That’s a Wrap

It’s December.  That time of year.  Nope. Not Santa nor Baby Jesus nor Reindeer nor Christmas Trees nor Presents nor Hannukah.  Though of course it is that, too.

I am talking about the year-end Spotify Wrap Up. 

Forget mindfulness practice, yoga, and/or meditation.  For instant self-awareness, all you need is your Spotify Wrap Up.

That little algorithm which compiles all your listening data for the past year and then serves it up to you in fun, bite-sized nuggets that tells you everything you need to know about yourself.

What insights can be gleaned on this voyage of self-discovery?

It starts with the basics.

There’s listening time.  How many of the past 525,600 minutes did you spend listening to music on Spotify?  3,656 minutes in my case.

And because the other thing about the Spotify wrap up is that it is not just about your own self-discovery, but sharing it with others and then comparing your results with others to divine yet even more insights.

So, in Ernie’ case? 31,932 minutes. 

On the obvious level, this says that Ernie listens to a lot more music than me. 

But what about that deeper level which this Wrap Up is all about or tries to be all about? What does it say about a person who devotes so much time to listening to music and someone who doesn’t?  Is one cooler than the other? Is one more desirable than the other? Which one is which and why? 

Deep questions to ponder here. 

One clue as to what significance this nugget about listening time may have, which you would never get from this algorithm, is that when we are listening to music together, we almost always use Ernie’s phone. 

So, beware the pitfalls of drawing wrong conclusions based on insufficient data.

Moving on. The next category in the basics is your top 5 Genres.  Ok, roll up your sleeves, because this is where the deep recesses of our psyches may be able to be plumbed.

Mine? I learned I listened to 120 genres, and that my top 5 are: Classic Rock, Alternative Pop, Americana, Musicals, and Folk Rock.  I think to myself, well, that’s not too shabby.  That’s a nice, eclectic mix. I feel kind of cool and classic. 120 genres shows a willingness to broaden my musical horizons, I think.

Ernie’s? He listened to 176 genres and his top 5 are: Jam Band, Gothic Country, Swamp Rock, Outlaw Country, and Oldies.

What the what? This is my first clue that I don’t really know my husband.  And we’ve been married for 39 and a half years.  It’s also a clue that I don’t know what the hell  Gothic Country, Swamp Rock, and Outlaw Country are. Are these made up categories? Do the Grammy’s hand out awards in these categories?

Gothic Country? What is that? Wednesday Adams meets Dolly Parton? 

I can guess at Outlaw Country.  I am guessing Willie Nelson. 

I can’t even guess at Swamp Rock. 

All I know, if you ask me what Ernie’s favorite music is, I’d tell you that it is The Grateful Dead.  Neil Young is a close second. The Rolling Stones are in the mix. 

What I can tell you is that Ernie discovered Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies and Billy Strings this year.  That has clearly skewed his algorithm. 

I think Spotify is missing an opportunity with their Wrap Up here.  They need to do a trend analysis and compare year over year results. Have you changed? How have you changed? This can then lead to a deeper self-analysis where you can ask yourself, why have I changed?

My favorite top 5 genres list is my son-in-law’s.  He and our daughter had a baby 14 months ago.  His number one genre?  Lullabies.  See what we can learn about people? I knew he was a great dad, but that right there proves it. 

And he clearly isn’t concerned that all that lullaby listening is skewing his algorithm.  Unlike my daughter, who when she was here once and I had asked her to play one of my artists on her iPhone, politely declined saying she didn’t want it to mess up her algorithm. 

The shocker for us was our son’s top 5 genres.  His are: EDM, J-Pop, Soundtrack, Metal, and Rap.  Who is this young man? Do I even know him?

I have heard of K-Pop. Basically, my knowledge of it is that it is Pop music from Korea and that there is one band in particular that is very popular.  I know the band’s name is comprised of some letters.  I want to say BLT, but that is a sandwich, so pretty sure that’s not it. I think BTS? But that stand for Back to School for me, so again, not really sure.   

Knowing that K-Pop is music from Korea, I deduced that J-Pop is music from Japan. But what are the differences beside country of origin? That led to a google search to learn more about that. 

