Entertainment media loves a "best of" list. Rolling Stone argues over the 500 Greatest Albums. The Grammys gatekeep via genre silos. Now has no such pretension.
In the golden age of the 1990s, if you wanted to signal that you had arrived at the peak of musical variety, you picked up a double-disc set from a brand called Now That’s What I Call Music! Volume one, volume three, volume twenty-seven—these compilations promised a specific, curated slice of the mainstream. They were heavy, plastic, and finite. You could hold "a whole lotta" hits in your hand. Xxxpawn Now That--39-s Whole Lotta Butt
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If we are being honest, the phrase isn't just a casual observation anymore. It is the defining psychological condition of the 21st-century consumer. Entertainment media loves a "best of" list