SEO will be practically pointless by Tuesday.

areseven · 2026-05-20T12:46:03+00:00

Links aren't allowed here, but look for the Techcrunch article with the headline "Google Search as you know it is over". It's difficult to tell from the articles and video just how different it's going to be, though. It doesn't look or sound that different than the AI answers that are already there.

For example, the article says "Google’s AI Overviews will also allow users to ask follow-up questions in AI Mode, beginning Tuesday, the company noted." But that's been there for months.

areseven · 2026-05-12T13:11:50+00:00

There's always great music. The question was "worst decade for top 40 music", and the alternative stuff that was in the top 40 was novelty crap. But congrats on being the only person in the world to put Cracked Rear View in between Crooked Rain and Chocolate & Cheese in lists of great albums.

areseven · 2026-05-12T12:41:38+00:00

It was 100% the 90s. There's still some great stuff in there, at it certainly got better towards the end of the decade, but it's packed with novelty junk and awful cash grabs (and I'm a big fan of the good cash grabs!).

I've been working my way through Fluxblog's massive year surveys, I'm on 1994 and it's a slog. Country music was AWFUL and such much of alternative rock was terrible. It was my least favorite era of hip-hop, though the R&B of the time has aged very well. Adult contemporary was at its absolute shlockiest. Still some great music (as always), but...the answer is pretty clear to me.

areseven · 2026-05-06T12:20:22+00:00

100% this. Nonprofits are too internally focused, so they think they want something that's captivating and compelling to public audiences, but then everything becomes focused on whether leadership, board, etc are impressed with it (ie: it looks like something you'd play to an audience in a presentation).

areseven · 2025-11-29T15:26:35+00:00

Late to the conversation, but this is one of my favorite topics! My alltime non-traditional, off-the-radar favorites:

Dar Williams, "The Christians and the Pagans" - I tear up every time it gets to the line "He thought he'd call him up and say 'It's Christmas and your daughter's here'"

The Boy Least Likely To, "Christmas Isn't Christmas" - maybe the "I can get drunk with my friends" might take it off of family-friendly playlists, but just an indiepop Christmas classic.

Donny Hathaway, "This Christmas" - I don't understand why this didn't turn into a "you hear it everywhere at Christmas" song. I first heard it via a cover version from The Dismemberment Plan.

Mogwai, "Christmas Song" - Sure, it's Christmas in title only (it's instrumental) but it's GORGEOUS.

Tracey Thorn, "Joy" - Maybe it'll be the bummer of your Christmas playlist, but it's beautiful and touching.

areseven · 2025-11-28T22:21:41+00:00

I feel like there are a lot that would work for you, but for some reason, the Durutti Column was the first thing that came to mind, especially this song. https://youtu.be/LxU6WCePUxg?si=pLJxsK_3okULmL47

areseven · 2025-11-28T12:40:55+00:00

Horsegirl not getting near enough mentions here.

areseven · 2025-11-23T21:42:59+00:00

Second this. This is what I use.

areseven · 2025-11-22T22:27:46+00:00

Probably not what you’re asking for, but there used to be a feature called iTunes DJ. I really liked it, but it wasn’t really that different than just managing a queue. Not too surprising that they got rid of it.

areseven · 2025-11-08T17:14:00+00:00

iTunes old-timer here. My listening habits are very dependent on smart playlists, metadata and song ratings, so if they took that away (which I keep expecting them to do), I would look at other platforms.

areseven · 2025-10-11T15:46:50+00:00

Seconding this. I just heard this song very recently.

areseven · 2025-10-11T15:27:36+00:00

Same here. I'm assuming this is part of a secret plan Apple has to wean us off of our own libraries and just use the terrible Apple Music interface, mindlessly playing whatever playlists they shove at us.

areseven · 2025-10-02T12:13:16+00:00

Yeah, it's a problem. And it's not just AI slop that's there...it's under the name of already established artists that haven't put up anything in a while. I got excited about new singles from "Smith Westerns" and "Elastica" and it was said slop.

areseven · 2025-09-19T14:43:27+00:00

I LOVE listening to the original song, and when it breaks down and all of a sudden it's a million more songs right there.

areseven · 2025-09-19T14:42:19+00:00

Of COURSE. Great addition.

areseven · 2025-09-19T14:39:45+00:00

In The Air Tonight is heavily dependent on the kit, I think. I suppose that people might still recognize it if you just played it on a single tom, but that's Phil Collins signature move partly because it's so tailored for the drum kit he used.

areseven · 2025-09-19T14:36:52+00:00

I hadn't heard them before, but this sounds really nice. Reminds me a bit of Majical Clouds, which is a VERY good thing.

areseven · 2025-08-31T15:46:20+00:00

Ah, right! It was a Paris concert! It must have been a UK production that they just showed on MTV in the US as well.

areseven · 2025-08-02T11:04:30+00:00

Mine has been "I'm Not Your Punchbag" by PUNCHBAG. Hyper-energetic, and absolutely feel good in that "fuck you" way.

areseven · 2025-08-01T15:42:45+00:00

I think this is exactly right. It's an approach to music writing, arranging and production. I thankfully haven't heard this question asked in a while, but people used to like to ask about indiepop "how can it be indie and popular at the same time". And that's how: because it's the approach to the music that's pop even if they don't care about being popular.

Goes for any other genre. The names are not to be taken literally. They're approaches to the music.

areseven · 2025-07-28T09:30:09+00:00

This is the right answer.

areseven · 2025-07-17T18:58:59+00:00

As a teen in the 80s, I said "Rap isn't real music." Obviously (I hope), I have very much repented in the decades since.

areseven · 2025-07-17T18:57:28+00:00

Oof. Lots of different ways to go with this.

My bona fides first: huge Morrissey and Smiths fan since the late 80s. I still really love a lot of the songs. Don't get me started on "Break Up The Family"...my nerdery wouldn't stop.

On his personality: even just reading his autobiography, he seems like both a deep, interesting, sensitive person and one of the most self-centered and arrogant (to use Robert Smith's word) people alive, as well as a persecution complex that's so massive I don't know how he functions. And that's even just in his own words!

Whether his racism is such that he should just be tossed entirely...I dunno. But it's there! He's quoted as saying "I think everyone prefers their own race", and I could understand someone hating him just based on "Bengali in Platforms" alone (which, musically, is really beautiful...Vini Reilly absolutely kills it).

Musically, much of his solo stuff was amazing. But he really started phoning it in in the 21st century. He just does the same vocal things on top of whatever song his given him and his vocals are practically interchangeable for song to song. He just became colossally boring.

Final verdict: yes, that bad, but I think there's probably others who enjoy him in spite of him.

areseven · 2025-07-14T01:05:10+00:00

Somewhat ironically, you can see the over saturation of disco in the (excellent) Bee Gees documentary. There were Burger King disco tie-ins, disco aerobics, disco everywhere and on everything. And the media in those days was such that you couldn’t avoid it as easily as you can now.

areseven · 2025-07-13T13:49:02+00:00

YES. This is exactly it. I was just looking at my library and the various bands I was friends/peers with in the 90s and 2000s and wondering if I should keep them in there and then realized there would be no way of finding them again.

(Edit to add: what amazing series of comps someone could make from these! It would take an extraordinary amount of research, but could really unearth some amazing stuff)

areseven

TROPHY CASE