Yo this speaks perfectly to this weird lil anxiety that I get around this stuff. Like if you're learning a song on guitar or something you need to pause and reverse it a thousand times, and if you're listening on Tidal all you can think is "oh no, what am I doing to my algorithm?" Makes you do a thunk about all the subtle pernicious ways capitalism is making us all a little more needlessly stressed out for no good reason. AVAA!
man absolutely. the spotify wrapped is in my head all year around and for what? i barely care or think about my 2024 wrapped couple days after its release but all year long i was like "i need to stream this song more so it will show up in my top 5"... this society is broken lol
Just try not to care too much about it. As long as you like the music you're listening to at the moment, you're good and you'll discover new things. Spotify Wrapped is kind of a fun thing for me that I stop thinking about the day after.
yeah!! my top song this year was one i learnt on bass. my taste was heavily influenced by that, i am gonna root around for songs that have interesting basslines and listen to them a lot as im learning lol
my top song was my own band's song (we got back together and I was relearning our songs on guitar). Spotify also has a cringe "AI podcast" feature that is 4 minutes of AI DJ's talking about your favorite music and they were talking about how incredible and diverse my band is and that they hope I get to see them perform live soon
9:27 spotify wrapped feels like an extension of (self) surveillance, desensitizing us to the feeling of being watched, evaluated, and judged in our private places in our private behaviors and then shaping our choices
Such a refreshing video to see during this week of annual Wrapped mania. Everything you said regarding statistics is incredibly relatable as someone who was obsessed with lastfm scrobbling back in high school. Even without the desire to display certain numbers as a badge I felt compelled to rigorously track every instance of listening I had for the sake of accuracy- a sense of fulfillment that I had knowing my "genre spread" and other meaningless reports. I used to feel anxious that I would eventually forget songs and albums that I felt meant the world to me at the time, and that I needed some external service to constantly remind me of their existence, lest I forget them. Nowadays I have a much healthier relationship with music being off of Spotify as well, and it still warms me to see my family members sharing their graphics and stories when we all visit for the holidays, but it doesn't fill me with the same sense of connection as when we share music with one another that we found otherwise and our non-numeric enjoyment of it. I've had the wonderful experience of losing touch with a song I love and getting to rediscover it again out in the wild. I have the privilege of getting to own the music I enjoy with the satisfaction of knowing I get to directly support the creator of that art, without gaslighting myself to the superfluous notion that my 0.003 cents actually contributes to the artist. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on "rating" sites such as Album of the Year and Rate Your Music, as I feel they foster a similar semi-adjacent avenue of unhealthy consumption of music as content. I find that they're great for archival and for asynchronous exploration/discovery of certain genres or regions, but the overt focus on more numbers and values has some undeniable effect on the way someone approaches an album for the first time. Edit: Oh yeah, here's my three for this year: Song: The Beatles- A Day in the Life (my wife and I's first dance) Album: Earl Sweatshirt- Voir Dire (soul healing music) Artist: Chappell Roan (can't get out of the car before listening to Good Luck Babe)
As an active RYM user, I really do love using the site as a tool for exploration. I think that's where its best purpose lies. However, I cannot deny that the numbers can play a role in my choice to listen to certain new-to-me artists or albums. That being said I feel like this site has connected me to music more than ever and I'm very grateful for its existence as a resource. I often find some really fascinating user reviews on there too, but the comment boxes tend to get distracted by pointless arguments. I think it's a site that has its upsides and its downsides for sure. On the idea of rating albums, I find it an interesting way of expressing my level of attachment to a record. Rating things has always been a fun activity for me and I don't try to approach it from an "objective" or "scientific" angle as that just seems silly to me. Back to the RYM album scores, I pay much more attention to the ratings my friends give on release pages since it gives me much more useful context to work off of. I understand their tastes a lot better than the RYM community's taste at large and it helps me see which type of person something appeals to so I might know which angle to approach it, along with gathering the other information the site gives me on it. Personally I've been loving my time with the site but YMMV as I believe it all depends on how you use it
I started using Album of the Year this year, and it's cool that it makes me think harder about what exactly I like and dislike about whatever I'm listening, but it also conditions me to assign a numeric rating to everything, so I quickly started avoiding it. I mostly use it to help me filter through my interests (there's just too much music to listen to).
i don't pay a lot of attention to the ratings (on the other hand, when an artist has a lot of music, the volume of ratings can sometimes indicate which projects are must-listens and which ones you can wait to check out later), but the huge and easy to navigate catalogue on RYM has created a practice in my life similar to how i love digging through crates at a record store. i look for beautiful cover art, names on the front or the back that i recognize, and sometimes a record just catches your eye. both processes aren't perfect though. i'm always nervous i'm missing my next favourite record, and just how the pricing at record stores will always be biased to a certain kind of taste and not just the wear and tear on the LP, RYM has a lot of gaps in their community. a lot of brilliant and popular records will be on that website with 0 reviews and just a handful of ratings! just like how you might find a great album in the $1 bin, you can't let that discourage you!
That's exactly why I stopped using lastfm for a while! I got so obsessed in an unhealthy way with linking my account to shazam to count when I listened to CDs...for what reason? I know what artists I connect with the most and I have much better conversations about music when I'm just sharing music with someone else as opposed to when I'm sharing data with someone.
"Flattening" is a good word for what algorithms have done to most people's listening habits. My dad is a big audiophile but not a super "critical listener," however he was always finding new music, challenging stuff, an array of genres. He used to listen to Aphex Twin, OutKast, Iggy Pop, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Motorhead, BT, lots of Brazilian music, just a huge eclectic mix of stuff that he clicked with in different moods and times. Over time he's become a huge proponent of the algorithms (Apple Music, in his case) and has pretty much surrendered to them. It's kind of sad now, when I go to his house the stereo is always on but I don't think anyone could name what's playing, it's sort of a smoothed over mix of Neo-Soul-ish stuff that is very unchallenging and palatable. You'll never be surprised or confronted by anything, it's just there, it sounds good enough on the nice stereo, whatever. And even if something that really IS impactful or good does somehow wind up on there, no one is really paying attention anyway. Just one small anecdotal example, but I just find it sad that the search for and connection with the actual creators and their intent has been supplanted by a more-or-less one-button solution that just keeps you happy enough.
@@lazhwardafsharzadaArt is experienced, not consumed. Imo, thats the thesis of this comment, this video, and rants I've gone on as well. Once art becomes a product for consumption it loses it's identity, and thus, loses the dialog it was trying to engage in.
@@casadastraphobia what? How can you experience art if you don't consume it? Lmao, that's like saying feel the music but don't listen to it lol. Because how else would you do with music? We listen to it, and by listening to it we are consuming it.
