There is a chill in the air, and coffee shops everywhere have long since added pumpkin and apple-based drinks to their menu. This means that fall is upon us, but more importantly — Spotify Wrapped season is not too far away.
When I first downloaded Spotify, at the urging of my friends back in 2018, I had no idea the impact that streaming music would have on my life. Before that time, I was a very casual music listener, mostly listening to Top Forty on the radio and occasionally searching up an old Taylor Swift song. But Spotify opened a new world for me: every song I could ever want was right there at my fingertips.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, I started listening to music more religiously and discovered my favorite pastime: making playlists. I loved making a perfectly curated list of songs, putting them in the exact order I wanted and picking an aesthetic cover photo. Even if I barely listened to said playlists after creating them, nothing made me happier than stalking my own Spotify profile with all my pretty playlists in a row.
When I started college, though, my Spotify obsession really took off. Freshman year, I found myself facing what seemed like every problem imaginable, with no idea how to proceed. During the worst year of my life, music became my lifeline. I celebrated the rerelease of Red by playing “All Too Well” on repeat in my dorm room. I blasted “Scott Street” by Phoebe Bridgers through my earbuds as I walked to class. I discovered “Pancakes for Dinner” by Lizzy McAlpine, which is now my favorite song, and listened to it dozens of times in a row while doing my Biology homework.
Early December rolled around before I knew it, and it was time for Spotify Wrapped. What had once been simply some statistics about my music was now an insight into my life for the past twelve months. I spent the whole day having in-depth conversations with my friends about it and clicking through an endless stream of Spotify Wrapped Instagram stories — all while the premade playlist of my Top 100 Songs of the Year played in the background. To me, it was a brand-new way to view my own life and the lives of those around me. Simply put, I was hooked.
Three years have passed since then, with each year’s Spotify Wrapped more anticipated than the last. As I listen to my favorite playlists or albums, I constantly find myself thinking: will this show up on my Spotify Wrapped? And, lately: do I want this to show up on my Spotify Wrapped? As early December grows nearer, I have watched myself and those around me begin to analyze our music taste and how others will perceive it.Â
I have even watched myself alter my music taste so that it will come across as “better.” It is not uncommon for me to turn off my favorite Megan Moroney song because I do not want country music in my Spotify Wrapped or to limit the number of Lizzy McAlpine songs on my playlist because I am worried she will surpass Taylor Swift as my top artist on Spotify. At times, the looming threat of Spotify Wrapped has made my music consumption less about me, and more about how others will see me.
That being said, I think Spotify Wrapped Season can be a lot of fun, so long as we do not take it too seriously. I love sitting around in a circle with my closest friends, sharing playlists and theorizing about what our top songs will be this year. I love the moment when I wake up on that fateful, early December day to a barrage of messages as if it were a holiday. I have always believed that music is a beautiful channel for human connection. And Spotify Wrapped can be a great tool to promote this, so long as we manage our mindsets surrounding it.
So this year, if your instrumental study music makes your top songs once again, do not be ashamed. Simply laugh about it, and text your friends about it. Spotify Wrapped provides a great opportunity to see the year recapped via one of life’s biggest gifts, music. And most importantly, it provides an opportunity to connect us all, if only we let it.Â