The chill-hits Spotify sound—or what the pop music critics at the New York Times started calling “spotifycore”—was a product of playlist logic requiring that one song flow seamlessly into the next, a formula that guarantees a greater number of passive streams. At times, these whispery, smaller sounds even recalled aspects of ASMR, with its performed intimacy and soothing voices. When everyone wants your attention, it makes sense to find reprieve in sounds that require very little of it, or that might massage your brain a bit. Both traits—seamlessness and chillness—are reflected in music that
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