Clearly, Ernie’s and my musical influences went nowhere with him.  Also nowhere with our daughter whose top 5 are Indie Pop, Alternative Rock, Art Pop, New Wave, and Alternative R&B.

We are a musically misfit family it appears.

The other basic categories are top 5 artists. And top 5 songs.  But let’s skip that to get to the really enlightening categories that are new this year.

Spotify astounded us all this year by adding our musical age to the Wrap Up. 

I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that my musical age is 78.  What? How can this be? 78? My actual age is 62. And while I hope to be not only 78, but 98 some day, I’d like to take my time getting there.

I am initially confused by this though because Arlo Parks is my number one artist. She’s young and cool.  But then I realized that Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, and Madonna are driving that age up.

I don’t know how I feel about this.  What is this saying about me? I am not as musically with it as I should be? Am I missing out on all kinds of new music? Time to get out of my classic rock rut? On the other hand, maybe it could say that I am vintage cool, that I have solid rock roots, and isn’t that cool? It’s all in the interpretation I suppose. 

And how we choose to interpret it is yet another level of insight into our psyches.

If I fell off my chair at my musical age, I fell off my chair and rolled out the door upon hearing Ernie’s.  22.  His top artist is Dead & Company.  The Grateful Dead, Sturgill Simpson, Johnny Blue Skies, and Billy Strings rounds his out.  We are not certain how these 5 comprise a listening age of 22. 

But suddenly, I am seeing some cracks in the marriage compatibility department.  First of all, we’ve got a May-December relationship going on.  My 78 to his 22.  I am practically robbing the cradle here.  Our genres aren’t even close.  We share not a one.  This might be cause for a re-evaluation of things and perhaps some marriage counseling.

Even more astounding was the listening age of our daughter at 66 and our son-in-law at 76.  I am not sure how they feel about having aged out of the millennial cohort and into the boomer one. 

Another new category this year on the Spotify Wrap Up is the Listening Club.  This seems to be some kind of compilation that rolls up all of our listening behaviors into an overarching category.   

The Six Listening Clubs:

Club Serotonin: For optimistic, mood-boosting, energetic music fans.

Cloud State Society: For listeners who prefer peaceful, dreamy, atmospheric music.

Cosmic Stereo Club: For those into otherworldly, psychedelic, or creatively abstract sounds.

Full Charge Crew: For party-lovers and high-energy music enthusiasts.

Grit Collective: For fans of edgy, intense, and powerful music that pushes through challenges (think gym or workout music).

Soft Hearts Club: For listeners who connect deeply with emotional, vulnerable, or comforting music.

I landed in the Cosmic Stereo Club. Based on the above description, I believe that Spotify made a mistake.  Nothing in my top 5 genres, artists, or songs would suggest my fitting into this club. It’s a new feature so maybe they have some kinks to work out still.

Adding to my confusion is this description of the club from the Spotify Wrap Up:

 “Your club traverses terrestrial barriers with music.  Clubhouse seating is entirely bean bags.”  What? If I hadn’t read the AI Google overview description this would not seem very clear. And, bean bags? Ok, well, aren’t the 70’s cool now? Isn’t Retro au courant? Does this make me cool? Or ancient?

Ernie is also in the Cosmic Stereo Club. Based on his top 5’s this makes sense to me. I would celebrate that we at least have finally found some alignment.  However, as noted above, I think I was erroneously assigned to that Club.  Kind of like if the Sorting Hat had put Harry Potter into Hufflepuff instead of Gryffindor.  Big mistake.

And even though Ernie and I have landed into the same club, Ernie is a Leader. His description: “Your listening is strongly aligned with club values, making you a perfect role model.”

I, however, am only designated as a loyalist.  My description:  “You rarely skip tracks, confirming your unwavering dedication to the club.”

Some of the other roles are Scout, Curator, Collector, Archivist, Supporter, Broadcaster, Specialist and Recruiter.

So, wrapping it up here (pun intended), what we have is a clever company who has figured out how to tap into that drive we all seem to have to understand and discover more about ourselves. Our willingness to engage and share this information with others clearly demonstrates that they have tapped into something visceral. 

What is it that Socrates said? “The unexamined life is not worth living?”

Well, Spotify has that covered for you.