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19 Millennials Are Sharing Things That Were Common In The '90s And 2000s That Would "Baffle" Anyone Under The Age Of 25

Yahoo

3 days ago

Entertainment
Yahoo

19 Millennials Are Sharing Things That Were Common In The '90s And 2000s That Would "Baffle" Anyone Under The Age Of 25

As time passes and technology evolves, there are certain trends and habits that simply fade out of popularity. And there's no better example than those of the '90s and early 2000s... That's why when Redditor u/ToeKnown9863 asked, "What's a '90s/2000s trend that would baffle kids today?" Thousands of Gen X'ers and millennials shared the good, the bad, and the ugly of Y2K trends. From burning CDs to Pogs — here are 19 of their best responses: If you can think of Y2K trends that would leave the younger generations speechless, feel free to tell us about them using this anonymous form! 1."Downloading music off Limewire to iTunes, running to Walmart while it downloads, buying blank CDs, and burning them once it's downloaded. Then, thinking of a cool name for your new CD." "I spent three days downloading the movie 300 while it was still in theaters. Burned it to a DVD, made some Jiffy Pop, and bought a Code Red Mountain Dew. I popped in my freshly burned DVD that Friday night and thought how awesome it was that I was going to watch a movie that was still playing at the theater down the street. Then the movie started, and I remembered thinking that it looked cheap for a Hollywood movie. Suddenly, a naked guy walked onto the screen, followed by three others...I then realized I had spent three days downloading a dirty movie." —u/Daguvry Related: 2."Playing literally one video game for the entire summer, no online walkthroughs. If you wanted a hint, you needed to buy a paper guidebook, hope your friend knew the tricks, or call a 900 number for help." "My mom had to block 900 numbers because I racked up a huge bill trying to beat a King's Quest game." —u/violent_potatoes 3."Trapper keepers confuse me now, yet I literally screamed to high heaven to get my mom to buy me the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one." "For those who are unaware: a Trapper Keeper is a binder. Yes, we '90s kids were judging coolness by the kind of binder we had." —u/WitheredRosePetals82 4."Not just having a landline, but SHARING a landline." "Everyone in the house had the same number. If you called, anyone in the house might pick up. If you were calling your crush, you had to be prepared to negotiate with suspicious/hostile family members, but that was somewhat understandable. It got really weird when you had adult roommates! Suddenly, you're the social secretary for your popular, ladies' man roommate, trying to explain that you don't know where your other roommate is to a very angry woman, and ducking calls from a collection agency. And you'd have to collaborate on the voicemail message. Yes, there was only one voicemail/answering machine for the entire household, too. We used to record elaborate and hilarious messages every two weeks, sometimes with running jokes. It was a wild time that I actually don't miss." —u/haysoos2 5."Pogs: We just collected little cardboard circles to play a dumb, boring game." —u/LouBarlowsDisease "Yeah, it was hot for about a year, then it was GONE as if it never existed. People weren't even talking about Pogs anymore. I think my dad might still have my old slammers in storage somewhere." —u/nmezib 6."Buying ringtones." —u/overfiend1976 "And ringbacks! I didn't know how they were popular, but in the early aughts, my girlfriend paid for a service that would play a heavily compressed MP3 to the person calling you, instead of the regular dialing sound prior to answering the phone." —u/markh100 Related: 7."There was no 'Google Maps.' You had a huge book sitting in your glove box. If you didn't know the way, you had to literally chart it and try to follow it. Or just memorize the whole thing." —u/MightBeTrollingMaybe "I used to help my grandpa navigate his RV when I'd spend summers with my grandparents as a kid. Pulling out the atlas because he wasn't sure where to go was always a blast. I think that those experiences and video games are why my spatial awareness and direction finding are as good as they are. Now, when I look up a new place on Google Maps, I'll street view the final bit just to know what to look for. I've had people act like my ability to know where I'm going is witchcraft." —u/Silbyrn_ 8."Chain emails: I'd be so