It’s December, which means the most wonderful time of the year. The holidays? Nope! Spotify Wrapped.
Not everybody feels this way. A lot of people complain about being subjected to an endless social media bombardment of statistics they care nothing about. They say Spotify Wrapped is nothing more than a data aggregator or marketing tool.
I say, haters gonna hate.
In case you’re living under a rock, Spotify Wrapped is an annual compilation of your year in music, broken down into your most-listened-to songs, artists, and genres. (In case you’re living under a boulder, Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service. But if that’s the case, your eyes have no doubt already glazed over and you probably stopped reading a paragraph or two back.)
An article in Yahoo! Finance says, For a few days every year, social media is awash with mentions of Spotify, as everyone takes the opportunity to brandish digital evidence of their great taste, or trashy taste, or make fun of other people ballyhooing their great or trashy tastes.
Sheesh. Lighten up already! I love it when people make fun of themselves. Self-deprecation is kind of my thing.
Maybe you don’t like seeing everybody else’s year in review, but I do. Music is a huge part of my life. I always have it on; at work, at home, in the car. Spotify tells me I listened to 81,501 minutes this year, which is more than 97% of U.S. listeners.That fact doesn’t surprise me one bit.
I’m totally the guy on the right.
If you’re the person on the left, you might want to skip the rest of this post, ’cause I’m going to share mine. Mainly because of this:
Clearly, I’m guilty of living in the past, because the Goo Goo Dolls haven’t been relevant in about two decades. According to Spotify, I’m in the top .01% of their listeners, which means they probably have me to thank for putting food on their tables this year!
Relevant or not, they’re good. I was a huge fan of their catchy brand of alternative rock from the mid-’90s through the early ‘aughts. A Boy Named Goo, Dizzy Up the Girl, and Gutterflower were the soundtracks to my twenties and thirties.
And then they kind of fell off my radar as my tastes shifted toward indie music. They even played a concert in Rapid City two years ago on their Miracle Pill tour and the thought to buy tickets never even crossed my mind.
But, for whatever reason, I rediscovered them this year. Apparently, I rediscovered them hard. At one point over the summer, I listened to every album in their discography back-to-back-to-back-times-however-many (it’s a lot). And found that even their more recent stuff, with which I was unfamiliar, is good! So, I’m kicking myself for not going to see them when I had the chance.
They weren’t the only artist I listened to, of course. Here are some more fun stats.
I’m not the least bit surprised “Unpleasant Breakfast” by The Hold Steady is my most-played track. I freakin’ love it.
Now that I’ve shown you mine, will you show me yours?
Mark My Words 
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