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Earlier this week, New Yorkers writer Amanda Petrusich wrote a paragraph on her favorite 2021 albums. The selections are tasteful and thoughtful, but it’s the way they’re presented that stands out. Over the past year, Petrusich notes, she will appreciate “separating the idea of listening from the purpose of consuming so-called music… I find myself drawn to albums that have an element of freedom, tenderness, and freedom. — music that feels real of the world and not like a meditative reflection of it. “My feeling is she’s not the only one.
This idea largely comes from the fact that this week also has the launch of 2021 Spotify Wrapped. The annual release of the tool, which allows Spotify users to get analytics on their most played music, has become something of an internet holy day or, a tweeter put it, “Both a Gay’s Christmas and the Met Gala on Twitter.” Then a self-reported way of, posting a screenshot of your Spotify Wrapped, became a way to call out both general music obsession and #moodNS. (Have you heard a lot of Taylor Swift? You’re not alone.)
As in previous years, Spotify’s data release includes a list of the most streamed artists globally; and like previous years, the data for 2021 is full of Bad Bunny and Drake. Unlike previous years, or at least the years before 2020, the result also offers a sometimes haunting, sometimes hilarious look into the collective psyche.
On the fun side, we have tweets like this, pointing to someone’s excessively mentioned Spotify Wrapped comment sea chantey listening session was “disappointing.” On the haunting side, there were even more tweets pointing out how much sad music people have been playing over the past year. Sure, maybe people — obviously — listen to a lot of Justin Beiber and Doja Cat, but they’re also listening to scores of maudlin emo and other moody songs. Author Emery Lord writes: “You can hide your emotional state from friends, therapists, even yourself. “But you can’t hide from Spotify.” Musician Dodie tweeted, “Spotify Wrapped [you] the boys are gay/sad. “Other users put it out clearer: “I love Spotify Wrapped because I remember how depressed I was from January to October.”
For others (for example, a handful of people in my group chat and Slack at work), Wrapped is just a reflection of how deeply interested certain niches are — show tunes, Tenacious D, something curiously identified as “Midwest emo” —ran in 2021. In In many ways, as Petrusich points out in his work, music consumption has changed over the past two years. via. People are listening more but discovering less. It’s easy to stick with the familiar, or to put it in Depeche Mode, just enjoy the silence. It didn’t take long for listeners to immerse themselves in the ocean hymns in 2021 because there weren’t any new pop, rock, or hip-hop songs to consume — they did it because it was their joy. comforting, a moment of synchronicity from fellow companions when booking adrift.
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