embarrassed to do that today..." "I used to fill out these long 'About Me' Q&As because I thought people were interested in reading my 50 answers." —u/Advanced-Koala2559 9."Having to wait a week for 10 photos to be processed and printed." "When we would get them back, they were mostly unidentifiable, but we were just excited to have one 'good' picture that was only slightly blurry." —u/Lia_Delphine 10."If you missed a new episode of a TV show, you just missed it." "Your only chance to see it again was when it became a rerun the next season. There was always a showtime that showed old episodes, where new ones aired during the season. The Simpsons aired new episodes on Sundays and had many airtimes during the week, showing old episodes, so you waited until the episode you missed was added to the rotation. This changed in the 2000s when entire seasons were released on DVD box sets. Then you could watch without having to wait for it in the rotation." —u/Embarrassed_Bath5148 Related: 11."Dialing *69 so you could figure out the phone number that just called you. No, we didn't all have Caller ID, and yes, it cost money." "And yes, they used 69." —u/EmperorSexy 12."Having to run to the bathroom/kitchen/do chores during a commercial break and having a sibling yell, 'It's back on,' so you could return to the TV in time." "Additionally, knowing what time shows were premiering, so you knew to do your chores before then, so you could watch undisturbed." —u/ConsistentCollar2694 13."Waiting for songs to come on the radio so you could record them on a cassette tape, and getting mad if the DJ talked over the intro. Kids today will never know the struggle of timing it perfectly and still ending up with the DJ's voice at the beginning." —u/RudeResearcher4761 "I still have one or two songs in my entire playlist that I transferred over from physical media that have radio hosts speaking over the beginning and end, and I can't bring myself to ever find the proper non-radio versions. They are just a part of the song now, and it will sound weird without them." —u/Onigumo-Shishio 14."The simple act of being bored while waiting in a doctor's office, traveling, or attending family parties, etc." "There was no nightmare rectangle keeping us preoccupied." —u/ShedMontgomery 15."When swing music and dancing went from nonexistent to full-blown movement from 1996–1998. That trend was gone in a flash." —u/Coffee-N-Kettlebells "Zoot-suit riot baby! It was a very unique three years in music. Best of all worlds, even our movie soundtracks were amazing." —u/Intrepid_Kiwi_7995 16."Buying a magazine to know what will be on TV this week." —u/Parallel-Unicorn "On that same note: Everyone tuning in and watching a show or movie at the same time, besides a live sports broadcast, you don't see anything like that nowadays because of streaming. I remember when a popular TV show's new season premiered, and everyone would be watching the exact same thing the night it aired, or when a new Disney Channel movie aired, everyone at school would be watching it that night." —u/kakapoopoopeepeeshir Related: 17."Riding to a friend's house to see if they could hang out: If they couldn't, you were just like, 'Okay, I'll start my 2-mile bike ride back home to find something else to do.'" —u/ColdIndependence5820 "I lived in the Midwest for a few years in high school, in a little town a few miles from one of those rail-to-trail bike trails. In the summer, a bunch of us would ride something like 15 miles each an ice cream cone. But at least it was something to do." —u/absolutenobody 18."When TLC was actually 'The Learning Channel.' It was like a no-frills version of the Discovery Channel, except it came standard on cable. You had to pay extra for Discovery." "But you were still able to learn about Egyptian pharaohs, cave murals, origins of the human species, aliens, and other cool stuff. Then it caught the reality TV virus." —u/vsysio 19."Living in the moment: Because there were no smartphones, no one cared about documenting every moment of their lives for likes and views. And if we did, we used a digital or disposable camera." "Not only was it freeing, but none of the dumb things we did were preserved online…unless we spent hours uploading them onto Facebook." —u/Dry-Subject-718 Did you remember any of these trends/habits? What are some other aspects of the '90s and 2000s that would shock kids today? Tell us about them in comments or answer anonymously using the form below! Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:

