I Wanna Talk About Spotify Wrapped

by Mr. Diehl

'Tis the season of posting your Spotify Wrapped, or whatever Apple Music and Youtube are calling their end-of-year accounting of our listening habits this year. I genuinely enjoy sharing mine with others (I will fire it into the family group chat within minutes of it releasing, and it's my only IG story post of the year) and seeing others' top artists and songs for the year. It's a fascinating look into something that many of us are doing all the time: the music that is occupying our minds while driving, studying, or for some of us, while class is being taught.

Let's pray they don't use those terrible AI-generated captions this year

However, Spotify Wrapped season brings to light two things that concern me as an Old Person™. My bonafides for being an Old Person™, beyond my age, is that I'm putting two spaces after every period in this piece, a practice used because of TYPEWRITERS. Yikes.

1. Listening to the same song over and over.

My top song of the year for 2024, according to Spotify, was "Manny, Manny" by Stereosity and I listened to it 84 times. The song came out in 2023, so there wasn't some kind of critical mass of listening, I just listened to the song fairly often and it was included on multiple playlists I made that year. It likely doesn't represent something profound about me, nor does it signal my belonging to some kind of subculture. It won't be in my top 50, I'm sure, this year, because I played the song out. That happens. Compared to many students' Wrapped, though, I'm putting up minor league numbers. I refuse to accept this as standard. I thought about doing some research on this subject, but it's not necessary. My gut tells me that having access to the entire history of recorded sound and listening to one song a thousand-plus times in one year is wrong. Reminds me of my toddler requesting the same Backyardigans DVD every time we took a ride in the car. I've even been told of students who will listen to the same CLIP of a song through a Tik Tok or Reel, over and over, while they are studying or doing something. No. Nonononononononono.

2. Manipulating your stats

This practice, I fear, speaks to a larger problem. We should not be manipulating organic statistics to broadcast a particular idea of ourselves for everyone else's consumption. Running your Spotify overnight to ensure that certain artists and songs appear at the end of the year is bad, and also, it's not good. I need the spirit of BeReal in your Wrapped. No filters, please. If HUNTR/X is your top artist this year, that's way more interesting to me, the person who is curious about your Wrapped, than the persona you're looking to craft by suggesting that something more edgy, underground, or not connected to a Netflix animated film was your number one.

Maybe it's too late for you this year. Maybe you've already curated your Wrapped so that Clairo is your top artist, and you'll be walking around soon with a tote bag, advertising that top .1% listener status to anyone who will pay attention. Not me, though. Clairo? Please. Did you even listen to the Shelly EP that was released this year?