Written by Mateo Biggs
Spotify. The app many people use in order to cultivate playlists to better fit their aesthetics– sometimes shared with friends or partners to better expand on the general vibes of the relationship. A place many use to stream their favorite artists, albums, and even game soundtracks.
Many Maroons on campus use Spotify for anything– to workout, do homework, or to just fill their days with sound when it gets too quiet in their dorm rooms. As many of these same Maroons know, around December, Spotify releases your “Year Wrapped” where it lists your most played artist, most played song, and even what your general aesthetic was for the year itself.
For instance, this reporter’s most played song happened to be “Muddy Water (Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix)” a 2022 release by Stray Kids along with my top song being “Drinking with Cupid” by VOILA. My own top 5 artists of the 2023 year were; Stray Kids, Bohnes, Rory Webley, Naethan Apollo, and CORPSE. My top genre to listen to in 2023 being “Dark R&B”. Also thanks to Spotify, my minutes listened– also known as how much time I spent listening to music that year –was 30,980 minutes in total.
Thanks to a few upcoming Roanoke College graduates, I was also able to gather their 2023 Spotify Wrapped. Here’s what we gathered.
Sydney Wagner, class of 2024, states that her “top 3 artists of the year were; Taylor Swift, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Noah Kahan.” Already the scene is set for what her year entailed. From there, Wagner explained that her top songs happened to be “Six Years Wiser” by Harrison Boe, “CHRONICALLY CAUTIOUS” by Braden Bales, “Wish You Were Sober” by Conan Gray, “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan, and “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift. Wagner also wanted it to be known her top genres were pop, Broadway, Movie Tunes, POV: indie, and Alt Z.
“I don’t even know what ‘Alt Z’ is,” Wagner stated when asked.
One Roanoke College senior who wished to remain anonymous said that their top 5 artists included Sleep Token, Måneskin, Bad Omens, Hozier, and Lana Del Rey. Their total minutes spent listening was 27,833 minutes with their top artist being Sleep Token (with 2,233 minutes alone) with “Take Me Back to Eden” being their favorite album– “Granite” from that same album being their top song.
Another anonymous Maroon senior who wished to be known as “a soon-to-be graduated woman who is doing her best” allowed me to report that her 2023 Spotify Wrapped included her 5 top songs being “Love Poem” by An Dong Yeong and You Chae Hoon, “44 More” by Logic, “Hit ‘Em Up” by 2pac and Outlawz, “Unchained Melody” by Marc Martel, and “Shinunoga E-wa” by Fuji Kaze. This anonymous senior’s top 5 artists featured names such as; Stray Kids, BTS, Måneskin, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and SEVENTEEN.
With such diverse tastes in music, can’t wait to see 2024’s Spotify Wrapped.
