You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song: How Streaming Changes Music Highlight

The lowest common denominator might sound like an aesthetic condemnation, but it’s exactly the goal of factoring. Night Ranger’s ‘You Can Still Rock in America’ isn’t what I want to hear right now, but it definitely was once, and the nostalgia might be lazy and ineffective, but it’s not offensive. I smile, and hum a little of that chorus to myself as I go off, clicking ambiguously and cheerfully, in search of Sámi yoiks or n’dehou fusion or cat-calming music or whatever it is I alone know I want to hear next.