Why? Because it’s the start of a new year that’s why, and we’re going to get you in the right mood for the brand new year. A clean slate. A fresh start (boy do we need it after last year).

So what songs make you feel lifted. What songs make you stare into the middle distance and say to yourself, “yeah, I can do this”, in a really meaningful way. Maybe a slight glisten in your eye from tears of inspiration. I

s it something like Sam Cooke’s ’A Change Is Gonna Come’, or Don Henley’s ‘Boys Of Summer’ or Friendly Fires ‘Paris’ or David Bowie ‘Heroes’ or Janelle Monae ‘Tightrope’ or Jackie Wilson (You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me) ‘Higher And Higher’…you get the idea. 

You choose the music, so get your best uplifting song suggestions to Tom via the hashtag #Uplifting6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Brexit. Trump. Syria.

David Bowie. Maurice White. Prince. Leonard Cohen. Sharon Jones.

A lot of bad has happened but there MUST be some good; we want both. We want to hear the bad and the good things that have happened to you this year, the year of 2016, and what song reminds you of these times, and why.

The songs can be new, the songs can be old, but the constant is the certain memory or time in 2016 that a certain song is attached to.

You choose the music, so get your best 'Your Year' suggestions to Tom via the hashtag #2016review6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Much news coverage surrounded the Nobel Prize for literature being awarded to the 75 year old US singer songwriter poet artist, the first time it has ever been awarded to a musician. What followed brought more column inches, when he went silent for a very long time, being branded “impolite and arrogant” by a member of the academy.

Finally, two weeks after the award was announced, on 29 October, the singer phoned the academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, to say: "I appreciate the honour so much. The news about the Nobel prize left me speechless."

Then to top it off, he’s not attending the ceremony this Saturday. Instead, Patti Smith is stepping in to perform one of his best know tracks, and read out a speech written by him.

What a diva.

Anyway what to suggest for a playlist around a man considered one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century, both musically and culturally… well we could play 2 hours of Bob Dylan, we don’t mind. Anything from his 37 albums. Have you seen him live on his so called ‘Never Ending Tour’? If so, what was that like and what song stood out for you?

Were you there when he ‘went electric’?

Influencers: Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams.

Those he influenced: everyone; Patti Smith, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young…not going to list them all.

You choose the music, so get your best Bob Dylan suggestions to Tom via the hashtag #Dylan6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Ahhh 1989 aye, halcyon days. The game boy was released, Michael Jackson was officially named “King Of Pop”, oh and the Berlin Wall came down and it was the end of the Eastern Bloc. A year of massive change and also, the decade that rave was born.

Wiki definition of rave: “The rave genre first appeared amongst the UK acid movement during the late 1980s at warehouse parties and other underground venues, as well as on UK pirate radio stations. Rave music is usually presented in a DJ mix set, although live performances are not uncommon.”

It’s also great to dance to, dance the night away to, sweat until you can’t sweat anymore and fall in a massive heap with all your mates in the early hours of the morning. The rave genre doesn’t just stop at the music – it was a lifestyle, an attitude, it pretty much invented the mentality of “living for the weekend”. But, what to suggest for a rave playlist?

The classic rave music like techno, jungle, acid house, gabba, break beat – all great genres of music that you can lose yourself to.

Chill Out – the more ambient works that you may listen to after a long long night…

Rave warm up – what stuff did you/do you listen to when getting ready to go out for a rave up?

Or anything that you lose yourself to – can be a soul classic or a 90’s garage banger to an 11 minute prog rock guitar solo.

This is your rave, what would you play at it?

You choose the music, so get your best rave suggestions to Tom and Danny Rampling, via the hashtag #Rave6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Throughout the day on Friday, from Shaun Keaveny through to the inventor of T Shirt Day himself, Steve Lamacq, listeners are asked to send in pictures of them wearing their band t shirts – then 6 Music play a song by the band on your t shirt – specific song requested by you of course.

THE DAY EVEN HAS IT’S OWN EMOJI, just search #TShirtDay on twitter. All the info is here.

So in kind of keeping with this event, we thought we would dedicate a 2 hour playlist to the theme of STYLE. It’s very broad we know because you can argue that essentially, every musician and artist since the beginning of time had a style…so you can go wherever you want with this, as long as it’s around the theme of style.

Bowie, Ferry, Dylan, Hendrix, Bush, Pistols, Simone, Sinatra, Strokes, Ross, Cave, Cohen…all had great style.

We are not going to list them all…

Or songs about style or fashion, like 'Baggy Trousers' by Madness, 'Dedicated Follower Of Fashion' by The Kinks or even 'Handbags And Gladrags' by Rod Stewart...

You get the idea.

