Spotify Wrapped Season is my favorite time of the year to be on social media. For the next couple of days, feeds will be cluttered with people posting their music information, consisting of stuff like, their top-five artists for the year, their most streamed songs, and other fun music statistics. To some, this may be annoying, but for me it brings me so much joy. I love quantifiable data; I love music; I love judging other people, so this time of year is pretty much my Super Bowl. It is the only time of the year I am genuinely invested in checking out everyone’s Instagram Stories, no skips here, only vibes. (Pro-tip: screenshot your crush’s results so you can strategically share their top songs on your Instagram Stories over the course of the next couple of weeks. Thank me later). Every year Spotify puts on a masterclass in feel-good data analytics and for that, I thank them. What would make it better is if Spotify gave you the option to export all of your data into excel. I would surely spend a healthy amount of time analyzing the 349 genres of music and 473 unique artists that I listened to in excruciating detail. It would give me a hit of serotonin I haven’t felt in YEARS.
It is no secret that Spotify collects and sells your data to advertisers. I always laugh at the thought of some 21-year-old marketing intern printing out all my information, knocking on his/her boss’s door, timidly hand it to them and watch them try to figure out how to advertise for me. “Okay, this person’s top five artists are Dua Lipa, ABBA, Calvin Harris, Britney Spears, and Ariana Grande. This is easy, we are clearly dealing with a twenty-something girl. Just advertise leggings and oversized T-shirts.” And then the intern has to nervously correct their boss by saying that I am a 26-year-old straight man. Despite how much I love making Corporate America and data-analytic firms squirm, I am going to do them a favor and help make sense of the smorgasbord that is my Spotify data.
I want to address the elephant in the room right here and now; I have said this in year’s past but it is worth repeating. I do NOT have the music tastes of a 14-year-old-girl. 14-year old’s are the dumbest people on earth. No 14-year old is listening to ABBA, most only know Britney Spears as the crazy lady from Instagram, and to them, Calvin Harris is merely a guy who broke up with Taylor Swift. Their taste in music is stupid. They are stupid. A 14-year-old WISHES they tuned into the music I listen to. Is my preference in music a little feminine? No doubt, I will not argue that, however, I am not going to just sit here and have it compared to what the kids who were born when Shrek 3 came out, are listening to.
The genres of music you listen to say a lot about you. All this says about me is that I love up-tempo music. It doesn’t matter if the song is rap, metal, rock, or pop, if it is up tempo, I have an appetite for it. Pop music is predominantly up tempo, so I listen to it more than other genres, sue me. However, the graph is pretty funny, I still don’t know the difference between Dance Pop and Pop, but whatever, I will continue to enjoy both.
After a two year reign at the top of the mountain, One Kiss could not pull off the three-peat and instead falls to number 11 this year. Its run at the top was stuff of legends; I single-handily willed that song to get over the one-billion stream mark on Spotify.
But unfortunately it is time for One Kiss to hand the crown back to the very song it supplanted. I hope the transition of power is a Smooth one. Here is a list of my most played Spotify song over the past four years:
2020: Smooth by Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas
2019: One Kiss by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa
2018: One Kiss by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa
2017: Smooth by Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas
That is a good looking song-sandwich if I say so myself. I really like the fact that I have only had two top-songs in four years because it means if you nab the top spot, you are joining an exclusive club. This isn’t the NBA Hall of Fame where everyone who dribbled a basketball gets in, you have to be a FORCE to join these ranks. I consider my music taste elite, so it only makes sense that the Vinnie Barone’s Most Played Song Club is elite too. (Now taking name suggestions for this club). I am only going to briefly touch on the fact that ABBA has three of my top 5 because last month I wrote 2300 words about the group and how much I love them. ABBA Gold was on repeat throughout the year- nine songs from the album appear in my Top 100 Most Played Songs Playlist. However, despite all the ABBA I consumed this year, they couldn’t reign supreme in a year that Dua Lipa gave me an absolute MASTERPIECE of an album. I have achieved a lot of great things in my life, however, being in the top 1% of listeners of Dua Lipa in a year is one of the better things (I live a sad, sad life).
So that about wraps up another successful year of listening to music. I think I will do it again sometime.
If you want to playlist of all 100 of my songs, here you go.
Vin'sane Thoughts 