The whole point about "flattening" is fucking HUGE because I actively notice that about my listening habits these days. I used to scour music for hours finding new things, and now these days I have trouble venturing out of the small sphere that the Spotify algorithm has crafted for me. It fucking sucks. You made a ton of valid points in here that I also never really thought about or maybe have and never fully contextualized. Great video man
For me it's pretty fun to see what I've listened for the past year. I don't use any playlist from spotify that isn't mine. So, this year, it was a lot of Kendrick, Denzel Curry, Racionais MCs (Brazilian OG rap group) and other stuff that I like to listen. Usually I curate on my own, I search for artists to listen on other platforms, usually I like to find some hidden gems, and then I go to spotify to listen to that specific artist. When I tried to listen to spotify's playlists I regretted every single time.
I like the idea of a "Wrapped" as a concept, cause as a neurodivergent person it kinds of gives me perspective into the lives of people I know and even love and I guess it also encourages conversations about music, which I am always down to have. My only problem with it is that it promotes using Spotify, which as an artist I am very against. Personally I just scrobble all my stuff.
Same. I've been trying to rid myself of many algorithms (deleted Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Threads and Spotify in the recent years, although I also switched to Bluesky and RUclips Music), and Last(dot)fm is enough for me to scratch that itch.
What made me feel the most empty this Spotify wrapped was that all year I was thinking this is the greatest year for music I've lived through. Almost all my favourite artists dropped albums. We had the greatest rap battle in history and it felt like the culture in music is shifting in a positive direction. But when I got my wrapped it was just another year. 5 more artists. 5 more songs and it felt soo empty. You break down why so excellently Professor, this video was a great one! My top albums in 2024 to me felt like: Chromokopia - Tyler the Creator Charm - Clairo I Lay Down My Life For You - JPEGMAFIA Dark Times - Vince Staples The Drake Kendrick Beef (come on it's basically an album worth of songs anyway) Although I discovered Billy Woods this year and so listened to Maps maybe three hundred times.
My #2 song this year, Feather by Nujabes, I think I played on purpose maybe twice. It's just a song I'm not likely to skip, so spotify serves it to me often (it did this with DSCO by Sweet Trip for years). Spotify CONSTANTLY tries to push me the same few DOOM songs even tho I make a point to skip them every time, but it's because when he died I binged all his stuff for a couple of days. I suspect that dead artists/ended bands are especially attractive to the platform because they're basically cycling money around the industry without having to think about the artist at all. Spotify desperately wants me to listen to Nujabes or DOOM on there bc it's pure profit for them, and they know that if they keep rolling that dice I will end up hearing a pleasant song until it becomes unpleasant for me. Spotify has kinda consumed my life this year because I obsessively followed new releases and playlist manicured them, but I am fully aware of tons of music I missed or sidelined because I was so focused on this one modus of listening. It's a habit I'll break next year. Also, my wrapped was very dominated by early-year releases bc I was so focused on current year, but that kept meaning more and more albums as the year went on. The only artist I leaned in on hard enough to statistically overpower that effect was Doechii. Spoify doesn't even HAVE bbldrizzy, or 6:16 in LA, or most of the catalog of my favorite rapper I learned about this year, Your Favorite Color.
Thank you for this video, Professor. I've been a spotify subscriber for almost 6 years at this point, and I've grown increasingly disinterested in using it, but continued anyway because the devil you know etc etc. But you really opened my eyes with this video to the way that this company wormed its way into my brain that I was aware of on some subconscious level - for years now I've always had that "will this impact my wrapped?" question nagging in the back of my brain every time I listen to music. This video was what I needed to wake up to it. I'll be doing research tomorrow to see which music platform would be a better fit for me. I truly miss the days of iPods and mp3s. There wasn't a better feeling than the first ride on the bus the morning after you added new songs to your iPod. No ads, no monthly subscriptions, no worry about algorithm and metrics. Just listening to what you want. Thank you for the reminder of how music is supposed to be.
This really affirmed my background thoughts about this whole discourse around wrapped and the constant algorithmic quantification of art. I enjoy looking at it, but it always reflects a very brief moment in my year when I had songs playing in the background or some other weird moment when I wanted to listen to a single song over and over again. My best album and song this year was You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To by Knocked Loose. The whole album is just banger after banger and flows so well. My favorite song off the album and probably the song that best describes my year is the closer Sit and Mourn, which is just this long harrowing feeling of marching across an open desert into oblivion with the sand pelting your face as you try to weather it. You don't know what lies on the other end or when this storm will finally let up, but you know you have to get through it. Probably have only listened to it a few dozen times but every time it makes me well up with this determination. Thanks Skye.
I switched to Tidal this year. They show you how many songs you've streamed from each artist in real time for each month. No minutes or percentages or even top songs. And honestly I think that's enough to satisfy the "what HAVE I been listening to"
Tidal is great. Years ago I signed up for Jack whites record club and got the hifi for 5 bucks a month, and I keep that sub going 😅 not sure if it still works, I'm no longer in the club and still keep the discount. Worth looking into
Wonderful as always professor! Here are my tops that I'm feeling from the year Song - Skating by Vince Guaraldi Artist - Kendrick Album - Remember That You Will Die by Polyphia
AVAA, I really think you're right about the panopticon aspect of spotify wrapped. This year my spotify wrapped and top 100 songs feels pristine, but I think it'd be nice if I had more songs on it that say more about my experience of music this year. Part of that is that a whole bunch of insanely good albums came out this year, but I feel like I need to drill down into more specific taste. I think it's worth considering for next year. That being said, I like that spotify wrapped gives me a look back at my year. Some things I didn't expect to be on there are there because I listened to them a lot earlier in the year. They weren't really my perception of the year as the wrapped released, but it made me remember that yeah, I listened to a ton of MF DOOM like I do every year, and I had about a month where I was listening to MIKE albums near exclusively. Anyway, the albums I've been thinking about this year from my own perception are DAMN, I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, and Beware of the Monkey
What do you use to listen to music? Because unfortunately streaming is the only affordable way to listen to a lot of music. I used to use SoundCloud, it's still streaming, but better in many ways... Until it wasn't. I feel like Tidal has its own issues too.
@@elijahclaude3413you don’t need to listen to everything ever created. Buy whatever you love and get the other stuff when you want/can. It’s really that simple. After a year of no Spotify you’ll have $120 of music you picked. Own, etc. I have only been doing this for 6 months and it’s way better for me. I bought old albums even (OutKast, Biggie) and new ones too (Denzel, Doechii, Pete&Bas). I actually fuck with the music as opposed to just listen/stream. It’s a massive difference in my consumption.
@elijahclaude3413 I buy my music as well. If you have an mp3 player and a disk drive you are golden. I also like to support the local music community. I’m not from the USA and I’m not from the biggest city but there’s plenty of local music.
