one way I know the lemmy population is old is how frequently we complain about the youths these days. we’ve become our parents, and their parents before them, moaning about how no one has good taste anymore
The kids suck, but the olds suck even harder. Moral of the story, “I don’t like people”.
Years of experience, thank you very much.
Top pop has always been trash.
Occasionally there are earworms like Toxic, Shape of You, or Padam Padam but it’s mostly committee produced garbage.
I mostly listen to metal but gotta admit that Toxic is a fucking banger
I’m either still young or just a contrarian but so far I’ve successfully managed to avoid becoming this person. I constantly look for new stuff to experience and I still haven’t felt like things have peaked. As in, no, I don’t think music nowadays sucks, are you insane? There’s so much cool stuff being made all the time that my only complaint is that don’t have enough time to experience it all.
yea im in the sweet spot too lol, 30 and still regularly discovering new music i like. i hope we both maintain this positivity as we age, i think it’s a much nicer way to wade through life. even if i reach a point where i stop liking new music, i hope i can still see the value in it for others, i never want to be that old grump
Maybe top 50 (back in my day it was top 40 dadgummit) is blah currently, idk. But there’s definitely lots and lots and lots of great music out there to discover.
I don’t think the complaint here is about the modern music, more about how it’s being produced and curated.
I’m one of those youths and I hate most of the music my peers listen to.
I went to a TOOL concert last weekend and it really put into perspective how old my taste in music is lol. It seemed like 90% of the people there were like 30-40.
For context, I’m 19.
What’s weird is that I don’t even know how people know what the “kids these days” are into. Like where are they getting that information? Maybe I’m just divorced from the zeitgeist, but I dunno how people ever think to look at “oh this song has 4 billion listens” or whatever. I guess what I’m saying is, is the perception of “the kids” a real thing, or is it just kind of this weird fake thing people make up so they can get mad at their own hallucinations?
Idk, man. I started feeling this way when I was ~14, at least about the music I heard on the radio. I rarely got any say over what we listened to in my parent’s cars so I’d constantly be praying that the next song wouldn’t be something that had come out recently
it’s one thing to not like new music, i think that’s normal, people discover the music they like fairly early on and usually get kinda stuck in it. but all the people saying new music is objectively garbage and people just have garbage taste now? yea they got that boomer mentality where the stuff they like from their youth is the golden age, everything else is inferior, and their opinions are facts
I dig new music and follow a bunch of artists who are releasing things right now. Over the last few years I’ve been introduced to entirely new genres and have fallen in love with them. This is the best time ever to be into music, there’s unprecedented variety and even very niche things can grow a strong community. Suffice it to say I do not believe that my personal taste has been cemented
But at the same time imo the typical pop music you hear in public has genuinely been getting worse. Some stuff is okay but a lot of it feels inauthentic. Just my 2c, I wouldn’t argue the point in objective terms
I’m in the exact same boat re: your first paragraph and I used to think the same re: your second paragraph, then I looked up the top charts from the 90s and yeah… it was always bad lol.
I stopped caring about online music charts once I found out how people bot their favorite artists to trending cuz they’re insecure in their own music tastes
That and main stream music has become homogenous and formulaic. It was before, but it’s more blatant now.
Corporate is trying to perfect the ear worm.
But to me if music get stuck in my head, it means the music is just simplistic and repetitive. Qualities I do not enjoy in the slightest.
people bot their favorite artists
That’s less “people” and more “marketing departments”. So much mid-tier music gets blown up and then dropped overnight, as the promotion models change.
When streaming started to become a thing, and it became incorporated into the Billboard hits ranking algorithm, hit songs started to stay at the top a lot longer than they used to. The reason was exactly what you pointed to. Industry marketing campaigns would be push songs on TV and radio to the top spot in order to drive sales, then drop the campaign immediately for the next song to push. When listeners started to have more control over the music they listened to, they didn’t hyper-cycle like the marketers wanted. I would assume the marketers have adjusted to the new listening model, but I haven’t kept up.
nah there’s 100% people who go out of their way to shuffle through a single artists’ discography and every song they’ve been featured in 24/7. Hell, I found one right after reading this
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It isn’t radio though because hardly anyone listens to the radio anymore. It’s probably because there is a practically small amount of radio listening that people have started grabbing onto anything that sounds basic and easily digestible. The less they’re challenged, the better they feel about it.
