Hello again. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something on this blog, which is probably my fault because it’s been quite the first semester of college, and adjusting to something like that is not easy, I don’t think, especially amidst a pandemic. I am extremely fortunate to be on campus, but I know it’s not the same, not that I had anything to compare it to, though. I’m going to make a whole separate post about my first semester and my thoughts, feelings, and whatever else happened and reflecting on it. But for now, I wanted to do something a little more lighthearted as I’m about to go into finals week to take my mind off of the studying that I have ahead of me. And that fun thing will be unwrapping my 2020 Spotify Wrapped playlist.
I know people have a lot of mixed feelings about Spotify Wrapped, mostly because everyone just posts it on their Instagram stories and then people get annoyed that you’re showing off your music from the year. But at the same time, I think it’s really fun, and I like seeing what people are listening to and I like sharing the music I listen to his well. Even throughout the year, I’d post songs that I’m into at the moment to my story because I just feel like it, so there’s nothing wrong with the Spotify Wrapped. It’s really interesting to see what your top songs are, your top artists, podcasts, and what not.
I am also voice typing this blog post, and it is the oddest experience because they don’t pick up the end of the sentences where you need a period unless you say the word period. So, I’ll definitely have to go back read through and add all of the punctuation and paragraph breaks because that’s just awkward to say when you’re trying to have a free-flowing type of post for the day. Though I will say it’s actually pretty good at picking up what I’m saying so that’s nice.
Let’s start with my top podcasts of the year. This year, I definitely listened to a lot more podcasts than I have before. Part of it is just that I’m walking a lot more, and I find it more relaxing to listen to a podcast when I’m walking around than it is to listen to music. Listening to music has primarily been reserved for doing work or just hanging out in my dorm but listening to a podcast while I’m walking to class or walking around town just makes it go a lot faster.
According to my Spotify Wrapped, I spent 2,324 minutes listening to podcasts this year. My top podcast was “We Bought a House” by Claudia Sulewski and Finneas. They started this podcast back in March when quarantine started, and I only started listening to the podcast maybe a month or two ago, but I have been hooked! I love a good lifestyle podcast and I love Claudia Sulewski’s YouTube videos, so it just made sense. My other top podcasts were “Pretty Basic” with Alisha Marie and Remi Cruz, “Up First” by NPR, “Unsolicited Advice” with Ashley and Taryn and “Freakonomics Radio” with Stephen Dubner. I also enjoyed the “Asian Not Asian” podcast by Fumi Abe and Mic Nguyen this year, but it just wasn’t on the list.
Most of those are lifestyle podcasts, but I will say that “Up First” has been extremely helpful for me this semester. I would listen as I’m walking to class and can usually listen to an entire episode before I get there. The episodes are usually 10 to 15 minutes long of a quick rundown of the most important news of the day. I find it a lot easier to digest when I don’t have time to read through a bunch of articles in The New York Times or The Boston Globe all the time.
Moving on to my top genres of the year, they were Pop, Show Tunes, Modern Rock, Rap, and Indie Pop. Pop has always been on the top of my Spotify Wrapped ever since they started doing it just because I do listen to a lot of pop music and Top 100. I understand why showtunes is also my number two because I love musical theatre songs. I have been listening to Hamilton for years since the studio recording came out in 2016, and of course, that listening increased so much this year because the movie came out on Disney Plus, which I loved. I don’t live near New York City and could not afford a ticket when the show was on tour, so I couldn’t go see them in real life, so that’s the closest I’ll ever get to ever seeing a show on Broadway right now. I think the modern rock and indie pop have always been other genres that I listen to a great deal. The one that did surprise me this year was having rap on my top five. I’m usually not one that listens to rap music much just because I find that a lot of it I don’t relate too, I guess, but I had listened to a lot of rap this year mostly because they were songs I heard on TikTok and I thought they sounded cool.
Next are my top songs of the year. I love that Spotify puts together a Top 100 because I find that it shows what exactly you were listening to this year. And yet again, I noticed when I was reading through my Top 100 that there are a lot more TikTok songs than I thought, even though I don’t have the app and I just watch them on Instagram. When you hear the audios, sometimes it’s just a good song, so I have a lot of those, and one of them even showed up in my top five songs.
My top five songs going from five to one were “Kindergarten” by chloe moriondo, “SUGAR” by BROCKHAMPTON, “Run Away” by Ben Platt, “Ghost Adventures Spirit Orb” by chloe moriondo, and “Sweet Tooth” by Cavetown. I love the song “Sweet Tooth” so much; it is absolutely amazing. One thing I don’t understand about the Spotify Wrapped is that in years past even your top artist does not show up in your top five songs, so I wonder how they get to the top artists of your list.
On that note, my top artists this year were Taylor Swift (no surprise there, honestly. I listened to so much Taylor Swift this year because of the release of folklore). My other top artists were Cavetown at number two, Halsey, Ariana Grande, and Melanie Martinez. I also saw Taylor Swift on many other Spotify Wrapped which I will still attribute to how much folklore was so good this year and yet again a Disney Plus special that really put the album over the top. I loved hearing those new acoustic studio versions as well.
Those were my main Spotify Wrapped categories. Again, I still love the concept of Spotify Wrapped. I think it’s so cool to see what music you’re listening to throughout year including how many minutes you listened to. By the way, I listened to 42,984 minutes this year.
Hopefully, you can take something away from this post, whether it be a new song or artist recommendation or just some appreciation for the Spotify Wrapped in general.
Thank you so much for reading, and I will hopefully be writing posts more frequently now that the semester is ending and I have winter break to do things.
Thanks again and stay safe.
Until next time,
Madison
Don't Make Lies 