5 ms·

On the other hand, music has historically been a very social thing that have brought people together. The decline into a sollipsist "service" has been gradual s

On the other hand, music has historically been a very social thing that have brought people together. The decline into a sollipsist "service" has been gradual since the dawn of recorded music, but Spotify et al are definitely making it worse than ever. My 11-year old daughter loves music but she and her friends all listen to different things, there is no music that they all know. I may have hated top40 stuff in my day, but at least we all knew it.

darkerside 6y ago
Don't worry, they still rally together around songs as they go "viral". Music has always had a big social component and always will. It's wired into us.
SyneRyder 6y ago
I'm not sure that's entirely bad. I met up with my cousin (nearly 20 years younger than me) and one of her first questions was "Show me your playlists! Music is how I get to know people." We spent ages talking about genres, recommending bands to each other, scrolling through each other's Spotify libraries and offline MP3s. I was thrilled that she was interested in a wide range of genres, across several decades. Far more diverse than when I was the same age. It's still social to be recommending music and trying to find new bands your friends will like. As for knowing the same songs, I made friends through genre-related social groups - the goth/industrial nightclubs, and the Eurovision fanclubs / events. It's nice that generally everyone knows the same Max Martin songs, but there's deeper friendships to be had at clubs where everyone knows your obscure niche - whether it's arguing that Euphoria is still better than Heroes, even if Mans & Petra are the best hosts. Or if it's goths bitching over the shared experience of falling down the stairs trying to get onto the goth club dancefloor before Dero from Oomph yells "Gott Ist Ein Popstar" or "Augen Auf, ich komme"....
CincinnatiMan 6y ago
Damn that’s scary. A world where no one has anything in common. I’m in my 30s and my friends and I reference songs from our childhood all the time. Shows and candy and all sorts of things.
- Jach 6y ago
  Remember the 90s? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pa6SGYWADU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pa6SGYWADU E.D. Hirsch, Jr. wrote "Cultural Literacy" in 1987, with an update in 2002 as "The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy". It's a huge collection of thousands of words/phrases/concepts/devices/people/places/etc, across multiple categories, that most Americans will already know the majority of their meanings, or at least find them somewhat familiar. I personally like randomly looking at the proverbs and idioms and sometimes finding parallels in other languages. It'd be interesting to go through it at random with a 7th grader and see what they've picked up -- like who says "there's more than one way to skin a cat" these days, but also who grew up in the US and doesn't understand its meaning? The book contends that about 80% of the knowledge shared by the literate has not changed for over a hundred years. Meanwhile for the 20% that changes (or is brand new) Asimov once wrote a chapter (9 in http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/asimov-on-numbers.pdf http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/asimov-on-numbers...) on how so much once-common knowledge has been happily forgotten -- who needs to know about compound addition? For the professional context, https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a219064.pdf https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a219064.pdf et al. claim you need to know 70k plus or minus 20k things in your field to be an effective expert. I think it's also why it can be easily rewarding to chat about work with colleagues, you both have a lot in common just on the basis of the shared profession. In short, I wouldn't worry about running out of shared knowledge, nor even shared preferences and tastes, for yourself or for the world.
- CydeWeys 6y ago
  If you don't have anything in common with others then you're both mutually doing a really bad job of sharing your favorites with each other. I love getting musical recommendations from friends, and most of my very favorite music ever comes by way of friends, rather than me having "discovered" it "independently" (whatever that even means).
  - CincinnatiMan 6y ago
    Interesting point. What helped you become friends with those people in the first place? For myself it's usually a common background or shared interest in something, which for example enables us to jokingly rank the best video games, which we are all familiar with from our childhood.

darkerside 6y ago

Don't worry, they still rally together around songs as they go "viral". Music has always had a big social component and always will. It's wired into us.

SyneRyder 6y ago

I'm not sure that's entirely bad. I met up with my cousin (nearly 20 years younger than me) and one of her first questions was "Show me your playlists! Music is how I get to know people." We spent ages talking about genres, recommending bands to each other, scrolling through each other's Spotify libraries and offline MP3s. I was thrilled that she was interested in a wide range of genres, across several decades. Far more diverse than when I was the same age. It's still social to be recommending music and trying to find new bands your friends will like. As for knowing the same songs, I made friends through genre-related social groups - the goth/industrial nightclubs, and the Eurovision fanclubs / events. It's nice that generally everyone knows the same Max Martin songs, but there's deeper friendships to be had at clubs where everyone knows your obscure niche - whether it's arguing that Euphoria is still better than Heroes, even if Mans & Petra are the best hosts. Or if it's goths bitching over the shared experience of falling down the stairs trying to get onto the goth club dancefloor before Dero from Oomph yells "Gott Ist Ein Popstar" or "Augen Auf, ich komme"....

CincinnatiMan 6y ago

Damn that’s scary. A world where no one has anything in common. I’m in my 30s and my friends and I reference songs from our childhood all the time. Shows and candy and all sorts of things.

Jach 6y ago
Remember the 90s? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pa6SGYWADU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pa6SGYWADU E.D. Hirsch, Jr. wrote "Cultural Literacy" in 1987, with an update in 2002 as "The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy". It's a huge collection of thousands of words/phrases/concepts/devices/people/places/etc, across multiple categories, that most Americans will already know the majority of their meanings, or at least find them somewhat familiar. I personally like randomly looking at the proverbs and idioms and sometimes finding parallels in other languages. It'd be interesting to go through it at random with a 7th grader and see what they've picked up -- like who says "there's more than one way to skin a cat" these days, but also who grew up in the US and doesn't understand its meaning? The book contends that about 80% of the knowledge shared by the literate has not changed for over a hundred years. Meanwhile for the 20% that changes (or is brand new) Asimov once wrote a chapter (9 in http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/asimov-on-numbers.pdf http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/asimov-on-numbers...) on how so much once-common knowledge has been happily forgotten -- who needs to know about compound addition? For the professional context, https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a219064.pdf https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a219064.pdf et al. claim you need to know 70k plus or minus 20k things in your field to be an effective expert. I think it's also why it can be easily rewarding to chat about work with colleagues, you both have a lot in common just on the basis of the shared profession. In short, I wouldn't worry about running out of shared knowledge, nor even shared preferences and tastes, for yourself or for the world.
CydeWeys 6y ago
If you don't have anything in common with others then you're both mutually doing a really bad job of sharing your favorites with each other. I love getting musical recommendations from friends, and most of my very favorite music ever comes by way of friends, rather than me having "discovered" it "independently" (whatever that even means).
- CincinnatiMan 6y ago
  Interesting point. What helped you become friends with those people in the first place? For myself it's usually a common background or shared interest in something, which for example enables us to jokingly rank the best video games, which we are all familiar with from our childhood.