My top 3 albums: Phoebe Alice Lou - Shelter Peach Pitt - From 2 to 3 Damien Rice - O This year to me had a heavy emphasis on rejoicing in the sadness. Being sad is such a potent part of life and these albums encapsulate that feeling for me through and through. I was waiting for this video even though I didn’t realize I was and I couldn’t agree with ya more! CDs are the staple for music in my car and I plan to keep it that way. Funnily enough though, I think it would be cool if RUclips did something like spotify wrapped in terms of your most watched channel, etc. You, my good sir, would 1000% be my number 1. AVAA Prof
AVAA Sky! I completely understand and agree with the points you made. I never thought people made playlists to listen while they sleep for their wrapped to look a certain way, that feels a bit crazy to me. For me I’ve always used wrapped just as a synopsis of my year instead of something I need to use to fit in. With that being said I think the albums I listened to the most according to feeling/ lasting impact would be(not in order): Brat - Charli XCX The Forever Story - JID MMATBS & GNX - Kendrick Scrapyard - Quadeca The rise and fall of a Midwest princess - Chappell Roan
As a near 30 year old I love to see what I listened to thru out the year with wrapped it sorta transports me back to a feeling or place But I didn’t think too deeply about the formatting of people and their taste based on perception Entertaining take ultimately very thought provoking
my top 3 songs for the year, not according to spotify: 1. NO GOD IN THUNDERDOME by HEALTH (my fav song, it's hard to put into words how much i love this song. even though it was originally written for a GTA game i don't even play, there's a sort of haunting beauty to it that im obsessed with) 2. Slaves & Bulldozers by Soundgarden (I've been listening to them since as far as I can remember because my dad loves them and their hits are played often on Sirius XM channel 34 lithium, the 90's angry rock/grunge station that he also loves and listens to constantly. but this was the first song of theirs i found and fell in love with all on my own, not because of him or that channel, and it quickly became my favorite song of theirs) 3. Professional Griefers - Vocal Mix by Deadmau5 and Geard Way (a classic, early 2010's era techno song with the king of emo music. tbh, i was obsessed with this song around a decade ago when i was 14 and emo, and then i completely forgot it existed for many years until i randomly stumbled upon it again a few months ago. and i quickly became obsessed with it, partly because of nostalgia, but also because there's just something about Way's delivery and my brain loves to chew on the borderline-nonsensical lyrics.) my top 3 albums, not according to spotify: 1. Songs of a Lost World by The Cure (i had been wanting to listen to more of them, then found out they released a new album! i decided to test out my fancy new Bluetooth headphones i bought myself with a black Friday deal as an early Christmas gift, and was blown away. Some day, when I have the time and energy, I'm going to write an essay on how I believe this album acts as a closer to their career, although i don't know if they plan on releasing any more new music) 2. DAMN by Kendrick Lamar (I decided to give the album a long-overdue relisten while on a flight, and goddamn was there shit i missed the first time around, from songs I forgot I loved, to a new understanding of what the album was about, what it says about Kendrick himself. and fully reaffirmed his spot as my fav rap artist) 3. RAT WARS by HEALTH (my 2nd fav band's newest album. every song got added to my main playlist, the only song i really skip is the last, and it's probably my most-replayed album to date)
so top 3 albums and probably artists too: 1. taylor swift - tortured poets department 2. charli xcx - brat and the brat remix album 3. zach bryan - the great american bar scene
Thank you for describing this uncanny feeling I got looking through wrapped this year. I don’t think there has been another year where I enjoyed music as much as this year, and there is no quantifiable number Spotify can give me to show that
I wanted to talk about this for so long, so thanks Prof. Skye. My top albums for this year are as follows 1. WILLOW'S Empathogen - I was planning on studying in my school library for some upcoming exams; when I arrived and sat down I opened Spotify and saw an ad, a suggestion, something that showed that the album was available for listen. I had to this point never given a WILLOW record the time of day, but I just went "f*** it" and went through. My plans to study were immediately cancelled and I spent the entirety of the planned session playing and replaying what I think to be one of my favourite albums of all time now 2. Tyler, The Creator's Chromakopia - I've never been aware of the wider music industry and have rarely been a part of "album drops" and their culture until this year, and I think Tyler gave the best experience I've had of it. The teaser's were the most hyped inducing things I've ever been a part of, from music videos to official song leaks from tiktok, it felt magical being a part of an event and getting hyped about it with friends. It is my favourite Tyler album simply because of how much that experience added to it, and it sounded damn good to boot. 3. Outside Air's Forever - After a year of my favourite band's silence, I got the devastating news this year that they essentially broke up, or more so, split off into a duo and an individual. They continued to make and put out songs but the duo was set to embark on their first album as Outside Air, and I was excited to hear new music from some of the most talented people I've heard in my short life on here. 4. Kendrick Lamar's GNX - I got into Kendrick the year before he would have one of the greatest runs in hip-hop history I have ever witnessed. Last year was more of an introduction, getting acquainted with TPAB and MMATBS and getting a taste of his work. This year I went through all of it, with the beef adding fuel to the fire of my love for his work, and he tops it off with a whole new project that I get to enjoy off first listen, and dissect with the rest of the world, something I had previously never done or been a part of, which makes GNX special to me on the level that Chromakopia is. 5. Lil Yachty's Let's Start Here. - It's a project from the year prior but I managed to fall head over heels over it this year. Id only ever heard a few tracks from it which I really loved from last year, but then I decided to take the plunge after randomly finding Fantano's review on it. He was describing "the BLACK Seminole." And how it was akin to a Pink Floyd track which I really loved "Great Gig In The Sky" and I wanted to hear what that sounded like, so I paused his review and went to check for myself. It was better than I had imagined, so I went through the whole thing that night. The transitions, the sound signature, the vocals and the fact that this was a LIL YACHTY PROJECT FLOORED ME. It is undeniably my most listened to album this year and to this point, my favourite album of all time. Thank you
I knew I had to watch this video the moment I saw the title and I saw it's by you I already had a few issues with wrapped, firstly, maybe on a pity note, because it starts celebrating a "whole year" of music when the year hasn't even finished yet, so automatically if an artist decides to drop anything in December, they're screwed. I left using Spotify years ago (first to Deezer and now I use Apple Music) and knowing how little Spotify paid artists was my biggest incentive (and listening to songs in any other app shows how BAD the audio quality is on Spotify, it's scary how it remains the main platform even with all the issues it has and how little it cares for artists and the music itself, so I already had this idea that Wrapped was mostly a marketing gimmick to make people share their brand, and I've never considered the aspects of individuality and brand loyalty that you brought up And your point about quantification really made me think on how a lot of the larger fanbases (some of them people refer to Stan Twitter) opperate on always having to quantify their favorite's success in an imaginary warfield against other fanbases instead of celebrating the music. Even in a microscale, there's always a risk of the fanbase eat itself because the fans are always finding ways to compete with each other and bringing the numbers to back them up. Of course I don't see a problem people sharing their Wrapped and feeling curious about their listening habits thruought the year, but I wish more people would bring this conversation on the quantification of music and how the pursuit for individuality makes us bland (something that I've never thought about before watching this video), so thank you for that I don't always comment because many times I watch your videos on TV (and there are some videos I still have to watch, sorry about that), but I really want to express how I appreciate your views and approach for album reviewing. Greetings from Brazil :D
really appreciate this. articulated a lot of feelings that i personally was experiencing regarding the commodification of an art form. definitely feeling a severe spiritual sickness that comes with streaming as a model and by extension the quantification of literally everything you do within the panopticon of the internet.