19 Y2K Wild Fads That Would "Baffle" Gen Z

Buzz Feed

3 days ago

Entertainment
Buzz Feed

19 Y2K Wild Fads That Would "Baffle" Gen Z

'90s And '00s Things Gen Alpha Won't Understand

Buzz Feed

20-07-2025

Entertainment
Buzz Feed

'90s And '00s Things Gen Alpha Won't Understand

Recently, we asked the BuzzFeed Community, "What's something from the 90s/early 2000s that someone born after 2005 would never understand?" Here are 50 of their most nostalgic responses: "The joy of going to the video rental store on Friday nights!" —ellie4me "The stressfulness, rage, and sheer insanity of being a parent to a Tamagotchi." —smartgoose16 "Freaking out that you might get arrested for downloading Limewire and/or Frostwire." —smartgoose16 "The Motorola RAZR was a huge deal stylistically and technologically. The fact that the pink ones were exclusive to one phone carrier — I had to buy one from overseas, where carrier-locked phones aren't a thing, and it was a different shade of pink than was available in the US. It was tiny, sleek, and internet-capable (but for the love of all things holy, don't go on the internet, think of the bill)." —tiktokism "The hype of the BlackBerry Curve phone." —jadewright "Having to watch the news to see if your school is canceled for a snow day." —myneishac "Phones with cords! Why, I ask, why?!" —penguinlover720 "Calling collect and yelling your message to the person you're calling at the point you were supposed to say your name, then hanging up before anyone was charged." —slickninja "Netflix being a DVD-mailing service." —sleepingbubble74 "Watching High School Musical, not on DVD. It was never really about the movie; it was all in the lead-up. The premiere of those movies was a social event and a cultural phenomenon for us growing up. I didn't have cable TV, so I had to arrange watching at my neighbor's house, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. There was a bunch of buildup in the programming beforehand, and a countdown clock, and you'd be sitting with your eyes plastered to the TV sometimes days ahead of time so you wouldn't miss any of the exclusive trailers or bonus crossovers or promotional materials. Back then, there was still a lot of sprinting to use the bathroom between short commercial breaks. The hype didn't die down just because the movie had aired, oh no. There were High School Musical-themed birthday parties, posters, t-shirts, etc.. It was everywhere, and everyone loved it. I still do!" —tacobaco "I was talking to my dad today about this. I'm pretty sure kids today have probably never seen snowy/bad reception on a TV or static from the radio." —kevinhicks77 "The Tinkerbell Pixie Hollow computer game." —Anonymous "Junk food vending machines at school." —almanmark720 "We were watching regular TV the other day, and my kid asked us to pause the show. I had to explain that it doesn't work that way when you're not streaming." —francesjoys "Hit Clips… I miss Hit Clips." —morgandemkey "There was a great show on the WB network called Grosse Pointe that was a satire of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson's Creek. It was only something like 12 episodes before it was cancelled. Supposedly, it hit Aaron Spelling too close to home." —janes4c411b247 "The 2002 limited edition wild berry Spider-Man Pop-Tarts. To this day, I have not found a Pop-Tart that even comes close to how yummy (and exciting, because Spider-Man had just come out) those Pop-Tarts were. SMH, good things never last." —haleeraeevans "The scene era." —smartgoose16 "Not having a computer in the home, and if you did have one, not having the internet. I didn't have a computer until I was in college, and in the summers when I was home, I was without internet unless I wanted to pay by the minute for it. We also didn't use computers much in school unless it was a business class, like typing or programming. We would write research papers by hand, and then we'd have a few days before they were due when the whole English class would go to the computer lab to type them up for submission. Even those computers didn't have internet, so much of our research was done at the library." —matchwolf "Having to wait until Saturday mornings to watch cartoons all morning, and you didn't have a way to custom choose the schedule for which cartoons to watch. You watched what was available on broadcast TV or cable." —jealouskitten151 "If you lived in a small town, you had to go to the restaurant to get your food. There was no food delivery service, not even from Chinese restaurants, just the occasional pizza joint." —jealouskitten151 "I recently found out TV Guide is still a thing when I got an actual mailer for it a couple of weeks ago." —jgcromwell "Walt Disney World used to send out VHS tapes with little features on the parks as a way to encourage people to visit. My sister and I used to watch them over and over again because we lived in PA, and we weren't a vacation-style family. Eventually, though, my parents did feel guilty and took us to Disney World. I do feel bad because one of my only memories of that trip is me being such a small child that when I sat on the toilet, I folded in half and fell