Your spotify wrapped doesn’t define you
Art by Audrey Strauss
To the songs of my childhood, I’m sorry. To the Disney, Hamilton and Glee soundtracks, Pitch Perfect Riff-offs and Justin Bieber, it is time for me to let you all go. The tint you leave on my spotify wrapped is a burden that I cannot bear to carry. It is the fingerprint smudge on an otherwise clear, glimmering window. It is not my fault that when shuffling my liked songs, the Barden Bellas happen to slip in there. And I refuse to take responsibility for the amount of minutes the single song “Alexander Hamilton” was played. It must have been on repeat while I was sleeping, I promise.
Spotify Wrapped, which compiles data throughout the year of one’s listening history, is not an accurate representation of one’s true music taste. Though factually accurate, the data may not represent how people truly feel about their favorite artists, songs and genres. In other words, Spotify Wrapped may not be how people want to display what their music taste is, or what they want it to actually be. The music people listen to that they are proud to share may be diluted by their guilty pleasures and study music, for example, when actually represented in data.
We put such a great emphasis on Spotify Wrapped, even if only for the singular day it is released, that people care more about how their music taste is perceived than anything else. We don’t want it to be perceived that something is our music taste, when really it is just the outlying data set on a graph. But what is music taste? Is it every single thing people listen to, as the Spotify Wrapped defines it, or is it how we define it ourselves, excluding whatever we aren’t proud of.
Most everyone has a wide variety of music they listen to depending on the circumstances and their emotions. There is music for studying and sleeping, versus music for when you are getting ready to go out. There’s music for when you are sad and want to stay sad, versus when you are sad and want to get happy. The feelings that arise from different music are so specific, that it can’t all be combined into one category. Sure I’m from Burlington, Vermont according to Spotify, but how is it possible to generalize my entire music taste into a city few people even knew of before the 2023 Spotify Wrapped came out?
Piper Forysth (’25) thinks Spotify Wrapped exacerbates the pressures already present in showcasing one’s music taste.
“I think people really care about their music, and intentionally or not, people judge others for their music tastes. And if it’s different from their own, they might find it weird,” Forysth said. “It’s something that’s very personal, and people want to be unique and have their own music taste, and they want people to like it.”
Forsyth, who claims to have been hacked by Lil Durk, doesn’t think people should be judged off of their spotify wrapped, as an artist she doesn’t even listen to was listed as one of her top artists.
“I was hacked, I swear. This isn’t me. Lil Durk is not me,” Forsyth said.
It shouldn’t matter how others perceive our own music tastes. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the Spotfiy Wrapped says; it doesn’t define you. We should embrace the fun music, and listen to what we want, when we want. I’m not going to listen to Elliott Smith when I’m driving down the PCH during summer with my friends. Sorry Elliot, but Lin Manuel Miranda is taking over.