I feel like I engaged with more music this year than my non Spotify streaming year end suggests.. and I think it’s because I spent a lot of hours listening to you talk about music. Aside from that this year felt quite empty as far as listening to a few things a lot. Tyler, Yuja Wang specifically playing Philip Glass’s Étude no 6, and The Cure Disintegration in preparation for their new album. In reality I listened to it maybe twice but the first time was such a memorable experience that it defined a big part of my year.
AVAA! I usually like the reflective nature of Spotify Wrapped, a platform I am scared of leaving because I've been on there for 15 years or so. But it has been particularly bad and unrepresentative this year. Partially because it's way worse after the layoffs, and most importantly because the best album of the year, Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee is not on Spotify (partially as an act of rebellion against Daniel Ek) and I've been listening to little else outside of that album.
The Spotify Wrapped this year has been disappointing, and I don't think anyone is missing out. Over the year, Spotify has significantly changed its layout, which now feels uncomfortable. I can barely discover new music and am stuck with songs from my own playlists being repeatedly recommended. As a result, my listening history has become really boring this year, and I no longer get recommendations for new albums from artists I follow. Last year's Spotify Wrapped was exciting imo as they used data in a very creative way to show the genres I listen to and the cities where those genres are popular ik it sounds silly, but the algorithm this year seems off-it didn’t really reveal anything new to me. I’m considering switching to Tidal because of the current state of my music library tbh and I know I love music of various genres, and do not wanna be labeled in any way.
I spent most of this year listening to some of the worst recieved albums in recent memory. VULTURES 2 was my top album,I listened to eternal atake 2 a lot as well. I don't think a lot of people in the post-spotify wrapped world would admit to that and that makes me sad. And if you think my crusade of "bad music" is about to stop,i plan on going thru the Soulja Boy backlog. And don't think i was trolling or torturing myself,i like both albums.
One of my top songs was Alright by Kendrick, while I like the song I felt like I listened to other songs much more. And then it hit me that because I tend to listen to my own playlists I must’ve been subjected to Spotify’s “shuffle” and I put quotations because apparently Spotify’s shuffle feature doesn’t actually shuffle songs at random but instead curates a queue of songs they THINK you’ll like. This also would explain why I have Denzel Curry who I once again like but only would have one song or two once in a while, and freakin Kanye West despite not following up with his recent projects. I know there is a lot of discrepancy around this but I am one of those people that have self proclaimed ‘diverse’ music taste. I just like collecting and sorting songs into playlists and exploring music history and culture. But until Spotify sorts out shuffle or I listen to specific songs exclusively for data spread, my wrapped will look like an only rap fan when it could have prog rock, contemporary jazz/fusion, indie pop, hell even video game music. Just something that I would be satisfied to say represents me. My top songs were: Share My World by Mary J Blige, Stir Fry from Migos, and Raydar by JID In addition will recommend video game stuff because I want to get more people on game, so to speak. Atlus is most well known for their Persona games and music and while they are great and only get better with each entry, music from the sister series Shin Megami Tensei is so unique in that it fuses grunge, electronica, and traditional eastern music to fit the atmosphere of post apocalyptic Tokyo. The 5th game and it’s rerelease is arguably the strongest
Been checking your videos for a few days since stumbling upon your Mahashmashana review and I love how your brain works. I love the perspective. It would be a dream to have a brain like yours pore over our record. Put the criticality back into music criticism.
Always tried to articulate my dislike of spotify wrapped to my friends, but I'm dismissed as ruining fun. Loved your points and glad to have caught this premiere. My #1 album must have been OK Computer by Radiohead My alarm is the clock intro to Pink Floyds "Time" so that's gotta be #1 song To pick a different artist from those two, I really got into all the albums of King Crimsons first run, probably spent most time listening to them. AVAA!
Hey Doc, first time long time, would you be able to expand on what you meant around 3:50? Are you saying that if you think you have a guilty pleasure, really it’s just that you’re being classist or racist or some sort of other “ist” (because you think that for example you shouldn’t be listening to something because it’s ‘girly’ and thus not actually a guilt pleasure you are just a mysognist) I think I agree with this point in general but I’m curious about what you think about artists like Kanye, R Kelly, Led Zeppelin, MJ. Many of my favs turns out have really hurt some people and I do feel guilty when I listen to their stuff. I think that qualifies as a guilty pleasure. Thoughts? Thanks as always for your insight honestly and analysis ❤
AVAA professor Honestly I agree with a ton of the points in this video. I remember in the beginning of the year my whole top ten spots were from Black Thought’s Cheat Codes and then for the rest of the year I decided to not listen to that incredible album to get it out of the list, and now the album is ingrained in my mind as just something to get out of the way. It has made me appreciate one of my favorite albums of all time much less which pisses me off
thank you for this video! i love your perspective and energy! just good to get different perspectives and open up to new ways of thinking and feeling about things. do you accept requests? i would for you to do a review on the front bottoms!!!! i value your thoughts and perspectives so much, they’re my favorite band, it would be so cool to see ur insights / feeling on em ❤🎉
AVAA! kendrick was for sure the most impactful for me this year. mavi’s shadowboxing was absolutely remarkable. finally, my own music had a hold on me this whole year. it was a fantastic year for music in general!
Quarters of Change (small indie band from Brooklyn), Kendrick Lamar, and a bunch of people at the intersection of Jazz and House. Great video Skye, can probably be extrapolated much more broadly than just music!
Spitting as always Professor Skye. Much of the talking points on data remind me of some things that Byung Chul-Han talks about in "The Transparency Society" and our obsession with needing EVERYTHING to be made visible and quantifying everything, leaving no room for "negativity". We are cyborgs in a sense already with our phones being our extra limb that's just not integrated directly in our bodies, but I appreciate what you speak to here bc the danger of that slippery slope is us becoming the same and becoming dull blown robots. Top 3 albums listened this year: 1. Two Star & The Dream Police (Mk.gee) 2. Leather Blvd (B-Cool.Aid) 3. Díptico (Agustín Pereyra Lucena) R.I.P.
AVAA Skye! I’m so blessed to be able to listen to People who Aren’t There Anymore by Future Islands, Adult Contemporary by Chromeo and Why Lawd? by NxWorries
My top songs are generally the stuff Spotify decides to play after my bedtime playlist runs out. Which means many of the songs I have no memory of ever hearing at all
This is why I just listen to music on RUclips. I'm not bothered by ads, don't care about metrics and most of the artists I listen to can be discovered through RUclips (not premium) Definitely listened to a lot of Kendrick (MMTBS in particular) mixed in with a bit of Max Richter, Hans Zimmer (LOVE OST's), Emile Mosseri, JID, SchoolBoy Q and Mac Miller (I also vividly remember a month where Frank Sinatra was SLAPPING for me) Only regret is that I haven't listened to Ab Soul more
This year felt to me like Jeff Buckley, old school funk and in the last couple of months a great appreciation for jazz, especially Japanese jazz - thanks for the great video!