in." —monikap6 "Don't even get me started on having to memorize your friends' phone numbers because there were no smartphones to store them. Simpler times!" —trendycake45 "Disney Channel used to play movies every night at 8 p.m. I still sometimes hear, 'Let's watch a Disney Channel movie.' It's not like streaming was around, so you had to be ready with a VHS tape if you wanted to ever rewatch it. The Thirteenth Year was a favorite at our household." —monikap6 "Burning a CD. I asked my daughter what she thought it meant, and she guessed I was destroying something. Quite the opposite. Those custom CDs were romantic gifts, the soundtrack to rolling through town/backroads, and even a way to celebrate without a DJ. Now, the idea of a playlist capped at 16 songs sounds foreign." —acidictooth778 "Trying to burn the perfect mix CD from LimeWire without crashing your computer or downloading a virus… now that was a skill." —trendycake45 "Salsa Fries from Andy Capp." —Anonymous, 36, MN "Senior from 1994 here. Someone born after 2005 would never understand why, in the '90s, if you were in a hurry or had a set time to be somewhere, you did not drive the main street of your town on a Friday or Saturday night. You drove on the outskirts of town to get through faster. (Because all the teens were driving in circles or drag racing.)" —abourque "Waiting until after 8 pm to call long distance. Or, getting your first cellphone and having only 60 minutes of 'talk time' per month. If you went over, you had to pay per minute. Same with texting when it became more common." —laurachytka "Being told to come home when the street lights turn on." —slickninja "'Playing' the demo version of arcade games in the laundromat." —smartgoose16 "Writing a text using only numbers. I was trying to explain this to my daughter the other day — to write out 'hey,' you had to press 4 twice, 3 twice, and 9 three times." —hovingkaitlin "Having to buy film for your camera. Having to be selective over what photos you take because you only get 24-36 frames. Forgetting to get the film developed for months or years." —lesliepl0310 "Plug-in CD players. You would put a tape into the 'tape player' and the plug into the cigarette lighter, and you would be able to listen to CDs." —jgcromwell "On Nickelodeon, that chimp with three eyes that used to say, 'Hi, I'm Paul!' during commercial breaks and wave!" —Anonymous, 30, Niagara Falls, NY "Waiting for the radio station to play your new favorite pop song by Britney or *NSYNC so you can record it with a cassette tape!" "Making plans with friends to meet at the mall with no guarantee that they would show up and no way to contact them to see if they were on the way." —myneishac "Having a large cellular phone that came in a black leather-like bag for only your car. One of the early cell phones was hooked to your vehicle's battery." —marvelousfan911 "Having to stop a random person to ask what time it is." —slickninja "Riding your bike to a friend's house and knocking on their door to see if they could come out. Or calling someone's house phone and having to interact with their family member before getting them on the phone." —slickninja "Being on the Internet, probably playing a flash game, and your mom telling you to get off the internet because she has to make a phone call, and then waiting around for her to finish." —hobbitgirl96 "Buying disposable cameras for big events, and then the anticipation of getting them all developed." —bravechinchilla277 "Pagers and payphones being the only means of communication. In fact, in high school, you were considered cool if you had a pager." —angelamastin82 "There was a show on Disney Channel called Naturally, Sadie about a girl who loved nature. I remembered its existence, but I swear I thought it lasted a season, maybe, because I can only somewhat recall one episode (she notices that there are no baby pictures of her older brother but tons of her, and at the end, her mom reveals that they had a housefire before she was born or something), but according to Wikipedia, there were three seasons!?!" —rachelo4ef37e40d "Phone companies charging PER text message." —amandav4218e9747 "Kissing Fruit lip gloss." —Anonymous, 18, Houston, TX "Buying a 'phone card' so you could make long-distance calls home from camp on a landline or payphone and have the cost covered in advance. There was always a stupidly long string of numbers to punch in, and you had to do it at the right time in the right order, or you would have to hang up and start all over. You bought the cards in increments of time (20 min, 45 min, 1 hr, etc). I remember having thoughts like, 'There's a dance on Friday, and I know I'll want to talk about it for a long time, so I should probably keep Monday's convo under five minutes!' Different times, man." —melc40e454224 "The electronic pocket dictionary things. They were about the size of a calculator, and they can't have been expensive because I think I had one." —gettysburgdressmaker And finally: "'You have died of dysentery.'" —kimmiethiel What's something you miss from the '90s or early '00s? Tell us all about it in the comments or in the anonymous comments box below!

