Fear the Algorithm

 Still great, which is more than can be said of 
many of the cassette tapes in my collection

Dearest reader, if there is one of you left...  I find myself alone here during the winter break, as Mr. Bebe was summoned elsewhere.  In an attempt to be productive and remove clutter in case of eventual construction or death, I'm not sure which will be worse, I have been up on the warm third floor of the house slowly making my way through my cassette tape and CD collections.  This time alone in the house is the perfect opportunity to decide which albums and mixtapes make the cut, especially since I firmly believe that anyone who wasn't cool enough to listen to this music in the 1980s most certainly should not be subjected to it now.

This is also the perfect time to work on Chinese paint by numbers, but I digress...

The dual cassette deck (yes, there really is one here) is one floor below, and so I have availed myself of Spotify, pulling up any album I come across in my tape case or CD book and playing it online in order to determine whether it should immediately end up in the trash.  That strategy was working quite well, and you could even say that up to this point Spotify and I had a great relationship, especially considering that it seems to think that I'm only 34 years old.  We had a good thing going.  The algorithm, via ever changing daily mixes, would occasionally introduce me to new music that I actually enjoy listening to.  

However, there was a serious flaw in my retro listening plan.  I have barely made a dent in listening to my collection even after several days.  Unfortunately, Spotify has taken this to mean that I would prefer to be living in the 1980s.  

Today, I felt like listening to normal music.  When I went to play my daily mixes I was shocked to find that the first song was none other than Hungry Like the Wolf.  Each daily mix is now packed with 80s songs that I would prefer not to listen to again for several more decades.  In true form, Spotify has suggested 80s music that I did not listen to even in the 80s.  Occasionally a song that was produced within the past few years will have been inserted into the mix, just to add insult to injury.