Really felt what you said about flattening in the video. Just as a society we flatten ourselves to be so many different things. Wether thats ‘likable’ or ‘successful’ or whatever else! for me if I had to give my spotisky ripped my top artist would 100% be Mitski. This was the year I got the chance to finally see her live and wow she is just incredible. I think I listened to The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We at least 20 times on vinyl. And I know for sure I listened to I Bet On Losing Dogs all the time. Number two would probably the the artist Roar. Also another artist I got to see live for the first time that just blew me away. He is just so good. Number three feels like a tie for me between Adrienne Lenker and Akira Yamaoka. Akira Yamaoka composed the silent hill two soundtrack and I’ve listened to it in full on vinyl at least once a week for like two months. And Adrienne Lenker’s music has just defined the last 3-5 months of my life especially her album songs. also I LOVE your videos.
artists 1. porter robinson 2. underscores 3. hi im chris songs 1. presumably dead arm (617 session) by sidney gish 2. vanilla twilight by owl city 3. easier to love you by porter robinson albums 1. ceebo let go! by hi im chris 2. wallsocket by underscores 3. sock-footed teddy hyde honorable mention to detahjae and lone, borealis that album had me in a chokehold for like a month
1. Black and Blue - I’d play the first few tracks driving down to go swim with a couple of old swim buddies in the bay before work on foggy LB mornings 2. Short and Sweet because I’d play it for my girlfriend whenever she was having a bad day 3. Untitled EP my friends and I have been working on writing every Wed for the past few months Love your vids Prof. Skye keep it up!
I’ve always had a distaste for Spotify wrapped for several of the reasons you bring up, but ofc I’m too curious not to look. Love your point about how what you feel like was your biggest/most listened to music of the year IS your biggest music of the year, not what Spotify tells you. Our narratives are definitely much more powerful, intriguing, and human than a little counter. Also, I hadn’t thought about the cult of individuality thing. When you said how music is something we do together, it really drove that point home for me. Wrapped is definitely one factor driving us to consume music individualistically and obsess over ourselves (from an imagined and fabricated outside perspective). Sharing music with others and learning/celebrating the tastes of others is some of the most rewarding experiences music has to offer
Since 2021, when I embraced my Africanhood, I started listening to a lot more African artists and their music. I swear a whole year, I listened to more African music than any other genre combined. When I tuned into my Replay, I noticed my genre of the year was Hip Hop. Although it is possible, I find it odd. The primary reason is because African music is not listed as such, they either called Worldwide, Afrobeats, afro-beats (with an hyphen), alte, pop, amapiano 😔 For some reason, this genre is not centralised, it's very disappointing. If the algorithm is based on repetition, it's very hard for it to recommend me African music because apparently I was listening to "worldwide" and then changed to something different, when they're actually the same genre. But if I listen to Kendrick, Metro Boomin, Future, the algorithm will go "Oh! You like Hip Hop? Bet! Here's more"
you're the only person in your field with an actual principled stance on Spotify. love to see it as a nothing artist Spotify already felt wasn't even important to pay at all.
AAVA, this really is an awesome video, and I appreciate you for making me question the way I engage with music. Aquemini by Outkast, Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty, and shadowbox by Mavi were probably my 3 albums of my year. I’d heard the first two before, but I bought their CD’s and used them so much on the way to and from school. Mavi’s album was amazing and just continued to grow on me. Also shoutout to Vince Staples, I really got into his stuff this year. And I cant forget the new Bon Iver EP (and the rest of their work)! And finally, shoutout to all the stuff on the top 40 like Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter for always being on at work!
AVAA, had a weird mix of music this year: My number 2 album would Tantric Bile's Unbidden - which I think might be the coolest contemporary jazz album out! Some truly insane things happening on it Number 2 would be Brat - no explanation needed, on the other side of the globe so I had a real Brat winter Number 3 would have to be Kim Gordon's The Collective - which I think is the first time I've really genuinely enjoyed trap/trap-adjacent music
"flattening" feels very accurate. i stopped using sny streaming service for music years ago because of ads getting in the way of me listening to music. I've been hoarding full discographies for bands in the form of MP3s for much longer than these music streaming services have been popular. i'm perfectly happy to just open up winamp and play my jams that way! and i often encourage my loved ones to start doing it too. you never know when a streaming service will remove the music you love. you never know if that song you care about will suddenly disappear from the internet entirely. i enjoy finding obscure things and often i find that i wind up the last source for locating those songs when the media gets deleted or removed for whatever reason. there's a lot of joy that can come from manually hunting down new music rather than having some algorithm determine what it thinks your music taste should be. why box ourselves in when there's so many interesting kinds of sound in the world that you could discover for yourself? sorry for my rant, btw. i just feel strongly about this subject lol great video!
If you say you listened to it more, it is mathematically true even if you've heard something else more times. Real attention and engagement with art doesn't just happen by hitting the play button. In photography, there is an important distinction made between just looking and actually seeing while in the act of making photos. You must be engaged to create and you must be engaged to appreciate.
Dont even care that they’re pop asf: In no particular order cause i cant pick favorites: Peggy & Danny - Scaring the hoes Charli - BRAT Herbie Hancock - head hunters Magic Sam - West Side Soul Typewriter - 2023 demos All on spotify, scope typewriter they rip
AVAA, but really, this may be your best video to date (that I've seen) and I wholeheartedly agree. I'm 33 and I already feel too old for this shit. People would rather be passively submissive to streaming algorithms than explore on their own or support their local scene. It just makes me sad.
Top 3: #1 New FJM album (despite it just coming out, I'm obsessed) #2 Tchaikovsky Swan Lake (because my 15 month old and I take baths together, and I decided to try listening to classical music while we do and now that's a whole thing). #3 Vulfpeck - Live in France (whole concert) because RUclips Premium is my streaming service (I think it's 0.008 compared to Spotify's 0.003 if you have Premium) and one of the benefits of that is that live stuff uploaded to RUclips can enter your audio listening collection, and we love to dance round the kitchen with the baby and Vulfpeck.