Mint

20-06-2025

Entertainment
Mint

How music discovery became predictable

If I could, I'd pay serious money to travel 20-something years back in time to experience Nirvana's ground-breaking album, Nevermind, for the very first time again. Having borrowed a cassette from a schoolfriend, I found an opportune time to go to my parents' room and use the two-in-one music system—a 'deck". This wasn't a parent-friendly record; on Smells Like Teen Spirit, the main guy, Kurt Cobain, screams about his libido repeatedly. While I'd heard one Nirvana song—Come As You Are, via a stray MP3 on someone's CD—I had little idea what was coming next: a sonic thunderstorm that would blow my teenage brain right out of my ears. All of this today sounds like gibberish. 'Two-in-one"? 'Cassette"? 'MP3"? In the early-to-mid-2000s, these were essential terms in the cultural lexicon. Music consumption and discovery, as with every generation prior and since, was for millennials too dictated by the prevailing technology of the time, and indeed its limitations. Only, that particular period is the most tumultuous in recent music history. It was an era of upheaval, transformation, and chaos, as the world shifted from the physical to the digital: cassettes were commonplace and affordable (a standard ₹125), but they were being phased out. CDs were a popular if rather more expensive format. These were found, neatly arranged by name and genre, in brick-and-mortar shops, imagine. MP3s, available for download online, became a convenient and free alternative, existing in a lawless, peer-to-peer digital jungle via file-sharing software Napster and the clones that followed. While no longer a complete novelty, digital music wasn't yet pervasive either. But it was gaining traction, leaving the industry in turmoil as bands lost significant revenue and labels' bottomline got wrecked. Everything was illegal, pirated by amoral music nerds and spread widely by internet anarchists. Starved as we were of a lot of current music that just wouldn't release in India via conventional routes, we hit the download button. These trends defined how young people discovered their music. You could go to a Planet M to window-shop, and you'd end up finding a random band or artist that could ruin your week or change your life. Grey market spaces like Palika Bazaar—an underground and 100% illegal market in the heart of Delhi—became a source for complete (pirated) discographies, sorted into digestible MP3 folders. Cable TV, pre-streaming, was another place to find music. MTV and Channel V and, later, a channel called VH1, would play music videos all day long. NO MORE BARRIER TO ENTRY Musical tastes, for millennials and those preceding them, were shaped by a range of eclectic factors. The most exciting among these were the happy discoveries. The life-changing accidents. A random untitled mix-CD from a friend's friend's friend. A mislabelled song on the pirate software Limewire. Something you stumble upon on VH1 while channel-surfing. The songs you've never heard before, that catch you by surprise. It's this feeling where a greater force takes over your being, and compels you to dig deeper, and find out everything about that band. You have no choice but to start a new obsession immediately. Much of these tools of discovery have now, for reasons good and bad, been rendered obsolete. And while it's tempting to romanticise the past, it was also genuinely exhausting to hunt for music. Nothing ever released here on time; they played the same 50 songs on TV; MP3s were mislabelled and impossible to sift through; downloads took hours, days, weeks; tapes were dying, CDs were pricey. Today, for the price of a single cassette, a hundred-and-bit rupees, I have access to Spotify's entire library of over 100 million songs. (A relevant counterpoint here is that you're only renting this music; it could disappear tomorrow.) There was a prolonged battle for the soul of music but, by the mid-2010s, streaming had won out, becoming the preferred mode of listening globally. The barrier to entry was decimated. There are dozens of streaming platforms—the chief ones being Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Music—each one offering (to Indians) affordable prices for their premium versions and free versions with ads. A quick sidenote: streaming platforms are a net evil to society; they've done untold damage to artists by offering them literal peanuts and devaluing art, while training listeners to never pay for what they consume. It's legalised theft. The P2P MP3 era that pioneered digitisation, while not without its problems, had a sense of reckless freedom and idealism to it. That chaos and anarchism has been replaced by a cold-blooded capitalism where the artist gets shafted while the guy above him lines his pockets. Indeed, Spotify—the loudest player in the market—faces regular criticism and has been the subject of high-profile boycotts and walkouts. (They've all returned, hat in hand, as bands are left in a no-win situation, having to pick between fans and principles.) And yet, at the same time the tech has liberated the listener by opening up access in this way. It's all very messy. NEEDLE DROPS We'll come back to streaming since it's such an omnipresent force in the world of discovery. But the olden methods—cable TV, physical stores, and such—have either withered away or been re-interpreted in modern settings. Instead of Channel V late-night broadcasts curated by Luke Kenny, people are discovering music accidentally through 'needle drops" on TV/web series they're watching on second screens. This is a curious inversion; previously, shows would use popular, recognisable songs as a cheat code to signal a pre-determined mood to the viewer. Like how no medical drama could resist throwing in the awful How to Save a Life by the Fray for a while. Now, that arrangement has flipped. Songs on shows—which are experienced differently as the viewer has an existing emotional relationship with the show's characters, as