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“Old music is usually better music” is survivorship bias. I’m not saying you’re wrong but this is something we should have in mind when debating music in general.
I’m going to somewhat disagree, at least in principle. In the past three years I have heard so much good new music, music made in the last five to ten years, or even music made the year I heard it, that I think it’s out there. It’s just much more difficult to latch onto. There’s so much new stuff that’s just palatable, there’s a lot more access to music making gear and equipment that just about anyone can release an album now.
Popular music is mostly dictated by the law of supply and demand, if an artist is easily marketable then a record label is going to invest. Most streaming platforms are designed to spotlight up and coming artists (most marketable artists), or those artists who already have massive fanbases (market stalwarts). This wasn’t any different 50 years ago, but 50 years ago there was a higher standard for what music got to be released. There was also a much higher bar to entry for recording studio-quality music.
Old music is usually better music
There is so much music being created right now, that there is simultaneously more good music and bad music than in the older days.
Radio hasn’t been a metric since like 2010. The indie scene is where it is at and it has never been bigger. Plenty of bands making classic rock music if you are into that.
Yeah, it’s not that music has gotten worse, it’s that radio has gone squarely down the shitter since basically every station is owned by like 2 companies now.
Not radio in general, but Clearchannel.
I realized a long time ago that music “sucked” because I would never open myself up to it and genuinely allow myself to find value in it.
It’s like my dad who has just decided that all rap sucks even though he has basically zero experience with it. I said the same thing until I was around 21 and almost missed all the really, really good stuff. Tai Verdes’ album “TV” is incredibly musical, for example.
What do you listen to right now?
I try my hardest to find new songs, because I don’t want to be some boomer bastard.
I don’t know what exactly counts as ‘new’, but I’m enjoying these songs a lot lately
AronChupa & Little Sis Nora - Tangaman
Little Sis Nora - MDMA
These two remind me of late 90s eurobeat shit like Aqua.Shotgun Willy - Bombs Away
bbno$ & Yung Gravy (BABY GRAVY) - Goodness Gracious
I actually just like anything by this bbno$ guy, but I’m loving the beats and flow on these styles of rap.Pickle - Stompin’
Makes me feel like I’m on drugs in a club back in the day.I feel like a lot of new music is probably hidden away on shit like TikTok where I’m never going to be exposed to it because I don’t use it. I have noticed Drum ‘n’ Bass seems to be back, but I was never a fan of that but I’m sure it’s someones jam.
Just want to take a moment to point out that two of the three you seem to like because they remind you of the past.
I fully support your take on trying to find new stuff, I personally have found that many good songs that I love take a few listens for me to actually like them, some do not catch on tho.
Given that, may I suggest you add new songs you want to try in your rotation? When they come up just take some effort to listen through and take them in, think of what you like and what you don’t, see if it changes.
Don’t torture yourself tho
It’s more that they’re a genre that I haven’t seen in 20 years, than that they remind me of the past. I love happy, upbeat, energetic bobby shit. Because it felt like a few years ago everything was that slooooow boring rap style by people fucked up on some sort of downers.
But y’know what I’m going to force myself to listen to everything on this page.
Okay so first 10 are done and I’ve enjoyed ‘Miley Cyrus - Flowers’, ‘Troye Sivan - Rush’, and ‘Olivia Rodrigo - Get Him Back!’. The other 7 were pretty slow and boring for my tastes.
I try my hardest to find new songs, because I don’t want to be some boomer bastard.
I got news for you, pal. The harder you try to be young and hip for the sake of being young and hip, the worse the outcome will be. You’re not getting any younger, and the sooner you accept that, the better.
Instead of forcing yourself to listen to music that has the single attribute of “released less than 6 months ago” in some sad, vain attempt to relive your glory days, try exploring music based on what you actually enjoy. What artists inspire you? Who influenced them, and what genres influenced their sound? Where did the roots of that sound originate? If a song you love is a cover, who wrote or performed the original? What style of singing is it, or what kind of beat?
Listen to what you want to listen to. The most interesting conversations I have with people about music always involve the history and roots of sound, not that last hip shit my aging hipster Lyft driver subjected me to.
