Following Thanksgiving and — what really should be a national holiday — Black Friday shopping, the holiday seasons are usually eagerly anticipated. All of a sudden, the well-known chain of coffee shops starts to offer holiday-themed hot and iced drinks, and the decorated trees start to light up your neighborhood. Because we belong to the digital generation, creativity and the visual have taken center stage in our lives. Now, when the holiday season cycle begins, we also eagerly anticipate our Spotify-wrapped playlist for the year.
The Swedish entrepreneur Daniel Ek founded and launched Spotify, a music streaming service, in 2008. The origin of the name is derived from the words “Spot,” which means “location,” and “Ify,” which is an abbreviation for the word “identity.” At first, Spotify was only a computer-based service, but in 2009, it also made its mobile app available. Three years later, in 2011, the music application had already begun to compete with well-known music streaming services like iTunes and Pandora. The application’s author then made the decision to add podcasts and audiobooks as he continued to diversify it over time. Students from Florida State University (FSU) are among the more than 207 million users of Spotify currently.
In keeping with the holidays and the sudden need to reflect and better oneself, Spotify compiles an annual Wrapped list of its users’ most-listened-to artists and songs from the previous year. It has become a trend to post one’s Spotify Wrapped playlist on social media stories to share with friends. The “Year in Music” feature on the app debuted in 2015. The program generates a list of users’ favorite musicians and songs by analyzing their algorithms over the course of a year. Every year on Dec. 1, Spotify releases its wrapped playlists, which have grown to become its own independent national digital holiday.
Florida State students have started to anticipate their favorite artist for the 2022 Spotify Wrapped as Dec. 1 draws near and Finals season continues. The vast majority, if not all, have expressed their excitement for Taylor Swift’s impending tour and said they think she might be their top musician of the year.
Bella Bozied, a member of the 2024 graduating class, says, “Probably Taylor Swift because she had a way of writing a song for every singular situation of my life. Plus her music is just so poetic and can match any mood I’m in!”
Abel Tesfaye, better known as “The Weeknd,” was also widely praised by FSU students in addition to the overwhelming love for Taylor Swift’s songs. Daniel Ferraro, a student in the class of 2024, says, “I listen to classic rock but the only artist that I consistently listen to is The Weeknd! I’m sure he’ll be my top artist this year.”
FSU students continued to demonstrate a wide diversity in musical preferences when revealing that their favorite musicians of the year would be Arctic Monkeys, Lorde or even Chase Atlantic. The anticipation for this year’s Spotify Wrapped shows how important music has become to FSU students’ everyday routines, whether they are studying in Strozier library or crossing Landis. Who do you think will be the #1 artist in 2022 as the Christmas season commences?
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