 

You choose the music, so get your best art suggestions to Tom, via the hashtag #Style6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Before The Dawn’ features songs recorded live during Kate’s run of 22 sold out shows in 2014 at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. It was the first time the singer had performed live since her 1979 ‘Tour of Life’ which culminated at the same venue, then called Hammersmith Odeon.

The first night of the shows prompted a complete media frenzy with the Evening Standard declaring that the show was "an extraordinary mix of magical ideas, stunning visuals, attention to detail and remarkable music – she was so obviously, so unambiguously brilliant, it made last night something to tell the grandchildren about."

But we are not only playing some exclusive stuff, we want your Kate Bush related suggestions as well, which means…

Anything from Kate Bush’s 10 studio album’s or one of her 25 top 40 charting singles? I mean, would could just play loads of KB could't we?

Those she has influenced: Tori Amos, Alison Goldfrapp, Bat For Lashes, Coldplay, Erasure, Wild Beasts…

What influenced her? Glam rock, folk music & classical music influenced Bush greatly along with bands like Roxy Music and Peter Gabriel, whom she later collaborated with. Bush is also heavily influenced by literature – Wuthering Heights (obvs), while "Cloudbusting" was inspired by Peter Reich's autobiography, for example..

What about fellow artists who have topped the singles chart as a teenager? Kate Bush’s debut single ‘Wuthering Height’s’ was released when she was just 19...

You choose the music, so get your best art suggestions to Tom, via the hashtag #KateBush6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

The news was announced on his official Facebook page on Friday morning (GMT).

"It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away," the statement said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led tributes to the singer, who was known for hits including Hallelujah and Dance Me to the End of Love. "It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of the legendary Leonard Cohen,"

Mr Trudeau said in a statement. "He will be fondly remembered for his gruff vocals, his self-deprecating humour and the haunting lyrics that made his songs the perennial favourite of so many generations."

Tributes poured in online from all corners of the entertainment world:

Russell Crowe: ‘Dear Leonard Cohen, thanks for the quiet nights, the reflection, the perspective, the wry smiles and the truth”

Boy George: “We have lost a great artist, poet and poignant force of energy. R.I.P. Leonard Cohen”

Bette Midler: “Leonard Cohen has died. Another magical voice stilled”

The world once again is in mourning. What a week. What a year. What should be on the ultimate Leonard Cohen playlist?

The singer's hits including Suzanne, Bird on the Wire and I'm Your Man or everything from his 14 studio albums.

Those he influenced: Nick Cave, Suzanne Vega, Nirvana, Rufus Wainwright or those that have covered his music like REM, Regina Spektor, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash…

Contemporaries of the 60’s folk circuit when he was touring his poetry with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez & Joni Mitchel.

What influenced him, in his own words: “Every time I turn on the radio, I hear something good. Every time I pick up a magazine, I read some writing that is distinguished. My pace and viewpoint is being influenced continually by things I come across. You recapitulate the whole movement of your own culture. Occasionally we are touched by certain elaborate language, like the language we associate with the Elizabethan period, with the King James translation of The Bible, or Shakespeare. In certain moments you are influenced by very simple things. The instructions on a cereal package have a magnificent clarity. You’re touched by the writing in National Geographic — it represents a certain kind of accomplishment”

Or we could just play 2 hours of Leonard Cohen, just saying.

You choose the music, so get your best art suggestions to Tom, via the hashtag #Cohen6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

On this week’s Now Playing, we want to celebrate the opening acts, the first on the bill, the warm up artists, so we’d like your suggestions for the best support bands you’ve ever seen.

All artists need to start somewhere, and getting a support slot on a big tour can be a breakthrough moment. But if the venue is half empty and the crowd don’t care, it’s not always an easy gig. A great band can turn the situation to their advantage and win a legion of new fans in the process. Florence and the Machine was exposed to a whole new audience by sharing a bill with MGMT. A little known band called Coldplay supported hot prospects Terris in the year 2000, and look what happened to them. 

In 1981, Prince walked onstage to a crowd who’d come to see the Rolling Stones. On that first night, faced with an hostile audience, he lasted 15 minutes. The next night, he returned, unbowed, on his path to glory. That secured his place in a vote for the best opening act in music history, as voted for by readers of Rolling Stone magazine.

The winner of that poll? Jimi Hendrix, who in 1967 opened a series of shows for the Monkees. 

So share your memories of the best support acts you’ve ever seen with us, to make up our #Support6music playlist. Which opening acts outshone the headliners? Which beloved bands would you have never discovered but for a support slot? Which double bills were the oddest juxtaposition of genres?

You choose the music, so get your best support band stories to Tom, via the hashtag #Support6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

The cult director behind Halloween, The Fog and Village Of The Damned brings his classic horror soundtracks to the UK to perform them live in Manchester, London & Liverpool.