Nah.
Always grow, find and discover new things, and challenge yourself.
The world is full of so much, to retreat back into yourself and only live in nostalgia is not healthy.
Getting old is inevitable, being a boomer is a choice.
I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to keep up with what “the kids” are listening to these days, and there certainly ARE some pearls to be found occasionally, but there’s also nothing wrong with enjoying the stuff you’ve already found to be worth your while, and introduce the younger generation to classics that are worth THEIR time, to show them that true greatness can stand the test of time and is capable of surviving whatever the current trend prescribes.
Bombs Away kinda slaps (that’s how the kids say it right?).
I can definitely stand to step out of my Trance 24x7x365 musical habits…
I lived the “Pop/rap/etc is bad” life for way too long, but fwiw most of it was during childhood, so mostly repeating my environment. Made the deliberate decision to get out of that mindset and have only increased my appreciation of music. That’s not to say I don’t still have opinions or preferences, but I’m not willingly shutting myself away from potential goodness.
Gone down the Ren rabit hole yet?
There seemed to be two options. I’m guessing you mean the one with the song “Chalk Outlines”?
I hadn’t heard of them but I’m liking it a lot! Thanks!
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Check out King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Something different.
Going to see them in may. Can confirm.
Open the door 🐍
Oh man, great recommendation. The Bug Club is another good one. Their newest album is awesome.
Is this your band or something? Because I just listened to a bunch of songs and while it’s… fine? Lo fi garage rock, it is really nothing similar or on the same level as king gizzard? Just an all around strange recommendation.
Your comment adds nothing of value to the conversation. Please just share something cool that you like, instead of going full-reddit with baseless criticism in an attempt to feel superior.
Hoping to see them at red rocks
Every generation: “I know all the generations before me have whined about the new music the kids are listening to, and I always correctly identified their whining as pathetic old-person behavior. But MY generation is actually right. The new music objectively sucks.”
It’ll happen to the current batch of kids, too.
Nobody will ever rise above it. It’s just a basic part of human nature. You might as well ask people to stop breathing.
Selection bias is huge too. You could argue that the current hits suck, and that the current hits have always sucked in every era. Lots of them do, they’re disposable trash music.
The difference is that we don’t remember half the garbage that hit the charts when we were young, only the good stuff survives. When I play classic bangers for my daughter, she thinks they’re awesome. Some of those tracks are older than me, but with streaming services and huge libraries “hits” don’t really matter that much when we can now listen to the best tracks picked out of a century of recorded music.
I’m nearly 40 and I like to blast some of the current hits, I like stuff from the 90s and I like classic rock, funk and some of the really old jazz and blues stuff. There’s no reason to act like your age has to determine your musical taste.
I have no time for some of the modern rappers with no skill though, that stuff is objectively trash when we grew up with legends like Outkast, Eminem etc lol
Does Canada have music? I thought it was just moose calls and beaver drumming?
Gregorian chanting of “I’m soory” is their national anthem I thought
That’s music, right?
And it’s awesome. 🤘
Blah, blah, blah, just a bunch of music snob nonsense, spewing from your keyboard.
Just stop being a music snob. It’s better and easier. You’re NEVER going to convince people to start hating the music that they like. And if you do, that’s just fucking sad for everyone involved.
All art should be criticized, and bad art should certainly be criticized
And bad art that was made with the immense backing of the status quo should be especially criticized.
That’s kinda missing the point. I am aware my taste in music is not the same as the new generation, still I hear and discover new music that’s actually interesting.
On the other hand, Spotify misses the opportunity to actually offer you discovering new genres, artists, songs that you may like. That’s OPs point, and I agree.
The last time a streaming service actually made me discover new music was 2015 Deezer.
I mean, the OP was looking just at the top 50 global, not their discovery.
Idk, I think Spotify’s Discover Weekly is pretty good at finding music from less popular bands but YMMV.
My experience is completely shitty. I’m in a Spanish speaking country, and all it recommends me is music from Spanish speakers, and oldies…
Nobody will ever rise above it.
Actually I rose above it! Everything I like is great and everything I don’t like is shit. Simple.
I think people will still remember a few dozen songs, while most of the rest will simply fall into obscurity.