well as visual cues for context—take on new meaning and serve as introduction to an artist. Excited, the viewers rush to YouTube to comment in solidarity. They search online for more needle drops. SEO-driven aggregator websites and click-hungry publications rush to compile a list of all the songs featured on a show, which is duly converted into playlists by fans. There's also the rather more controversial method of discovery: Instagram Reels. There can be an inauthenticity and, if I may, a dishonesty about music written expressly for the purpose of going viral on social media in 30-second teasers. But it works because we all spend an inordinate amount of time on social media. Often, these songs have inescapable hooks. The format of social media short-form videos is such that the same template is reused, recycled, and rejigged during its window of relevance. Just by repeat exposure, these songs can get stuck in one's head and lead the listener on to a path of greater discovery. A lot of music listening, thus, seems to have shifted online. And to the ever-present cellphone. While previously there were different avenues—computers, music systems, Walkman or Discman, iPods—a streamlining of technology has meant that the phone is the primary device now. By way of outliers, we do have vinyl fetishists with record players; audiophiles; music nerds going deep on centralised forums like Reddit or Discord, using the Bandcamp/SoundCloud online catalogues, even buying CDs directly from young, independent bands. But mainstream habits revolve very much around streaming. In physical spaces, too, you may—at a restaurant or a bar—come across someone pointing their phone at the speaker playing music. They're 'Shazaming" a song so they can hear it again. Shazam, an app that processes a song being played and provides all details related to it, has been around forever. But it really caught fire over the past decade, and was acquired by Apple in 2018. Previously, you'd have to memorise the lyrics to look up later, or hope to hear the song again. It's a nice reminder, again, that technology can be such a valuable asset in the process of discovery. And just as often a hindrance. LIMITS OF THE ALGORITHM Which brings us to the elephant. The algorithm. Recently, I discovered something called Spotify Blend. Users can 'blend" your profile with that of a friend's, and Spotify will do its algorithm witchcraft to create a custom, shared playlist incorporating both people's musical preferences. It even offers a 'match score" to see if your music tastes align, a quick and foolproof way to tell if the relationship is going to last. You can add up to 10 friends in a Group Blend, each with their unique taste profile coming together to create one giant khichdi playlist for everyone to parse through. This is a modern retelling of community exchange; people have forever shared their music with friends in group settings. Except that we have an additional friend in the mix here: the algorithm. Streaming services offer a series of playlist options, from user playlists to 'algatorial" ones. The ones driven by the algorithm are of particular interest here. On Spotify, you get Time Capsules, Discover playlists, homepage recommendations, autoplay options—the algo never sleeps. Multiple AI and machine-learning processes work simultaneously to create this entity. Based on research, theories, and information available, the technology analyses songs via content filtering—looking at a song in isolation, studying its metadata and such—and collaborative filtering, where it's placed within a larger context. User behaviour, search history, lyrical themes, compositional structures—they're all factored in to craft personalised recommendations. I've even noticed the algorithm sometimes picking up the key in which a song is composed, and playing a series of songs that all start in that same key. Regardless of one's principled opposition to streaming, these features aid the process of discovery and make it so much easier. The algorithm is sharp, well-informed, intuitive, and will instantly gauge a listener's interest, guiding them to new places. But it raises a couple of semi-philosophical questions. For one, why should I allow the machine to tell me what to listen to? There's a volatility attached to discovery—repeat trial-and-errors driven by human emotions and external variance. Streaming, with its robotic efficiency, can flatten that unpredictability into a horizontal structure leaving little room for experiments. It knows what I like, and it'll keep feeding me. More importantly, what about the music that even I don't know I like? At a time when my music habits exclusively comprised alt-rocker misanthropes, I stumbled, on MTV, upon a song called Surfing on a Rocket by French electronica/dream pop duo Air. It led me down a circuitous path of cool electronic music I'd never have found otherwise. Algorithms—on Netflix, on social media, on music streaming—can create bubbles and echo chambers. They keep feeding you versions of things you already like and engage with. And they hide you from a world of discovery that you don't even realise exists. Those avenues for happy accidents, while very much still around, can get constricted by the self-limiting nature of algorithmic excellence. It's a complex subject, riddled with questions around access, ethics, tech manipulation, listener behaviour, maybe some moral panic—as such, all discussions around art and consumption do eventually circulate within these idealism labyrinths. And conversations around the algorithm deserve critical examination without being tainted by generational bias. But what remains steady is that new generations find novel ways to access and consume music; it can feel alienating—even existentially distressing—to those on the outside. Maybe we're losing some recipes. But the music landscape is forever fluid and evolving. And people within it will always find systems that work for them. Akhil Sood is a Delhi-based writer.

