ten good songs 8/12

HEADLINERS

British election interference

so a few weeks ago, President Biden announced he would no longer be seeking re-election in the 2024 presidential race. i was in a hotel lobby when i received the news. a cryptic text from a friend asking if i’d heard about what happened. i had NOT, but WOW. the most eventful hotel lobby experience i’ve ever had.

but it’s what happened next was quite possibly even more shocking. Charli XCX tweeted this:

and the internet lost it’s god damn mind.

everywhere you look. coconut trees. brat. everywhere. and you know what? a part of me wonders what the presidential race would look like if Charli never tweeted that tweet.

you want to know the answer? well before i tell you, you have to understand the context of all in which you live and what came before you.

but seriously, i can not possibly overstate the value of virality when it comes to political campaigns. this is literally what drove trump to a victory in 2016. this man knew how to dominate a narrative, and both journalistic institutions and social media feeds gobbled that shit up.

so what do you get when you combine coconut trees and brat? some of the best free press a generation of meme-savants could ever provide. Kamala had a week (a WEEK!) of memes, blowing up TikTok and twitter in ways she could have never ever conceived. hundreds of millions of impressions and interactions, all positively reflecting on your brand-spankin-new campaign.

okay so we got the obvious part out of the way. Kamala benefitted tremendously from this. but what about Charli? well…. see for yourself:

furthermore, Charli has gone from 400+ a month ago to the 111th top listened artist in the world on Spotify. to be honest, she deserves even better than that. but a nearly 300 position jump ain’t too shabby.

to be honest, from a PR perspective, this is the best thing Charli has done for her career thus far. it works on both sides of the pond. the brits famously don’t like Republicans right now, and neither do the US youuuuthes. plus, she catapulted herself into the conversation to the point where CNN had to do a panel discussion on what being ‘brat’ is.

watch this whole video if you know what’s good for you. it’s like a group of 8th grade algebra students trying to understand what derivatives are for the first time. Jake Tapper i’m sorry but you will never be brat.

anyways! bravo, Charli. bravo.

Spotify is not (i repeat, NOT) a social network

Tech Crunch decided to have a horrible take recently. they ran a headline claiming that Spotify is becoming a social network because now people can comment on some podcast episodes. like what? really?

I REPEAT: YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT OF ALL IN WHICH YOU LIVE AND WHAT CAME BEFORE YOU!

let me rattle off many ways in which Spotify has given the middle finger to those who use its platform as a social network:

• you can no longer see which friends follow your playlists (yes, that used to be a thing)

• the “what your friends are listening to” tab no longer shows by default

• they deprecated their messaging service ages ago (yes, THAT used to be a thing)

• you can no longer customize the order of your playlists on your Spotify profile, removing any ability for anyone to have a unique footprint on Spotify

• when you view an artist page, you can no longer see which of your friends also listen to that artist (yes yes yes, this was a thing to)

• etc etc etc etc

listen. Spotify used to be social. it used to have so many elements that encouraged interaction and sharing. now we exist in a world where we are mercilessly bashed on the head with algorithmic playlists. any interactions with friends are deprioritized and hidden on the fringes. robots only.

so no, Tech Crunch. please do not give Spotify a single ounce of street cred for adding COMMENTS to PODCASTS. i repeat: worst take ever.

i digress. so it goes.

Reminder: all typos and inaccurate hyperlinks are intentional!