Not only did Carpenter direct the ground-breaking slasher film that sealed his reputation as an auteur, he also composed the score. His electronic, two-note motif for Halloween set the gold standard for film soundtracks in any genre. Not since Psycho had there been a horror film so powerful.

“I had the theme already written for years. It was just something I’d tinkered out on the piano. I played 5/4 time on an octave on a piano, that’s all it was. I hadn’t necessarily applied it to Halloween, it was just sitting there and I thought, Oh, I’ll use this. That works okay. I’m not an accomplished composer of symphonies, I just do basic, straight-ahead, riff-driven music.” John Carpenter 

These UK dates see him take to the stage accompanied by his son Cody Carpenter, godson Daniel Davies and a full backing band, performing his classic film score themes and recent releases from Lost Themes I and II.

Carpenter is not the only master of the horror movie soundtrack. Goblin brought early analogue synthesized sounds to the Giallo classic Suspiria and 1979’s Dawn of the Dead. Lalo Schifrin crafted his best music for Amityville Horror and had a hand in The Exorcist score.

So lock yourself in the house with Now Playing on Sunday, and tell us what should be on our #Horror6music playlist. Does Mica Levi’s score for Under the Skin give you thrills? Did David Lynch’s soundtrack to Eraserhead make it unforgettable? Do you relish the Berberian Sound Studio soundtrack by Broadcast when you’re home alone? And do we play Mike Oldfield’s theme for The Exorcist or not?

You pick the music, so get your suggestions for the best horror movie soundtracks to Tom via the hashtag #Horror6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

"Record shops bred music, they bred fans, they bred labels... from Warp to Rhino, they were where everything started, and still are" Martin Mills, chairman of Beggars group.

Starting out life as a record store in West London, Rough Trade grew into a separate label headed up by Travis who was joined in 1987 by Jeannette Lee. Now, the label has one of the finest rosters of talent of any indie in the UK. The shops host countless in-store gigs every day and Rough Trade Magazine is the only place where Jonathan Richman can solve your problems. Then there’s the annual Counter Culture compilation series which has been championing Rough Trade artists from obscurity since 2002.

A concert to celebrate the best of the label this weekend pairs three artists from the early years with three adventurous counterparts from more recent history. John Grant’s collaboration with Wrangler (feat Stephen Mallinder) explores the connections between Grant’s brooding ballads and Wrangler’s dark-edged electronica. Scritti Politti bring their art-pop influence to bear on the future-dance of Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. The Pop Group experiment with a post punk aesthetic they share with Protomartyr.

The label has released music from so many seminal bands that there’s an embarrassment of riches for you to choose from to make our #RoughTrade6music playlist. So as well as telling us what track you’d like to hear, share your reason why, and your memories of the original shop in Kensington Park Road.

Young Marble Giants, The Raincoats, Delta 5, Weekend, Robert Wyatt, Aztec Camera, The Smiths, Camper Van Beethoven, The Strokes, The Libertines, Boris and Vivian Girls. Rough Trade released them all, and much much more. 

You choose the music, so get your suggestions for the best of Rough Trade releases to Tom via the hashtag #RoughTrade6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Heavy bass-led soundsystems were bouncing round Jamaica from the mid-20th century. When R&B started to dry up, enterprising operators started making their own music.

Legend has it that dub was created when Ruddy Redwood, operator of the Supreme Ruler of Sound system (SRS) went to Treasure Island studios to run off some exclusive tracks on acetate, but the engineer forgot to put the voice in the mix. These acetates were known in soundsystem culture as dub plates. And dub was born.

That’s how reggae producer Bunny Lee tells it, in the definitive documentary Dub Echoes. Out of this scene emerged pioneers like Sly & Robbie and the Firehouse Crew, rhythm creators who made Channel 1 a destination for deep bass.

Meanwhile, King Tubby was experimenting with studio electronics and sound in his electrical repair shop in Kingston. Central to the mix was the Roland RE-201 Space Echo, a combination tape echo and reverb introduced in 1974. Originally used by 60's beat groups like The Shadows, it’s been used since by bands from Radiohead to The Orb, Portishead and Jean Michel Jarre.

“That bass drum is a living being” Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

So many genres owe their origins to dub pioneers, and we want to hear them all on this Sunday’s Now Playing. From drum ‘n’ bass, to dubstep, from The Slits to Massive Attack, dance music as we know it would be nothing without dub at it’s core.

Tune in on Sunday at 6pm to find out how 70s dub had a progressive and lasting effect on the British music scene, and share your favourite dub-inspired tracks with us to make up our #Dub6music playlist.