Letitia Wright on Overcoming Impostor Syndrome for Directorial Debut, Ryan Coogler Prophecy

Yahoo

05-06-2025

Entertainment
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Letitia Wright on Overcoming Impostor Syndrome for Directorial Debut, Ryan Coogler Prophecy

Actress and producer Letitia Wright (Black Panther, Death on the Nile, Black Mirror, Small Axe) recently premiered her directorial debut, the short Highway to the Moon, which she also wrote, during the South London Film Festival. On Wednesday, she shared that she had to overcome 'impostor syndrome' and 'humble myself' to be ready for the directing reins. And she had to 'team up with people with the experience willing to teach me,' from the directing lingo to technical aspects, she told the inaugural SXSW London on Wednesday. More from The Hollywood Reporter Death of "Grassroots" Live, Electronic Music Venues Gets U.K. Parliament Review: SXSW London 'Thus Spoke the Wind' Trailer Hints at a Vivid, Metaphysical Ride in the Armenian Drama (Exclusive) Animated Werewolf Movie 'Dog of God' Debuts Wild Trailer With Hitler Look-Alike Getting Tortured (Exclusive) In front of an excited crowd, Wright recalled that Black Panther director Ryan Coogler told her one day: 'You will be directing soon.' She said her reaction was: 'You are mad!' But his 'prophecy' was repeated by a famous actor, whom she didn't name, within days, and it ended up coming true. In her SXSW London appearance and a wide-ranging discussion, Wright recalled how she discovered cinema and a shy teenager. 'I became a cinephile at age 13,' she shared. I watched all these films from Limewire. … I was kind of a loner.' What are her career ambitions? 'It's about legacy and purpose,' the star shared about how she approaches 'quote, unquote fame.' And she added: 'I want to leave an impact, and I want you to have a great time.' Speaking of fame, Wright highlighted that 'it takes a very strong person' to handle the tougher parts of fame, given that not all people are always respectful. 'They don't give us the grace to be human,' she said. Does Wright have any favorite movies in her career so far? 'I am grateful for the catalogue I have been able' to create in film, she said. But she mentioned her role in Danai Gurira's stage play The Convert at the Young Vic Theatre in London, where she played the character of Jekesai/Ester, as one of her favorite work experiences so far. Nigerian singer-songwriter Tiwa Savage also spoke on the panel, entitled 'Women in the Room,' at the Truman Brewery in the Shoreditch neighborhood of the British capital that was part of the festival's first-ever European edition. SXSW London runs through June 7. Penske Media, the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter, is the majority stakeholder of SXSW. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now

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Letitia Wright on Overcoming Impostor Syndrome for Directorial Debut, Ryan Coogler Prophecy

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