Also real, longlasting appeal is found in the alternative and more original parts of the music industry more often than in the popular corporate top-10 drivel.
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Well you can go ahead and take a 3 day timeout while you read rule 1.
They really aren’t living up to their username in this thread.
Meh, I always hated my generations music. But that is just me cause the others of course love it.
Ahh, so you became a hipster snob EARLY. Lots of people do. It’s fine. I mean, it’s not curable, but neither is most of life.
Also life is curable
Having taste isn’t being a snob
Disliking slop is no vice
If you go through the music of the era you like, there was slop there are well. Slop isn’t new. You just like some of the music that survived that time period.
Its like with literature. We have “the classics.” The range from a lot of different eras. And many of them are great, even if not for everyone. But then you go through sights like Project Gutenberg, where they are trying to make a digital copy of every book in the public domain, and you start to realize just how many books there were that no one talks about. And those are just ones that have survived.
If you want a great example of this with music: disco. Disco was essentially the pop of it’s time. It’s really where pop was born. Super popular for a short period of time. Lots of famous groups because of it.
How many can you name off the top of your head? How many do you think most people can name? Probably not many. Because a lot of it might have been good, but it was really that good.
I listen to metal. But I didn’t get into it until my junior year of high school. So about 2006-2007. Before that I knew Metallica. I knew Black Sabbath. Things like that, but I never got into the genre until that point. I also realize that I only habe listened to a very small fraction of the bands from that era, because more of it is just buried and forgotten about.
We can take this a step further. I probably wouldn’t be able to list 1/5th of the bands I listened to in the 2010s. A lot of those bands I might think about from time to time, but many of them that I actually enjoyed I’ll probably remember. They were good, but didn’t have much staying power. They weren’t exceptional. They didn’t influence anything. But I still enjoyed listening to them.
This is a shortened version to say that while I’m sure it’s great to cum to your superior taste, music has had slop for a long time, and you’re not better for not enjoying it. You’re just boring.
This is really defensive for no reason. I am fully aware that schlocky mainstream lowest common denominator slop is not new. At all. And I didn’t claim that it was new.
A garbage top 40 song from the 60s can be just as bad, or worse, than a garbage top 40 song today. The point isn’t that bad music is new, the point is that bad music is bad. And that there’s a lot of it. Which is also true of film, books, and really all forms of art. Admitting that is no vice.
Having taste = guides what you consume.
Talking about having taste = snobbery.
Fact.
Nah, music of my generation also sucks too.
I AM THE ONLY ONE WITH GOOD TASTE!! Muuuu hahahahaha!
Academically, they proved music peaked in the 60s.
Tip -
I’ve found Spotify’s new music algorithm goes - “Oh, you used to listen to Motorhead and AC/DC? I think you’ll like Kiss and Def Leppard”
YT music algorithm goes " Well I think, combining that with all the other stuff you listen to, you’ll like Shaka Ponk, Deluxe, Pretty Reckless etc etc"
Google is a cunt these days but the quality of suggestions is vastly superior
I’ve found that Spotify goes “oh you listen exclusively to Scandinavian extreme metal? How about some American screamo OR the exact same stuff you’ve listened to already”, which is the polar opposite to what I want. YouTube music is just a huge mess for me.
Tidal however has reintroduced me to some great bands I had forgotten about and shown me some new ones which are Top Notch ™️
God I miss Tidal. Their suggestions were so far above and beyond everything else I’ve tried, I just wish it was managed and maintained competently. Their Android and desktop apps are (were? It’s been a while) so chock-full of playback bugs and annoying little quirks, and their customer support is probably not even legally considered customer support at all, considering the fact that it seems to consist entirely of a single email bot that receives support tickets, waits 3 weeks, then closes that ticket.
I was particularly irritated with the fact that albums would become “unavailable” so incredibly often, while a new, identical version of the album was made available, for no apparent reason. Since these replacement albums weren’t automatically migrated into my library, I would have to remove and and re-add the albums individually in order to play them from my library, then update all my playlist containing any songs from that “disabled” version of the album by removing and re-adding each individual song. That shit got old, FAST.
I eventually had to swap to Spotify because of an absolutely baffling bug that acted like a virus and slowly “ate” my library (more info below if anyone’s curious), and Spotify’s music suggestions are just nothing short of horrendous.