You choose the music, so get your track suggestions and stories to Tom via the hashtag #Dub6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Photo: Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders), Pauline Black (The Selecter), Deborah Harry (Blondie), Viv Albertine (The Slits), Siouxsie Sioux (Siouxsie and the Banshees). London, August 1980. Photo by Michael Putland for the New Musical News.

In the years Before Punk, bands like Led Zeppelin towered over mere mortals like gods – otherworldly and untouchable. In the years BP, women with any agency like Aretha Franklin or Janis Joplin were few and far between.

In the years After Punk, self expression was democratised. Anyone could start a band. EVEN THE GIRLS. It wasn’t always easy - Viv Albertine reveals the threats she and fellow Slits members received on the street at the time, in her autobiography. The rules had changed – there were no rules.

In the years AP, the idea that you could express dissatisfaction with the world around you became the defining characteristic of punk, and its greatest legacy.

So we want your help in celebrating the punkest women in music from the past 40 years. “We were living in Co. Durham where there was absolutely nothing going on, and my idea of punk was that you were expressing the environment that you lived in” Pauline Murray, Penetration.

We invited Pauline Murray (Penetration, Invisible Girls) to curate the first 30 minutes of music for our #PunkWomen6music playlist. She’ll be sharing the tracks that set the stage for women like her. Then we hand the show over to you, so tell us what we need to play and why. We want to hear why you love bands like The Adverts, The Raincoats, The Slits, The Rezillos, ESG, Bikini Kill, Jayne County, Yo Majesty, Kate Tempest, Maria and the Mirrors and everyone in between.

You pick the music, so get your suggestions for the tracks which epitomise punk women to Tom via the hashtag #PunkWomen6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

Music for children has come a long way since Disney soundtracks and nursery rhymes. Karen O composed the music for the big-screen, live-action version of Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Are in 2009. The result? A collection of sweetly bewitching songs featuring the talents of YYY's bandmates Brian Chase and Nick Zinner, Bradford Cox (Deerhunter), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) and more to charm irrespective of age.

"I guess there is a childlike innocence about my music” - Karen O 

Two stalwarts of the US indie scene debuted a new track this week. Fiona Apple joined Andrew Bird (formerly of Squirrel Nut Zippers) in a live performance of “Railroad Sam and Slingshot Sue”. The song was written in collaboration with a 5-year-old named Sam, as the pair explain in the newest edition of acoustic series “Live From the Great Room”. 

Meanwhile, actors have won a landmark legal battle to stop people finding out their darkest secret – their real age. Legislation was passed in California that lets actors remove their age from sites like IMDb, so they can stay forever young.

So for this week’s Now Playing, we’d like your help to compile a playlist of tracks for your inner child, songs that your kids love or respond to and songs that you loved as a child.

But this is 6Music, so we’re looking for grown up sounds that appeal to little ones, with an alternative spirit. Is your progeny the biggest Bon Iver fan in primary school? Do you still cherish the first vinyl you bought with saved-up pocket money?

We’re not talking nursery rhymes, but those special songs that seem to speak across the generations. Songs embodying a certain childlike innocence, like They Might Be Giants’ ‘Birdhouse in Your Soul’ or Flaming Lips’ ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' 

You pick the music, so get your suggestions for the songs you and your children equally adore, to Tom via the hashtag #Kids6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

If the prospect of the long, dark months ahead fills you with dread, remember that autumn also brings with it the promise of log fires, russet leaves and crystal clear evening skies. The perfect backdrop to a soundtrack of reflective music by your favourite 6 Music artists.

So curl up on the sofa and share with us your favourite seasonal songs which capture the essence of autumn for you.

Perhaps you’d like to hear Joanna Newsom’s delicately atmospheric ‘Autumn’ or Big Star’s vintage ‘September Gurls’. Or anything by The Fall.

You pick the music, so get your autumn inspired tracks to Tom via the hashtag #Autumn6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.

On this Sunday’s Now Playing, we want to hear your favourite Beatles-inspired tracks, to create our #Beatles6music playlist. What are your favourite songs from the band, their contemporaries and artists who owe a debt to the Fab Four?

“On their cover of Roll Over Beethoven you can almost hear the rumblings of proto-punk, while She Loves You sounds almost as sweet as on record.” Gwilym Mumford, The Guardian

Some bands wear their heart on their sleeve when it comes to the debt they owe the Beatles – maybe that’s why you love them. There’s almost no artist working with guitars today who hasn’t been influenced by the band, so let your imagination go wild. Where did The Beatles lead you?

You pick the music, so get your suggestions for the best Beatles inspired tracks to Tom via the hashtag #Beatles6Music to help create the playlist. Comment on the Now Playing Facebook page, here on the blog, email nowplaying@bbc.co.uk or drag tracks onto our Spotify playlist.