At this time of the year, there are an abundance of holidays to be celebrated across the globe. Some are regional— Thanksgiving, Saint Andrew’s Day; some are religious—Hanukkah, Christmas; others mark the close of a calendar and a promise of new beginnings and resolutions. But there is one event observed by all, a mutual understanding of importance regardless of age, race, or gender. As we close in on the final chapter of the year, we anticipate the arrival of Spotify Wrapped.
Let’s face it. That first story post from an eager music connoisseur is akin to the first snowflake that lands on your palm, to the first leaf that crunches under your foot, to the first sensation of sand underneath your toes. Spotify Wrapped has had the world in a chokehold for eight years, and is arguably still one of the leading incentives that draws users to the platform. Every December, billions of people sit like a housewife waiting for her husband to return from the war, refreshing their emails and Spotify accounts for that fated pop-up that tells them everything that they already knew about their music tastes, but with a pretty background. And then comes the actual war with its propaganda, fought solely on Instagram stories and defended in the trenches of X’s trending page. The competition is rife, and it is brutal. Which one of you was in the coveted 0.0001% of Taylor Swift’s listeners this year? What do you mean you only streamed music for 20,000 minutes? Did you really play that song 497 times in a random week in March?
I’ll stop mocking. I must admit, I too fall into the inevitable trap that is Spotify Wrapped. You can’t help but bite when all your friends are nagging you about what your top three genres were, or who made it into your five most streamed artists. I do always find it ridiculous, as I am indeed a victim of an ever-adapting taste. One of those people who will garner an obsession with one song for a week and play it on repeat, get sick of it and vow to never listen again, and find myself face-to-face, Western style, with it sitting comfortably in its top spot on my yearly summary. Year after year, I never learn. I already know what my number one song will be for this year, and I can comfortably say that “Both Ways” by The Script has pre-ordered celebratory glasses of Prosecco to sip upon its plush throne.
But there is a lingering dark cloud over the success that has been Spotify Wrapped, and that is boredom. Sure, the app makes small tweaks and adaptations to the event every year in an attempt to renew and refresh the occasion, but for the most part, the conclusion of your annual music statistics remains the same in concept and design every single year. We know to expect our top five songs and artists, our top genres and the minutes for which we have listened to them, so at what point does this sacred ritual become less exciting and more predictable?
I think something I’ve learned since asking friends and fellow Wrapped enthusiasts, is that to a certain extent, predictability is key to each and every one of our lives. As human beings, we find comfort in the expected, and that warm sense of companionship we feel when sharing our yearly summaries creates a togetherness that otherwise is rarely felt. Also in line with our human nature is our need for a box, a label, something we can identify with that allows us to make sense of our own thoughts and actions—we are guilty of labelling everything, from our sexualities, to our styles, to our personalities. How many of us have done the Myers-Briggs test after seeing somebody else’s results online? There’s no harm in a label, if that’s what brings you solace. Some of us need that personality check and to see just how much our music tastes influence our beings.
And as we crave that global group involvement, especially in times such as now where the world is so divided in nature, I would argue that no, we are not bored of Spotify Wrapped. Okay, yes, I get it: it does get a little tedious after the twentieth story swipe, but who cares? There are people who roll their eyes and swipe after your summary. Spotify Wrapped is that unserious gem that we love to rediscover every year, an addiction that is completely harmless yet fuels your body and soul with enough motivation to make that fresh start in the following year. You can claim that it runs its course all you like, but the truth is that you’d miss it if they ever did away with it.
So, with those green soundwaves wafting slowly in our direction within the upcoming weeks, I urge you to find that childlike whimsy you experience when checking your own results and to see it in everybody else. Yes, the posts will feel like a feed ambush, not dissimilar from when it would snow overnight in high school and the entirety of your friends’ Snapchat stories would be shots of their own gardens with a pathetic sheet of snow. It’s the little things that matter to everybody. What’s the harm in starting a conversation with someone if you have the same taste, either? We rarely get the chance to view such an intimate snapshot of the lives our acquaintances lead. Use Spotify Wrapped as the opportunity for curiosity, nosiness and celebration, and get to grips with the fact that the much-loved phenomenon is here to stay.