Just as the Christmas treats are placed on the discount store shelves months before the festival every year, you are also bothered with annual reviews far too early. It’s already November. December is simply accepted as the rest of the year. So now it’s Spotify Wrapped’s turn. The painfully personal look back at your own streaming behavior.
Spotify remembers how many hours were spent listening to music, which musicians, albums and songs and of course podcasts were listened to the most. One person only looks at it briefly and looks down sheepishly (fathers and mothers know what is meant), the other immediately presses the share button to proudly present to the world that he has tested an irresistibly individual melange of genres (Pirate Metal, Vaporwave).
Taylor Swift, rap and then nothing for a long time
Applause is not really expected unless Depeche Mode fans congratulate Depeche Mode fans on listening to so much Depeche Mode this year. Of course, there remains the distinction that can be found everywhere. Proof of belonging to the right bubble. Sponge over it, that’s just how we are today.
Of course, it’s a little scary to see what Germany and the world are hearing. Spoiler: What you would recommend or believe you should recommend to young people is guaranteed not to be touched with a pair of pliers. Sure, Taylor Swift is everywhere, including the usual suspects Drake, Bad Bunny and Lana Del Rey. Although the thing about the tranquilizing heavy-blooded woman is spectacular. Their new album is called “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd”, sounds exactly like it, has a running time of almost 80 minutes and almost has a cover that’s a little too exciting. Someone say again that people can no longer concentrate!
The most successful German acts don’t need much introspection. Apache 207 has long since become a feature article; Taylor Swift is heard everywhere, just as Coca Cola is available to drink around the world. A young musician of Turkish origin from Recklinghausen is heard particularly often: Elif Akar. Do not you know? That’s perhaps because she mainly goes by the name Ayliva – and thanks to a clever marketing strategy, she’s featured twice in the list of the ten most streamed albums this year (“Black Heart”/”White Heart”).
You can rely on Udo Lindenberg
Purists at least console themselves with the fact that Udo Lindenberg still knows how to work together with the right people to stay on top (“Komet”, with Apache 207, number one of the most streamed songs in Germany) and that modern-day hippie Miley Cyrus keeps the creepy “Friesenjung” update at a distance with her wonderful “Flowers” song.
The big hit on Spotify this year, however, may be that there are finally avatars for your own listening behavior. Tenor: You are a hero – and we have this name for you. The author of these lines can now call himself a “hypnotist” for a year. Not because he heard so much, but because, as the explanation goes, he did it with concentration. So I listened to albums from start to finish. This used to be normal, now it is a spiritual act. How beautiful! By the way, other hero names include “cyclops”, “mastermind” or “vampire”.
After all, Spotify proves to us that listening to music can still be a deeply individual and collectively shared experience in 2023. Even if you don’t necessarily need an annual review. At least not at the end of November. But now we also know why Peter Gabriel distributed almost all of the songs from his new album “i/o” lunarly early throughout the year. Because the record will be released on December 1st, it is simply too late for Spotify.