For Spotify users near and far, the best day of the year is not the last day of school, New Year’s Day or their birthdays; it is the glorious day toward the end of the year when the coveted “Spotify Wrapped” releases. The round-up of each and every Spotify user’s year reflects their most listened-to songs, genres, artists, total amount of time spent listening and more, wrapped in an aesthetically pleasing visual slideshow on the Spotify app.
In years past, my Spotify Wrapped statistics have come in many forms. From Ariana Grande as my number-one artist in 2019 to Drake in 2023, it is safe to say that my taste has evolved. This year, my listening habits put me under the category of “Shapeshifter:”
“One moment you’re head over heels for an artist. The next, you’ve moved on. Some say it’s erratic. We call it eclectic.”
Genres: 139
Top five: Rap, Pop, Rock, pov: indie, Indie Soul
“2023 was a feast for your ears” wraps my year up pretty well. To my surprise, I did not realize I had spent so much time listening to rap music for it to qualify as the first slice on my sandwich of genres…Maybe it was the 12-hour and 54-minute-long playlist on my account helping out. The other genres add up pretty well, although I did not know “pov: indie” was considered a genre. This year’s Spotify Wrapped came with many surprises, including a comparison to a particular location around the U.S. based on each respective user’s listening habits. My music taste is attributed to the habits of someone in Berkeley, Calif., with people there likely to share their love for artists like Piero Piccioni, Frank Ocean and Faye Webster with me.
Songs: 4,199; 54,929 minutes
Top five:
“Bus Stop (feat. Brent Faiyaz)” by Don Toliver
“drive ME crazy!” by Lil Yachty
“Close to Me” by The Cure
“Too Many Nights (feat. Don Toliver & with Future)” by Metro Boomin
“Afraid To Feel” by LF SYSTEM
Out of every day in 2023 so far, Spotify reported my peak listening time at 574 minutes on Oct. 22. Coincidentally, I was traveling on this day, which likely explains this lengthy amount of time. My most-listened-to song, “Bus Stop,” took me by a bit of a surprise, despite the early morning drives to school and the upbeat track being my daily morning routine for a couple of weeks straight. “drive ME crazy!” was more of a predictable one, as it made up the sounds of this spring — primarily the trip to New York City with the newspaper and yearbook staffs. “Close to Me” was probably one of my songs of the summer, so it being in third place came as no surprise.
When Metro Boomin released his now-Grammy-nominated album “Heroes and Villains” in December, I immediately became obsessed with the creative production and ingenious implementation of instrumental sounds throughout the project. In my opinion, the album has no skips and is worthy of winning the Best Rap Album Grammy award this February. With this in mind, it came as no shock to me that “Too Many Nights” ranked fourth in my top five.
In addition this year, I gained a newfound love for the house music genre. The real jumpstart for this came with “Afraid to Feel” entering my daily rotation, as well as my appreciation for artists such as FISHER, KAYTRANADA, Peggy Gou and others. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find the LF SYSTEM hit on my list of top five songs this year.
Artists: 2,063
Top five: Drake, SZA, Brent Faiyaz, Taylor Swift, Tyler, The Creator
To me, the artist section of my Spotify Wrapped came as the largest shock. I never could have predicted Drake coming in as my number one, especially not with me being in the top three percent and spending 1,728 minutes listening to his work. Do not get me wrong — Drake is probably one of the most influential artists of this generation, and there is absolutely nothing like getting hyped up to songs like “Nice for What” and “Rich Baby Daddy,” but I figured maybe I had branched out a bit more compared to last year’s number one artist being Taylor Swift. My top Drake song this year was the classic “Feel No Ways” from his 2016 album “Views,” with my peak listening month being October.
Otherwise, the rest of my top artists were relatively predictable: I spent a hefty amount of time listening to SZA’s new album “SOS,” peaking in September, attending Brent Faiyaz’s concert with floor tickets and listening to him the most in February, muddling through the junior year anxieties by religiously listening to Taylor Swift’s “folklore” and listening to Tyler, The Creator on any and all car rides — peaking at listening time in October.
Overall, my Spotify Wrapped this year consisted of a collection of sounds and tastes across the board — some completely unexpected, and others hitting the nail on the head. If any of the songs, genres or artists who appeared on this breakdown resonated with anyone reading, feel free to see more here.
