you can read these names.

An upcoming radio spot on mixtapes, or playlists, the people who make them, and the people they’re made for, and pulling down from the shelves last week a CD made by a friend wording me up on his favourite New Order, prompted a Wind Back Wednesday dig. And lo, in 2009 I asked some people what they would put on one if they were making it that day.

Can confirm, at least for me, the songs I put on that theoretical mixtape in 2009 pretty much hold up and could easily go on one I’d make now – though of course it’s playlists on the cursed Spotify now for me and others. What the hell, they will! So keep an eye on my future playlists selections from the alternative hits and memories of 16 years ago.

(And yes, I know there’s a whole series based on a mix tape, a boy and a girl. Not seen it yet. But I will.)

But why do we do them? Do you? Some questions if not answered then at least speculated on. Maybe you’ll make a mixtape, or playlist, from some or all of the songs mentioned at the end. Maybe you’ll share them with the class.

And while you're thinking about that why not check out this week's playlist by yours truly. Click here to directly there.

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THE MIX TAPE COULD SAY it all and do it all. And it was in your hands.

You made it for that long drive up the coast, particularly for that traffic jam near Bulahdelah where tempers would fray and the right sounds always helped calm things. Or to take to a party where the Ben Ean would be flowing, pig-in-a-basket might tantalise your taste buds and you knew just what would set the party off in time for nude Twister.

Maybe you made it so your Walkman could drown out the noise of the train’s resident chip cruncher. It also worked to accompany aerobics, jogging, that long drag up the river in your kayak or to fill in the hours on the plane taking you to Europe for your backpacking adventure.

Tina Charles. Mix tape star,

Mostly you could share with your friends a bunch of songs which had been filling your head and they just had to hear. And maybe it was your secret weapon to impress a certain someone who might, just might, see the light with the right musical push. Who would recognise your favourite artists or be stunned by the surprises, then swayed by your brilliant combinations and finally succumb to your evident taste and discernment.

Whatever the reason, pulling together an hour or two of songs, planning a musical path the way artists planned an album, was both personal and public art. It said something about you – what you liked, what moved you and how your mind worked. And it said something about those who would listen to it – how you saw their tastes, foibles and weaknesses.

And it did all that in a little plastic package, a bit of brown tape and some handwritten (occasionally liquid papered-out) names in a case. Genius in miniature.

A few years ago I found the first mix tape I made for a girl I was interested in back in the dark ages of the 1980s. The writing was faded, the C90 tape a bit wobbly in playback, but what a cracker I thought: Prince, the Smiths, the Church and Suzanne Beware Of The Devil on one of side; Violent Femmes, Everything But The Girl, Tina Charles and Bones Of Elvis (“E- everlasting; L – life; V –via; I- induced; S- suspended animation” – brilliant!) on the other.

Did the tape work? Well she did finally go out with me … two years later. So maybe not. But the reason I have the tape is she did eventually marry me too. Maybe to stop me making her mixed tapes.

Of course I didn’t stop making tapes; many of you haven’t either. I’ve made a dozen this year. We do them on discs now or create playlists for iPods or to post online and wherever nerds gather in numbers. Whatever the format we’re still making mix tapes (there is no other name, it has to be mix tapes.) And the imperatives remain: make it good, make it last, make it say something.

Rowland S Howard, mix tape star

So to figure out what to say about 2009 we asked a few people to make up a mixed tape of their own from the songs which defined the year for them. They’re not necessarily songs from the best albums or the greatest artists this year. Some of them weren’t first released this year either, making an appearance in remastered or reissued form. And some songs appear a couple of times or an artist might appear twice, with different songs.

In any case, what we have are five personal takes on a year of music from Robert Forster, musician and Pascal Prize-winning music critic for The Monthly; Dom Alessio, host of JJJ’s local music program, Home & Hosed; Clare Bowditch, ARIA-winning musician and judge in the Australian Music Prize; Steve Kulak, owner of the Title Music music/book/film stores; and me, the Herald’s chief music critic and mixed tape tragic.

Robert Forster

Here is my ten-song mix tape list. Preferably on an old Sony tape with thirty minutes a side, to be listened to as you drive in a northerly direction.

Side 1

Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear

Shut Me Down by Rowland S. Howard

Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains) by Connie Converse

Who Can Say by The Horrors

All I Want by Sarah Blasko

Side 2

Laura by Girls

The Hollow Boat by McKisco

The Ballad Of John And Yoko by The Beatles

Faith/Void by Bill Callahan

Masochist by The John Steel Singers

Dom Alessio

Since I host the Australian Music Show on triple j, I often forget other parts of the world make music. So here are my favourite songs of the year with obligatory international additions.

Moth’s Wings by Passion Pit

We’re Mostly Made Of Water by Kid Sam

Tongues In Cheeks by Sugar Army

My Girls by Animal Collective

Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear

How To Tame Lions by Washington

Stillness Is The Move by Dirty Projectors’

Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club

Daniel by Bat For Lashes’

Feel It All Around by Washed Out

Clare Bowditch

These are the songs I made memories in 2009 - all new, mainly Australian, full of energy and guts and travel-legs and melodies. 

Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear

The Frost by Micaiah

My Delirium by Ladyhawke

Warm As Toast by Aluka

Help I'm Alive by Metric

Sushi by Otouto

Thump by Bertie Blackman

Alone Without You by Andrew Morris

Letter by Dan Sultan

Head, First, Down by Whitley

Steve Kulak

Passion for music is back on the agenda ... so is Africa. But then again, music and continents don’t disappear that quickly. Nor will some of these songs. The sound of this summer is the sound of soul ...

Mirror Ball by Crayon Fields

Secret Agent by Tony AllenAaya Lolo by The BarbequesAurora by Jon Hassell

In June by Summer Cats

The Lover of Beirut by Anouar Brahem

The Dreaming Mind by Quantic & his Combo Barbaro

Toda Ciencia Transcendiendo by Jon Balke

Maybe So, Maybe No by Mayer Hawthorne

Blood Oranges by Foreign Born

Bernard Zuel

I’ve been singing, or dancing or hurting myself to these songs this year. Needless to say the tape must be played in this order. Nerd.

Side 1

You Say Yes, I Say Yes by Veto

Push Up by Phrase

Hawaiian Disease by Abbe May

Ready To Roll by Philadelphia Grand Jury

Pasha Bulker by Bob Evans

Fool by Jess Klein

Side 2

She Bangs The Drums by Stone Roses

Wele Wele Wintou by Oumou Sangare

The Reeling by Passion Pit

Splitting The Difference by Adrian Deutsch

Make Her Mine by Mayer Hawthorne

She’s Got You by Rosanne Cash