Culture Editor Leah Renz reflects on this year’s Spotify Wrapped, finding it equal parts entertaining and confusing
Spotify Wrapped always inevitably reveals a slightly embarrassing crevice of my personality and I therefore welcome its arrival with equal parts glee and trepidation. Last year, and I am not convinced that I want to admit this publicly, my top song was Stormzy and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Own It.’ My most listened to song always catches me unawares, perhaps because I wrap myself in wreaths of self-denial.
[…] there is a lot you can glean about another person when they tell you that they are in the top .05% of Halsey listeners
This is one of the great fascinations with Spotify Wrapped; it can surprise us with new revelations, and who doesn’t love to hear about themselves? It functions as a musical personality test – after all, there is a lot you can glean about another person when they tell you that they are in the top .05% of Halsey listeners, and that their fifth genre is ‘bubble grunge’ (my housemate). If you are unable to make these judgments for yourself however, the new ‘Audio Aura’ feature may help you out. My taste is apparently ‘confident and inspirational,’ that of my boyfriend’s ‘happy and chill,’ and that of a friend’s ‘melancholy and mellow.’
These metrics are suspect, however, when you share an account with someone else. My brother’s apparently insatiable thirst for Hans Zimmer massively skews the Spotify Wrapped and sabotages the top five songs such that not one, but three, of our top songs are by the great Zimmer. The fact that both of us also occasionally listen to soundtracks bumps this genre disproportionately high on the list, second only to the ever-present ghost of ‘dance pop.’
I would argue that even the misfired banter has a certain charm
When I was not busy puzzling over my so-called music ‘taste,’ I was left baffled by Spotify’s creepily personal messages. ‘In 2021 you did what you had to do. Listening to white noise videos every night? Completely normal.’ Feeling both amused and attacked is a complex blend of emotion that only the Spotify Wrapped slideshow could illicit. Further curious messages appear, and I am forced to admit that a playlist as long as my skincare routine would barely last two minutes, and that the assertion that I have ‘understood the assignment’ is nothing but extremely laughable. The final compliment, on my ‘top-tier taste,’ is even funnier knowing that not only do I not listen to especially fantastic music, but that millions are receiving the identical banter at the end of their Spotify Wrapped slideshows.
Having said all that, I enjoy the colourful Spotify Wrapped slides, even when I receive emotional whiplash from the jarring change of songs throughout. I would argue that even the misfired banter has a certain charm, like the totally terrible, but still kind of cheeky, jokes at the bottom of CGP Science revision guides. More than this, it allows for an excuse to psychoanalyse yourself and your friends, at least, as long as their top genre was not the ubiquitous Lofi Beats…
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