Yesterday Spotify wrapped came out. I love this time of year. I love seeing everything I’ve been listening to over the course of a year. I love seeing what and how everyone consumes music. Music is so important to me and changes so much over the course of my moods, my schedules, my activities, my environment, and the people I’m surrounded by. I have to say my top songs of the year are all so good (of course, because it’s my music).
I’m never the person that listens to music morning to night every day. I usually listen to music if I’m just hanging around home, in the car, taking a shower, or walking somewhere. I love Spotify as an app because it’s so good at helping me to explore and discover new music. I usually start each week with my Discover Weekly to see what’s new generally in line with my music tastes. I usually get inspired from a TV show, a radio station, a song played in a restaurant, an artist’s name somebody mentions, a vibe, somebody sending me music, an instrument, or a whole genre. Then I go from there and listen to an album, a genre, a mix, somebody else’s playlist. My friends will send me music I can use to keep exploring in new directions. I’m always more interested in discovering music than coming back to the same artists or albums over and over. Don’t get me wrong, I do come back to the same few albums when it comes to long car rides or plane rides. They’re downloaded on my phone, so it’s easy. The three albums that showed up in full on my top songs this year were: Frank, by Amy Winehouse, MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, by Lauryn Hill, and Deja Vu, by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young.
I spent the summer showing my boyfriend Amy Winehouse, as he had never really listened before, and Frank is one of my favorite albums of all time. Amy Winehouse is one of the top five artists I would love to meet (dead or alive). She was my top artist this year, not only from showing my boyfriend her discography, but also because I had found her live album and listened to that a lot on the spring.
Deja Vu was an album I had never heard before. The only song I recognized was Our House. I visited my dad over the summer and looked through his large record collection. He connected his sound system and told me to pick an album. I had heard my mom talking about Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young when I was younger. I’ve listened to a good amount of their music over the years, including all of the iterations of the group. Seeing this beautiful album cover in an almost leather material, he put it on. After the instrumental part of Carry On came on, I was hooked on the album the entire summer. I played it on every car ride I went on. Every plane ride, every train ride. I played it for my boyfriend, I sent it to my friends. It is a beautiful album.
Lauryn Hill’s live album is my all-time favorite album. Whenever I don’t know what I want to listen to, have a long journey ahead, am in the ceramics studio, or just at home reading, cooking, or whatever else, I always come back to this album. The music is amazing. The interludes are holy. The raw quality of her voice is beautiful. Her mistakes, her intonation, her guitar, her laughs. The whole album is gold. Listening to this album from top to bottom is truly a spiritual experience, and I really don’t get that feeling often. I highly recommend taking time to go through this album, not once, not twice, but over and over again to catch all of its nuances.
For the 36,613 minutes of music I listened to, I listened to 3,198 artists and 6,590 titles. Which, I think is so cool. Finding new bands, old bands, small artists, big artists, is eye-opening. Finding new music or artists you like or even don’t like is just reaching out to so many pieces of culture, other people’s favorite bands, songs, artists, and music.
I’ve been re-listening to all of my top songs since it came out, and I am so happy with the music I’ve been consuming all year. I can sing along, I can dance along. I have music for all the activities I want to do. This year I would say the genre I don’t typically listen to that came in strong was just old classic rock/pop. Cass Elliot, Labi Siffre, Jim Croce, Bonnie Raitt, George Harrison, Wings, Fleetwood Mac, Willie Nelson, and of course Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were all new artists that I’ve listened to over time. I even recently went to a Willie Nelson concert. But this entire genre of my parents generation of music was not something I regularly listened to before. I’m so happy that this was a whole new genre and area of music production that came into the year.
Some of the artists that didn’t show up at all on my Spotify wrapped were Mac Miller, Ariana Grande, the Beatles, Beck, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Funkadelic, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose discographies I explored throughout the year. With Mac Miller’s new album coming out, I re-listened to his entire discography including a lot of unreleased music as well. I’ve just now come back to Ariana Grande’s music which before 2018, I loved so much. Neither of them were in my top songs or on my artists lists. Then again I only started listening to their music this year in the last month or so.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with music lately being out of the country. I’m not hearing that much music in public, and I’m not surrounded by any parties, bars, people, etc. to sort of inspire any listening. But it’s really fun to just be exploring albums and artists on my own. No genres or moods are off limits right now, and that’s such a fun way to go about listening. I have a few friends I exchange music with from across the ocean, which does give me ideas. Other than that, the listening comes down to whatever is new, whatever is old, whatever Spotify tells me I might like. I’ve been having so much fun with music, especially having so much time to listen throughout my day-to-day. I’m excited to start yet another year out of the country and see how that continues to influence my listening.