One of the most widely praised releases of 2018 was “Whack World” by the singer and rapper Tierra Whack: 15 sly, smart songs, all accompanied by video clips, that each lasted only a minute. They went breezing by, lightheartedly addressing large ideas while alluding to decades of R&B and hip-hop. Her music was often skeletal — a handful of looped instruments — but most of the songs sounded complete, not truncated.

It was a miniature tour de force, and enough to get Whack noticed by the Grammys (which, with typical befuddlement, nominated an earlier, more conventional track, “Mumbo Jumbo,” for best music video). In its deceptively casual ambition and ruthless brevity, “Whack World” had a brilliant strategy for combat in the attention economy: keep things short and visual.