My “discover weekly” last week for example was made up of approximately 60% songs either already in my library, or songs that I’ve listened to before and not liked much from artists in my library, plus 7 (!!) 20-30+ minute soundscapes, something I have NEVER listened to before, as well as 2 new Ariana Grande singles (sponsored? I’ve had to block her, those singles were popping up everywhere), and a few songs from totally out-there genres, including a country rap song which just so happens to be the one and only song I’ve ever actually disliked back before Spotify removed and re-introduced that feature, some background music from a random indie game’s soundtrack which was mostly just cave noises, a jazz-fusion album’s interlude, and something that I can only describe as bubblegum cyberpunk black glitch-metal dancecore. A positively psychotic selection of music.
Granted, that was the worst discover weekly I think I’ve ever had, but I still just wish that tidal worked for me, because I’ve never discovered more great music from any other platform’s suggestion algorithm, and nothing since has even come close.
About the weird bug if anyone’s curious:
The bug was pretty fucked up in that it behaved basically like a virus. At random points while listening, Tidal would fail to play a song at master quality, automatically downgrade playback by one level, then apply that inability to play master-quality permanently to each subsequent song I played in that session. These songs were now “infected”. Replaying these songs at a later date would further degrade the playback quality by an additional level, and also add a delay of ~20 seconds per playback quality level it had been downgraded to, as well as infecting any other songs I played after. When a song reached 96kbps (or 160? Whatever the lowest is, I forget) and could not degrade any more, it would either play at minimum quality after a ~60 second delay (which was unskippable because Tidal was unresponsive to playing a new song during the delay), or just fail to play entirely while loading infinitely, absolutely chugging my battery-life, and overheating my phone. I could only stop it by force-closing the app, which would crash my phone, every single time. There was about a 20% chance for one of these songs to fail playback, but if it did play, that chance to fail playback was now applied to each subsequent song played, no matter the song’s “infection level”. Though that at least didn’t seem to be permanently applied like the quality degradation, but I don’t know for sure.
The weirdest part is that the bug would persist, spread, and behave exactly the same way on an old phone that had never had tidal installed before, and also with the desktop app (though without the overheating, and it would throw and error message after some time if a song failed to play). So the bug seemed somehow account-bound?
I researched unsuccessfully for weeks looking for a fix, and I tried everything I could to fix it aside from making a new tidal account, because it was a lot of trouble to migrat. And support… Well, Tidal support apparently just doesn’t exist. I had sent 3 separate support tickets, all of which went unanswered, then marked as “resolved” and closed 2-3 weeks later. Only the 2nd ticket got an automated “thanks for your ticket, staff will help soon” response before being marked resolved and closed.
Eventually, so much of my library became infected (as well as a ton of random songs that would commonly end up playing after albums) that my ability to both listen to the music I loved and discover new music in the styles/genres I loved was crippled. Which obviously rendered the entire platform effectively useless. So after being repeatedly ignored by support with no explanation, and after several software updates that didn’t fix the problem while I was trying to contact support, or even just report the bug… I had to give up and switch to Spotify.
Especially with the radio feature. Pick a song that’s totally out of your comfort zone, go to radio and Spotify still manages to squeeze in songs you’ve already listened to 5 times today.
At some point, though, Google starts recommending the same songs over and over and over. That’s the reason for the popularity of curator channels like MrSuicideSheep, xKito, CloudKid, RockMontage, NuclearBlastEurope, Rare and Obscure Metal Archives, and MonsterCat.
The dreaded Algorithm is just other people’s playlists being distributed as “curated” content.
YouTube regularly goes into a 2-song autoplay loop for me.
Pandora is better than either.
I miss the old Pandora, just a single page website, limited skips (it was free so it was a small tradeoff), and it actually would recommend music that you’ve never heard before that actually sounded similar to stuff you told its algo you liked.
Pandora was great. Discovered loads of cool, obscure shit.
The only downside is that their algorithm never changed, the same station had the same songs on repeat for 7+ years, not a single new song added per-query for some reason. Keeping it fresh would have gone a much longer way.
It still is if you have a decent ad blocker
I discovered so much music in those days. I’ve never found anything that’s close to equivalent. It’s one of the big reasons I’m still listening to the music I listened to through my teens and twenties.