AVAA! my spotisky ripped 2024: 1) kendrick lamar - for obvious reasons, but also because i listened to mr morale a bunch (also what got me into your channel!); i even got a kdot tattoo as my first tat this year 2) apsilon - german rapper who raps/sings a lot about the anger and the fears of (Turkish) 3rd generation migrants whose grandparents came to Germany as guest workers in the 60s; he's put out his first album "haut wie pelz" and i would loooove to hear your thoughts on it one day haha 3) voir dire by earl sweathshirt - this album got me through a rough time beginning of the year, even though i barely listen to it currently
AVAA! This has been an exceptionally good year for new music imo! So many great albums and I don't think Spotify wrapped reflects it in any meaningful way. Some of my favorite albums include: Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title The Smile - Wall of Eyes The Smile - Cutouts Father John Misty - Mahashmashana MGMT - Loss of Life The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstacy Vampire Weekend - Only God was Above Us Geordie Greep - The New Sound English Teacher - This Could be Texas Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown Fontaines D.C. - Romance Mount Eerie - Night Palace Colin Stetson - The Love it Took to Leave You
ur spotisky idea is great and I actually bee doing this with some friends for some time now, usually around late november when the whispers about wrapped start we tell each other what we think our top 5 songs, albums and artists look like and also when we think something won't show cuz it ain't on streaming, for example i thing watch the party die and 6:16 would've been in my top 5 if it would've been on streaming. I also like to stay as true as possible on my wrapped (mostly cuz I forget that wrapped exist a month later) cuz i think its a good opportunity to put ppl u know on to good music or be put on to shit urself. At worst ur getting clowned for a few days and literally a week later its already irrelevant and at best u can introduce someone to a certain artist/album/song that could become they favorite. what I feel like my top 5 most listened was: Artists: Kendrick, Zel, JID, Newjeans, future (Spotify said Kendrick, Zel, Kanye, JID, Travis) Albums: KotMS , GNX, WE DON'T TRUST YOU, Blue Lips, American Dream and maybe Might Delete Later or Chromokopia (IDK spotify didn't gave me my most listened albums) Songs: Like that (my hype before the beef was crazy), hot one, America has a problem kenny remix, euphoria, and then probably either supernatural or right now by nwjns (spotify said Not like us(apparently I've listened to this song almost 400 times), euphoria, like that, hot one, and otonoke by creepy nuts, I feel like if the diss tracks weren't there it would look pretty similar to what i felt my top songs where)
I FEEL like I listened to Lord Huron, Ashniko, and Silversun Pickups the most this year. I couldn’t tell you any album name, but I CAN tell you that I thoroughly appreciated every time one of their songs began playing. I love seeing everyone else’s music feels for the year.
This video mended a part of my soul I didn't know had a crack. AVAA my list: -better oblivion community center (the band with Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers) -Scrapyard (album by Quadeca) -Shoegaze/dreampop (the genre couse why not)
Dude idek if this is related to the video but yeah I never get good recaps because I used YT Music on my phone, Apple music on my laptop, iTunes on my home PC, I have music that I've downloaded as MP3s, and I have CDs I love to bump. I am the optimal way to listen to music.
My top song of the year: Sound and Vision Top Artist: Masayosi Takanaka (a guitar magician who brings joy through music) and Keith Jarrett! (Thanks for your homework prof, I really find his KoIn concept live album a perfect choice for study bgm) Top Album: The New Sound (I love Holy, Holy and Terra so much) AVAA, love from Suzhou, China!
This year I spent a lot of time driving to and from school/work and almost all of that time was spent listening to King Gizz. I think I had 300 hours with them, which is probably not too far off from how much I've driven this year. My next four, based on both numbers and my personal opinion, were White Denim (love the album with Raze Regal), Kikagaku Moyo, Mong Tong, and l'Eclair. As a second year uni student, I was really embarrassed that my stats and favourite artists were so weird. Everyone's Spotify wrapped seemed so much cooler than mine, but outside of maybe one or two top played songs everyone's was largely of the same selection. I wanted to post something to my instagram about it but I was too embarrassed to do so. I don't know why I felt so disappointed that my taste is so much different than anyone else but I guess by your thesis this isn't a bad thing.
Saw Mong Tong at the White Hotel last year, and Kikagaku several times. Both introduced to me by Spotify, where else would I have heard them? Don't be embarrassed by your list, everyone else was not cool, your list was!
AVAA!! If I'm being honest about my songs that I feel have been on repeat this year for me, they're Is There Really No Happiness by Porter Robinson, Falling in Love Again by Joyce Manor, Father Time by Kendrick, and 3 Summers by Jeff Rosenstock. Some of these are on my Wrapped, some aren't, but these are 4 songs I think about basically every day. Numbers aren't everything, I think Skye is right that this comment says more about me and my tastes than my entire Wrapped does
Hey just wanted to let you know that, although I only watch one of your videos every now and then, when I do it is always interesting, entertaining, engaging, and well: always positive. Thanks a lot for that ❤ Also, nice Bathrobe!
im really glad to see this video as ive been thinking the same thing for a while. i feel like, while it is cool to see data at the end of the year, its definitely a much better method in my opinion to instead come up with your own lists based on what you think you listened to most, or what impacted you the most through the year. as for my list as i expected, and feel is much more accurate than my wrapped: my top albums (based on how much i found myself going back to them, not best albums to come out this year) would have to be: -DEFINITELY 'retrovision' by honey revenge (a BANGER album that i listened to a TON this year) -'ikigai' by futuristic -'and then there was moses' by kvng moses -why not 2' by grieves -and honestly probably 'hybrid theory' by linkin park (since i went back on a listening journey through their old albums, even though meteora is actually my favorite, i definitely gave hybrid theory more of chance to shine this year) some top songs would be -DEFINITELY 'hellhound' by deathbyromy -'the pines' by 070 shake -'i'm not yours' by the haunt -'small talk' by russ -'euphoria' by kendrick and a lot of others but i'll leave it at that :)
It is It's difficult for me to fully remember what music impacted me as long ago as January, but thanks to Prof Skye the past month has been filled with Fievel is Glauque, so that would probably be on my Spotiskye Wripped. AVAA!
And agreed with everything you said about Spotify. I listened to leisure panic by Dan Kelly (great Australian album) on cd in my car on repeat. The new sound by greep was my no. 1 album on Apple Music. And im pretty sure I put the first devo album on the turntable the most, to get to the satisfaction stones cover.
I listened to a whole lot of Wilco and it got me through a tough, tough time this year. Nowhere to be seen on my wrapped though! It's almost as if that silly statistic does not matter :> AVAA
@TALKOFSD Start with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but my favourites are Being There and Summerteeth Shot In The Arm is the song that really got me through, though. I really appreciate your interest
I used to live in Carson City... great little town. Anyway, I never thought of the wrapped thing in that way, but you're 100% right, especially for teenagers. I would have curated a playlist to play and up my numbers. I already think about streaming to show my support for an artist, and fully admit to streaming songs for 35 seconds until it counts as a listen and then jumping to another track I want to boost the numbers on. I can totally see people having that same mindset for their own numbers.
