“The New Year marks a transition from old to new,” Du Kai, guitarist and vocalist of pop-jazz duo Mr. Miss, tells Apple Music. “It’s the same with music.” The pair, who are often musically inspired by the sounds of Broadway and French chanson music, offer a Chinese New Year playlist illustrating the musical connections between past and present. “The reason why some songs are considered avant-garde is not only because they sounded new at the time,” says Du. “Years later they still stand apart and have been imitated and worked over by later generations.” He points to the enduring legacy of Ravel’s “Bolero” as evidence: “It was freakish at the time but it drew a template later followed by French pop and American jazz—and isn’t endless repetition the approach taken by dance music?” His other forward-looking choices include Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s dark hit “I Put a Spell on You”: “It’s from the mid-’50s but has the aura of heavy metal or goth rock from later decades.” But innovative music doesn’t always have to move toward the future, vocalist Liu Lian notes. “Just as songs can be ahead of their time, others pay tribute to the classics,” she says, singling out The Beatles. “Their songs range from the Tin Pan Alley stylings of ‘Good Night’ to pre-rock pop hits like ‘Real Love’. And their musical DNA has been incorporated into the individual styles of musicians I love.”