A song we all know
I posted that it feels like there isn't a song of the summer anymore. Everyone gets their own tailored bubble of music. A song can seem unavoidable in one person's world and barely exist in someone else's.Asked three friends, got three summers
I don't mean that popular songs have disappeared. I'm talking about the feeling of assuming we all know the same one. The song you can mention without playing a clip first. The opening few seconds that make a whole room react at once.
Personalized discovery gives us plenty to enjoy. The part I'm wondering about is what happens to the overlap. If each of us gets a better soundtrack for ourselves, do we lose a little of the soundtrack we had together?
A good recommendation can make your world feel complete
There is something very convenient about being handed more of what you already like. You don't need to know the artist's name or spend an evening looking for a new album. Another song appears, it fits the mood, and you keep listening. As a product experience, that can feel almost effortless.
It also makes your own listening habits a strange guide to what everyone else is hearing. If a track keeps showing up for you, it's easy to assume it's showing up everywhere. Then you mention it to someone whose recommendations have been following a completely different path.
That gap is interesting to me. Two people can spend similar amounts of time in the same app and leave with very different impressions of what is happening in music. Sharing a platform doesn't necessarily mean sharing much of the experience inside it.
The shared song didn't have to be your favorite
Part of a song of the summer was that you couldn't entirely choose it. It was playing somewhere, someone else put it on, and eventually you knew it. You might have loved it or been completely tired of it. Either way, it became a reference you could share.
I find that different from receiving a recommendation that perfectly matches my taste. The shared song has a social use beyond whether I would save it. It gives people something to recognize, sing along to, joke about, or associate with a particular stretch of time.
There are tradeoffs in that kind of common culture too. A small set of songs getting most of the attention leaves less room for everything else. I like being able to find music outside that narrow selection. I just don't think more individual choice makes the shared part irrelevant.
Leave a little room for someone else's taste
Maybe what I'm missing is less about the size of a hit and more about how music reaches me. A song sent by a friend comes with that person attached. A playlist someone makes for a gathering has to negotiate several tastes at once. There is a reason to listen that isn't simply that the next track resembles the last one I enjoyed.It arrives with the friend attached
I'd like more of those openings in the products we use. A way to step into someone else's listening for a while. A shared queue where the occasional unexpected choice is part of the point. Something that makes the distance between our separate recommendations easier to cross.
I still want to discover music that feels like it was made for me. I also want the occasional song that belongs to a room full of people. Sometimes the best thing about a track is looking up when it starts and seeing that everyone else knows it too.
Acknowledgements
Expanded from a post of mine on X about the song of the summer. Thanks to everyone who has sent me a track since; it is still the better way to hear one.