Man what I would give to have a conversation with you about what you mentioned here 3:51 .... or at the very least a 2 hour long video on the subject😂 idk why that was so interesting to me
Oh that was incredibly interesting to me as well. If this was a petition for him to make another video of him elaborating on that then this would be my signature :)
AVAA, I think you perfectly expressed what I was feeling this year about Spotify Wrapped. It kinda makes listening to music feel like a game where you have to get the 'best' score. I noticed halfway throughout this year that I was putting on a playlist when I would go to sleep just to get a bigger amount of total minutes listened. (pretty sad if you think about it) so I switched to using a mp3 file player on my phone since I have quite a big CD collection. this way I could just enjoy my music without having to 'worry' about stats that at the end of the day don't matter. My top 5 albums this year are: Dark Times - Vince Staples KOTMSV2 - Denzel Curry Samurai - Lupe Fiasco No Need For Alarm - Del The Funky Homosapien Vaudeville Villain - MF DOOM The decision to listen to my music without it being tracked is honestly surprisingly freeing.
I never use the algorithm. I read reviews music news etc and listen to what sounds interesting. Whenever I listened to stuff Spotify recommends it's usually dull. My most listened to artist this year was Cardiacs, which love or loathe them is certainly not flat.
Hello professor! I just recently found your channel and am slightly blown away by how well you're able to articulate your thoughts in one take with no real editing. Guess it comes with the job. Anyway, I have a somewhat unique perspective in that I wasn't all that invested in music until some time last year. I obviously listened to music and had preferences, but hadn't really looked into it enough to appreciate the meaning that it can have. So that makes this year my first full year being truly invested in what was going on, both in current music and the significant amount of releases from the past that I had missed out on. On Apple Music, the platform that I've used pretty consistently throughout the year, they go even further than the annual review of what you listened to, releasing a recap every month. And despite the valid criticisms I've heard of these recaps, I've continually been looking forward to and reading them each month. Yes, that makes me 13x worse than those who are just into the annual recap, and it definitely does impact what I go on to listen to in some way, but I still feel like it's been a tool for good to some degree. Each month, it's really just given me a chance to reflect, both on the actual music that I listened to within the time frame, and on the significance of it: what exactly that music means to me and why I chose to listen to it so much. Or even if I'm disappointed that an album/artist didn't make it on there, reflect on how that music means enough to me to be disappointed. I also think that a year is fairly arbitrary amount of time, so I'm going to ignore the time frame and give some music that has meant a lot to me recently: Ants From Up There - BCNR has dominated my listening for a long time now, and is just all-around incredible Igor - Tyler the creator, Velocity : Design : Comfort - Sweet Trip, and We Got It From Here... - ATCQ are all albums I got into recently and have really connected with Everything put out lately by Cameron Winter has been beautiful, including his just released album Heavy Metal, which is very much worth checking out Thank you for what you do on here, your analysis is always interesting and I find your videos weirdly engaging for the format they're in.
Professor, I'd say you're probably a shoo-in for having ADHD. I say this as someone with it: we neuro-divergent people tend to gravitate together b/c we think in similar ways. I've never understood the appeal of Spotify wrapped, so I've never used it, but completely get your points about it! As someone in ed-tech, the "flattening" effect of data is very real. There was a great quote about how data collection will always lead to collecting an ever-expanding amount of, & justifying the increasing collection of, said data under capitalism, but I've forgotten who. AVAA
really loved and connected with porter robinson's smile :D , got really into census designated after not liking it for months, favorite new artist discovery this year was joey valence & brae! No hands is such a fun listen i'll be going back to for years.
AVAA Professor I agree with the points you made here my too 3 that I can think of on the top of my head are: Mavi - Shadowbox El Cousteau - Merci, Non Merci Beabadoobee - This Is How Tomorrow Moves
AVAA! Even though it just came out my album of the years gotta be GNX. I also loved ABNH by Doechii. Third favorite release this year is probably Fabiana Palladino’s self titled she’s making classic dance synth pop records and I wish she wasn’t so underrated. She’s signed to Jai Paul and her dad is Pino Palladino the famous session musician (played with The Who, D’Angelo, David Gilmore, more) but her record is great in its own right, if you needed a co-sign though she’s got them all from the best of em
Most played song: Prayer - Kendrick Lamar such a powerful message and instrumental and it's not even released Most played album: Labor Days - Aesop Rock incredibly unique production and theme that feels dismal but not hopeless, mixed with a distinct rapping style Most played artist: Frank Ocean finally sat with Blonde and Channel Orange for the first time and was blown away
Yo this speaks perfectly to this weird lil anxiety that I get around this stuff. Like if you're learning a song on guitar or something you need to pause and reverse it a thousand times, and if you're listening on Tidal all you can think is "oh no, what am I doing to my algorithm?" Makes you do a thunk about all the subtle pernicious ways capitalism is making us all a little more needlessly stressed out for no good reason. AVAA!
pernicious. great word. ACAA
Same! I turn on anonymous browsing on RUclips when I'm trying to learn a song on guitar.
man absolutely. the spotify wrapped is in my head all year around and for what? i barely care or think about my 2024 wrapped couple days after its release but all year long i was like "i need to stream this song more so it will show up in my top 5"... this society is broken lol
Just try not to care too much about it. As long as you like the music you're listening to at the moment, you're good and you'll discover new things. Spotify Wrapped is kind of a fun thing for me that I stop thinking about the day after.
yeah!! my top song this year was one i learnt on bass. my taste was heavily influenced by that, i am gonna root around for songs that have interesting basslines and listen to them a lot as im learning lol
my top song was my own band's song (we got back together and I was relearning our songs on guitar). Spotify also has a cringe "AI podcast" feature that is 4 minutes of AI DJ's talking about your favorite music and they were talking about how incredible and diverse my band is and that they hope I get to see them perform live soon
I did not know Spotify had that feature!?
what’s your band!
@@scootmaloot4583 The Beautiful States, and the song is "Worm". If you give it a listen I'd love to know what you think!
@@johnwerner69I think the ai DJ thing is only in certain countries, I never had it fortunately, sounds horrible
What the band
9:27 spotify wrapped feels like an extension of (self) surveillance, desensitizing us to the feeling of being watched, evaluated, and judged in our private places in our private behaviors and then shaping our choices
mmhmmmm this is a good way to view it
Such a refreshing video to see during this week of annual Wrapped mania. Everything you said regarding statistics is incredibly relatable as someone who was obsessed with lastfm scrobbling back in high school. Even without the desire to display certain numbers as a badge I felt compelled to rigorously track every instance of listening I had for the sake of accuracy- a sense of fulfillment that I had knowing my "genre spread" and other meaningless reports. I used to feel anxious that I would eventually forget songs and albums that I felt meant the world to me at the time, and that I needed some external service to constantly remind me of their existence, lest I forget them.
Nowadays I have a much healthier relationship with music being off of Spotify as well, and it still warms me to see my family members sharing their graphics and stories when we all visit for the holidays, but it doesn't fill me with the same sense of connection as when we share music with one another that we found otherwise and our non-numeric enjoyment of it. I've had the wonderful experience of losing touch with a song I love and getting to rediscover it again out in the wild. I have the privilege of getting to own the music I enjoy with the satisfaction of knowing I get to directly support the creator of that art, without gaslighting myself to the superfluous notion that my 0.003 cents actually contributes to the artist.
