Everyone should share their Spotify Wrapped

 I think everybody should share their Spotify wrapped (and apple replay).

I’m an avid music listener, with my time spent listening to music on Spotify alone averaging 75,000 minutes each year, I feel like my top songs playlist serves as the soundtrack to my life.

Due to the popularity of these end-of-year summaries, the data these streaming services track has become very comprehensive, including the number of times you’ve listened to your top song, the different genres you’ve explored, and what months you’ve listened to your top artist the most.

While on the surface this may not seem deep, to me, each report reads like an unconscious mapping of the human condition in the form of a playlist.

Whether your top song was background noise to multiple study sessions, an essential motivator keeping you consistent with the gym, or a sad tune that begged for a cathartic release of tears, music gives us the ability adjust our mood with the press of a button.

Often referred to as the “language of emotion,” music allows us to reconcile with the emotions we’ve put off feeling, it lends dignity to our struggles, making sense of the complexities of life not with logic and reasoning, but with comfort and hope.

Seeing that I make no conscious effort to filter what gets put on the playlist, it’s filled with songs that made the list for a reason. Depending on what song I chose to play from my yearly rewind, I’m brought back in time to the moment where I couldn’t get enough of what I was listening to.

These are songs that keep intact the emotional salience that frames fond memories in ways that other forms of media like spoken word and photos never could.

I’m always excited to see what music my friends spend their time listening to. Despite some attempts at artificially curating the playlists, it’s mostly an authentic view into their psyche, what they chose to listen to on the way to class, on a late-night drive, or on a calm night in.

That being said, I never understood how some people could be annoyed by seeing everybody post their end-of-year reports.

It doesn’t hurt anyone, and it arguably gives us a rare chance to see what we have in common with our peers rather than what divides us.

The excitement people get to post their wrapped when they feel it truly represents them is endearing. While some may view posting it as a shallow attempt to construct an identity that sets them apart from the majority, I see it as an unconscious effort to be understood and find community, something we all long for.

With the release of Spotify wrapped each year and the subsequent social phenomenon of posting your end-of-year playlist to social media, this presents an infrequent opportunity to relate to a total stranger.

The chance to have a conversation with someone you’ve never talked to about something as meaningful as their taste in music is something we should not take for granted.

Because of that, I think everybody should post their Spotify wrapped (and apple replay).