Wait, what? Pandora isn’t free anymore?
TBF, I haven’t used it in years. These days I stick with YouTube Music ReVanced so I can skip all the music I want for free and without ads. Not a fan of the sound quality, though. I wonder if there is something similar for Spotify…
Top 50 Tracks From Recent Netflix Tween TV Shows.
Let me recommend some excellent Chinese/Taiwanese band I found this year (most of them are instrumental rock, so there are no language barriers)
- IZ band, a Kazakhs band specialize in industrial rock (https://oldheavenbooks.bandcamp.com/album/jangqerek and https://oldheavenbooks.bandcamp.com/album/kolengke )
- 8 Immortals Restaurant (https://8immortalsrestaurant.bandcamp.com/album/inauguration-of-the-pleasure-dome )
- Little Wizard (https://littlewizardchina.bandcamp.com/album/little-wizard-iii )
- Tation, a post rock band from Tibetan Plateau (https://tation.bandcamp.com/album/illusions-of-the-new-era )
- Cold Dew, a Taiwanese dream rock band (https://colddew1.bandcamp.com/album/yuyu and https://wvsorcerer.bandcamp.com/album/yuyu )
Oi thanks m8!
Deca Joins is another good Taiwanese band. I recommend the Audiotree live session.
Yeap, there are many good, famous, and long-standing Chinese/Taiwanese bands:
- deca joins
- snapline https://maybemars.bandcamp.com/album/shou-hua
- orange ocean
- elephant gym https://elephant-gym.bandcamp.com/album/world
- Backspace (in mandarin) https://maybemars.bandcamp.com/album/human-nature-architecture
- Hipperson (in mandarin) https://maybemars.bandcamp.com/album/bildungsroman
- re-tros https://re-tros.bandcamp.com/album/rrasfc
- mimik banka https://mimikbanka.bandcamp.com/album/black-island
- sunset rollercoaster https://sunset-rollercoaster.bandcamp.com/track/levia
- no party for cao dong (in mandarin) https://nopartyforcaodong.bandcamp.com/album/the-clod
I recommended the five above because I only found them this year, and several of them are from minority Chinese race.
Sunset Rollercoaster has been one of my favorites for years. I’m gonna check out some of these other bands. Thanks for the recommendations.
No problem at all! Glad people are into Chinese/Taiwanese bands!
The image is actually emblematic of why you’re having trouble finding good new music. You’re still just looking at the outside of the haystack. In the modern era it’s incredibly easy to access good new music, but perhaps more difficult to find that music (based upon your tastes). The prevalence of independent music exploded over 20 years ago. At this point, if you’re relying on the vestiges of major labels and popular distribution channels as your tastemakers you’re basically doing it wrong.
The drawback is that you may actually have to put in some time and effort to find new stuff you like, but it’s definitely out there. Probably much more exists than you have time to consider, really. How much time you’re willing to spend searching depends on how important it is to you to find new stuff that you enjoy. Use shortcuts and find a different tastemaker associated with genre’s that you like if you want (e.g. online publications, youtube channels, online forums/communities, playlist where they exist, podcast, etc.) You’ll have to put in some time to find the relevant ones to you, but perhaps not as much time as combing through new stuff on your own.
Lots of us with interests in genres with an extensive underground scene have been sifting through the mud to find gems for decades already, and I still enjoy the process a lot, though many people might think I waste a lot of time. These days that skillset is transferable and almost a requirement to find the good stuff in any and every genre. Unless you are lucky or don’t mind enough that the most commercial stuff is still your jam.
(edit: unless of course this post is more a condemnation of broadly popular tastes in music. I’d have to type more to address that, but I’ll save it. It’s nothing new, and also hinges on subjectivity.)
Swans
Based Gira enjoyer
If you’re into Rap/Hip Hop, Tobe Nwigwe is pretty new on the scene and killing it.
Heat rock goes hard
Tell them to get off your lawn
To name a few…
Jpegmafia
Idles
Metric
Tkay Maidza
Lustsick puppy
Love peggy, he’s an incredible performer too. One man show with him DJing, no backing track, incredibly high energy performances of every song
Yess, Metric!
