With the start of December comes winter frost, holiday music, and the reminder that platforms like Spotify are tracking our every click. Spotify Wrapped—the music service’s end-of-year program which lets listeners know their listening habits—can bring about mixed feelings, as fans either take to Twitter to brag about their good taste in rising stars or choose to stay silent, worrying they will be mocked for how many hours they spent listening to showtunes. At the conclusion of a year in which many have turned to music for comfort and company, The Argus Editorial Board wanted to give our readers a window into what we’ve had on repeat. And as a parting gift from the semester, we compiled our favorites into a playlist for you!
Daniel Knopf, Opinion Editor
My top song was “Watermelon Sugar,” which I highly approve of! This is the first year there has been no musical theater in my top artists or songs, so I have regained a bit of pride and dignity! I also listened to 125 hours of podcasts by the McElroy brothers.
Hannah Docter-Loeb, Features Editor
I was pretty content with my Spotify Wrapped (top song “New Light” by John Mayer) and mostly just grateful that Glee Cast didn’t make an appearance this year. I was, however, surprised that none of the TikTok songs made it on the list, considering how much I streamed them in the spring.
Sara McCrea, Arts and Culture Editor
I was in the top 0.1 percentile of Phoebe Bridgers’ listeners this year, an accolade which makes me both proud and concerned for my mental state. I have a lot of feelings about “Punisher,” Bridgers’ Grammy-nominated second album, many of which you can read about in the Argus. Fiona Apple released another one of my favorite albums of the year, but I apparently listened to Taylor Swift’s “folklore” more. My insomnia cure of meditation music specifically at 528hz (the healing frequency) was also present on my top songs playlist. Woohoo, 2020.
Drew Kushnir, Sports Editor
My top song was “The Box” by Roddy Rich, which is an objectively incredible song that just so happens to match up perfectly with the final dance from High School Musical. Apparently, I discovered it on Jan. 15, peaked in streams on Jan. 16, and had my 50th stream a few weeks later. Tough.
I’m going to save myself the embarrassment by not releasing my top five artists list. If you want a good approximation, though, you could probably get one by asking your twelve year-old cousin who his five favorite rappers are.
Sophie Griffin, Assistant Features Editor
27+ hours of Phoebe Bridgers. Oof.
Olivia Ramseur, Assistant Features Editor
Somehow in the top 0.05 percent of Noname listeners because she was all that I listened to from February to May. After that was Frank Ocean, Flo Milli, Mitski, and the Glee Cast… it’s been a rough year. I wish that Spotify told you the album you listened to the most, because I know it would be Billy Joel’s “The Stranger,” which I listened to a lot in September and October.
Emma Smith, Features Editor
My top artist was Tobi Lou, and my top song was his track “I Was Sad Last Night I’m OK Now” which seems extremely applicable to this year. I am mildly ashamed to report that the Hamilton Cast also made its way onto my top 5 artists for this year. I just discovered Hamilton in July, which is a little embarrassing.
John Vernaglia, Sports Editor
Most notable in my Spotify Wrapped was that I shamefully consumed 27 thousand hours of my favorite podcast, Felger and Mazz. Hozier was my top artist and my favorite song was “Lake Shore Drive” by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah. Hippie Sabotage also had multiple songs on my top five list!
Annika Shiffer-Delegard, Assistant Features Editor
While I was first surprised by the fact that Phoebe Bridgers’ “Motion Sickness” was my top song (played only a pathetic 72 times !!!), something even more surprising was the fact that I listened to 3,000+ minutes of Lana del Rey. I guess it’s not surprising. I guess I really like sad white women music.
Serena Chow, Editor-in-Chief
My Spotify wrapped is always so skewed because I listen to the same song on loop when I sleep, inevitably making “Tenenbaum” by the Paper Kites my top song of 2020. With that detail now public and out of the way, my top artists were Hozier, Sufjan Stevens, The Lumineers, and like 80 percent of our editorial staff, Phoebe Bridgers. Nothing too surprising there… but I am surprised that “Me & My Dog” by boygenius didn’t come up in my results, given that that’s all I’ve really been listening to for the past month or so.
Annie Roach, Assistant Sports Editor
My top artists this year were King Princess and Khalid, two artists that I looped on repeat, particularly at the beginning of 2020. I’m not ashamed to admit that my top song was “P*ssy is God.” The biggest surprise in my Spotify Wrapped was that Mac Miller did not make the list, as I consider his music to have pretty much gotten me through most of this year.
Magda Kisielinska, Production Manager
Spotify really believes it is not the obstacles you encounter, but how you overcome them that defines you. And how did I conquer March? “3 Pieces in Baroque Style: No.1.Aria,” which I have, impressively, streamed 328 times, peaking only 2 days after I began listening to the song. Is the algorithm wrong? Was this year too much of an outlier? Maybe. I do commit to songs for a week at a time, but I refuse to have any part of March 2020 define me, or my music taste, for that matter.
Claire Isenegger, Editor-in-Chief
Everyone who knows me unfortunately knows that I only listen to two kinds of music: 70s dad music and songs I have discovered on TikTok. My Spotify Wrapped clearly reflects this. My top song of the year was “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac and my top artist was also Fleetwood Mac. However, the most embarrassing song on my list was definitely “The Box” by Roddy Ricch (a song I did indeed discover on TikTok) which always reminds me of the last time I was in Canoe Club back in February.
Oliver Cope, Assistant News Editor
Spotify really had to expose me this year, but not as much as The Argus is exposing me now. So as it turns out, my song of the year was “Covergirl” by RuPaul because apparently I have no taste. Before you judge, note that the song does hit on a casual summer walk or if you want an aggressive confidence boost, so there’s that. Surprisingly, my song of the year was not “Into You” by Ariana Grande, an artist who is still underrated (prove me wrong). If anyone was wondering, yes Maggie Rogers and Sammy Rae were two of my artists of the year which I am very much proud of.
Eleanor Raab, Head Copy Editor
Spotify really needs to learn how to deal with people who listen to one song on repeat to do a task, because my song of the year was “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by the Fleet Foxes, which got my through a really tough essay this year. I did the math, and I listened to 14 hours of that song this year. So I guess I spent about 14 hours on that essay! Very unsurprising to anyone who knows me, but my artist of the year was Phoebe Bridgers. How would I have gotten through the semester without my daily listen through of Punisher? I apparently wasn’t quite as big of a Phoebe fan as Sara however, as I only made it into her top 0.5 percent of listeners.
Shihyun Lee, Assistant Arts and Culture Editor
Although I’ve never really been a huge fan of British music, I’ve not too surprised to see “Sangria” by Easy Life and Arlo Parks as my most played song of 2020. There’s just something about a cheesy love duet being sung in a British accent that comforts me in so many ways, and it’s a bop that helped me get through the mess that was 2020. I’m also weirdly surprised that Kanye West was my top artist of the year, given how I didn’t really listen to much of his songs this year. But, I guess that’s what happens when you fall asleep to 808s & Heartbreak on a 13 hour plane ride.
Oscar Bauman, Staff Writer
My top artist of the year was All Time Low, and four of my top five tracks were from their new album, “Wake Up Sunshine,” which makes sense as that album, which came out in early April, was one of the few comforts to be found this spring. I also listened to a lot of My Chemical Romance as I mourned the cancellation of their reunion tour. As a whole, my Wrapped is very skewed towards music I listened to between March and June, as my home of New York City was locked down, leaving me with little much else to do but listen to music. I’d also like an explanation from whoever comes up with the genres over at Spotify. Every year, my top genre is “Modern Rock,” and I still have no idea what that really means.