It’s not unusual for a young person never to have heard a hit that people in their thirties or forties might believe to be ubiquitous.
When I was a teen-ager, certain songs were simply inescapable-they were played endlessly on the radio, or at the mall, or on boom boxes at the community pool-but now listening has become a far more individual and bespoke experience. Most of the songs that they choose to play have been suggested by subscribers, and they range from very recent hits to genuine oldies. Posters of the rapper Tupac Shakur and the boxer Deontay Wilder are taped to a wood-panelled wall behind them. They sit in elaborate, side-by-side desk chairs, situated in front of a sometimes-unmade bed. But one small, pure, reliable pleasure remains: the giddiness of hearing a completely awesome song for the very first time.įor almost a year, Tim and Fred Williams, twenty-one-year-old twins from Gary, Indiana, have made videos of themselves listening to famous songs, and then uploading the videos to their YouTube channel. For a lot of Americans, this particular summer has been a season of fear and concern-or, at best, a kind of endless, anxious boredom. This August-normally a bountiful month in which tomatoes ripen on the vine, hydrangea bushes sag with extravagant blooms, and the sunsets can be nearly psychedelic-I have found it difficult to hold on to a good feeling.
