I created a new iTunes Apple Music playlist called “Millennial Fever” lately. As its name suggests, it’s all about hit songs in the 2000s. More precisely, it contains songs I used to play on loop all day. Curating new playlists is one of my favourite late night activities. I got so excited as I revisited those long-forgotten songs, and I thought that would make a great car playlist.

I was wrong.

I’m not going into details about which songs I exactly picked, because some of those old favourites really embarrasses me. But it did include some usual suspects from the 2000s, like Twins, Jade Kwan, etc.. I ended up skipping lots of songs in that playlist as I drove to work. I then realized there had to be a reason songs are forgotten — maybe they really suck. Henry Ho used to say if a dental material exists, it must be of some use; otherwise it would have become obsolete. I guess this principle applies to songs too. If one doesn’t listen to a song anymore, the song really sucks.

Or maybe it doesn’t. You see, in the movie Inside Out, Ping Pong was forgotten spontaneously. Ping Pong didn’t suck. He was forgotten because Riley had new and more important memories. When Ping Pong died, his spirit lived on. He sacrificed himself so that Joy could go and save Riley. He made Joy promise she’d help him take Riley to the Moon. Old music were forgotten to make way for the new. Instead of going away all of a sudden, old tastes evolve into new, better tastes over time.