I'm getting more and more comfortable with algorithms. Perhaps that's a good thing; perhaps not. I don't see where it's all that bad quite honestly. They're annoying at times, yes. I bought one stupid torpedo heater for the old barn a few years back, one which I expect to last for ages, and still deal with pop up ads for heaters when I log online. Shaddup already, will ya?
Okay, deep breath. One interesting thing which algorithms send me, and I look forward to, are regular lists of hit songs from a given week in the past. It's fun to see, and offer those 'I remember that' moments which are wonderfully and happily nostalgic. Then yesterday I get a list from sometime in 1994 and don't recognize a song or an artist on it.
What the hell is a Toad The Wet Sprocket? Or do I really want to know? But I only use that as an example. It seems that somewhere between 1985 and 1995 I lost track of current popular entertainers. When I receive a list from before that time frame I generally recall the song and the artist. Then it becomes a mix. Then, well, I ask things like I asked to begin this paragraph.
I'm not, or at least I don't think I am, one of those who condemn new stuff merely because it's new. Yet I also can't recall much about performers in the last 25 or 30 years which stand out for me. The most recent I can think of is (are?) The Offspring, but even they're from the late 1990s. And I cringe at some of their songs.
I know who Taylor Swift is and have likely heard some of her songs, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Indeed when I want to hear music I pull up the songs of my youth. I never, and I mean never, consciously seek out new tunes. Unless, that is, and I mean this at least half seriously, when I want to hear what Weird Al is mocking.
I might have to get old. But that doesn't mean I have to care about the new.
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