I would be curious to hear your thoughts on "rating" sites such as Album of the Year and Rate Your Music, as I feel they foster a similar semi-adjacent avenue of unhealthy consumption of music as content. I find that they're great for archival and for asynchronous exploration/discovery of certain genres or regions, but the overt focus on more numbers and values has some undeniable effect on the way someone approaches an album for the first time.
Edit: Oh yeah, here's my three for this year:
Song: The Beatles- A Day in the Life (my wife and I's first dance)
Album: Earl Sweatshirt- Voir Dire (soul healing music)
Artist: Chappell Roan (can't get out of the car before listening to Good Luck Babe)
great comment
As an active RYM user, I really do love using the site as a tool for exploration. I think that's where its best purpose lies. However, I cannot deny that the numbers can play a role in my choice to listen to certain new-to-me artists or albums. That being said I feel like this site has connected me to music more than ever and I'm very grateful for its existence as a resource. I often find some really fascinating user reviews on there too, but the comment boxes tend to get distracted by pointless arguments. I think it's a site that has its upsides and its downsides for sure. On the idea of rating albums, I find it an interesting way of expressing my level of attachment to a record. Rating things has always been a fun activity for me and I don't try to approach it from an "objective" or "scientific" angle as that just seems silly to me. Back to the RYM album scores, I pay much more attention to the ratings my friends give on release pages since it gives me much more useful context to work off of. I understand their tastes a lot better than the RYM community's taste at large and it helps me see which type of person something appeals to so I might know which angle to approach it, along with gathering the other information the site gives me on it. Personally I've been loving my time with the site but YMMV as I believe it all depends on how you use it
I started using Album of the Year this year, and it's cool that it makes me think harder about what exactly I like and dislike about whatever I'm listening, but it also conditions me to assign a numeric rating to everything, so I quickly started avoiding it. I mostly use it to help me filter through my interests (there's just too much music to listen to).
i don't pay a lot of attention to the ratings (on the other hand, when an artist has a lot of music, the volume of ratings can sometimes indicate which projects are must-listens and which ones you can wait to check out later), but the huge and easy to navigate catalogue on RYM has created a practice in my life similar to how i love digging through crates at a record store. i look for beautiful cover art, names on the front or the back that i recognize, and sometimes a record just catches your eye. both processes aren't perfect though. i'm always nervous i'm missing my next favourite record, and just how the pricing at record stores will always be biased to a certain kind of taste and not just the wear and tear on the LP, RYM has a lot of gaps in their community. a lot of brilliant and popular records will be on that website with 0 reviews and just a handful of ratings! just like how you might find a great album in the $1 bin, you can't let that discourage you!
That's exactly why I stopped using lastfm for a while! I got so obsessed in an unhealthy way with linking my account to shazam to count when I listened to CDs...for what reason? I know what artists I connect with the most and I have much better conversations about music when I'm just sharing music with someone else as opposed to when I'm sharing data with someone.
"Flattening" is a good word for what algorithms have done to most people's listening habits.
My dad is a big audiophile but not a super "critical listener," however he was always finding new music, challenging stuff, an array of genres. He used to listen to Aphex Twin, OutKast, Iggy Pop, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Motorhead, BT, lots of Brazilian music, just a huge eclectic mix of stuff that he clicked with in different moods and times. Over time he's become a huge proponent of the algorithms (Apple Music, in his case) and has pretty much surrendered to them.
It's kind of sad now, when I go to his house the stereo is always on but I don't think anyone could name what's playing, it's sort of a smoothed over mix of Neo-Soul-ish stuff that is very unchallenging and palatable. You'll never be surprised or confronted by anything, it's just there, it sounds good enough on the nice stereo, whatever. And even if something that really IS impactful or good does somehow wind up on there, no one is really paying attention anyway.
Just one small anecdotal example, but I just find it sad that the search for and connection with the actual creators and their intent has been supplanted by a more-or-less one-button solution that just keeps you happy enough.
I love it when people consume art in different ways
@@lazhwardafsharzadaArt is experienced, not consumed. Imo, thats the thesis of this comment, this video, and rants I've gone on as well. Once art becomes a product for consumption it loses it's identity, and thus, loses the dialog it was trying to engage in.
@@casadastraphobia what do you mean with that it loses its identity?
@@casadastraphobiaCan people not do both?
@@casadastraphobia what? How can you experience art if you don't consume it? Lmao, that's like saying feel the music but don't listen to it lol. Because how else would you do with music? We listen to it, and by listening to it we are consuming it.
The whole point about "flattening" is fucking HUGE because I actively notice that about my listening habits these days. I used to scour music for hours finding new things, and now these days I have trouble venturing out of the small sphere that the Spotify algorithm has crafted for me. It fucking sucks. You made a ton of valid points in here that I also never really thought about or maybe have and never fully contextualized. Great video man
I feel like it would be bad business for Apple to not have bot armies in comment sections everywhere speaking lowly about their competitors
@arzabael what are you even replying to 🤔
Most played albums this year
1 Alvvays: Blue Rev
2 Idles: Joy as an Act of Resistance
3 Kendrick: DAMN
fuck yeah alvvays. blue rev my favourite album of all time
BLUE REV LOVERS UNITE 10/10 BABY
GREAT top three!!
I forgot about joy as an act. I need to revisit that one and brutalism as well. Blue rev and damn are amazing too!
For me it's pretty fun to see what I've listened for the past year. I don't use any playlist from spotify that isn't mine. So, this year, it was a lot of Kendrick, Denzel Curry, Racionais MCs (Brazilian OG rap group) and other stuff that I like to listen. Usually I curate on my own, I search for artists to listen on other platforms, usually I like to find some hidden gems, and then I go to spotify to listen to that specific artist.
When I tried to listen to spotify's playlists I regretted every single time.
Brasil tá em todas
Weekly playlist has shown me some great songs that I love or at least like. But not all songs are a hit.
@@matheusmoraes6252 Sempre né pai, nois representa 🔥
@@DanJuega Definitely you can find some gems there, but usually is the same stuff all the time, idk. Maybe my taste bugged the algorithm or something
@fabioeliasreisritter8827 I mean it's far, far from perfect, but I found it worthwhile to check it out in my experience.
I like the idea of a "Wrapped" as a concept, cause as a neurodivergent person it kinds of gives me perspective into the lives of people I know and even love and I guess it also encourages conversations about music, which I am always down to have. My only problem with it is that it promotes using Spotify, which as an artist I am very against. Personally I just scrobble all my stuff.
@@HexZero happy to see people are still using Last like the "old days" (very recent days, lol).
@@ThomAvella 🖐🏽 I love Last.fm. My account is going to be 20 years old in February 🤯
Same. I've been trying to rid myself of many algorithms (deleted Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Threads and Spotify in the recent years, although I also switched to Bluesky and RUclips Music), and Last(dot)fm is enough for me to scratch that itch.
@ThomAvella last fm is the best for me, bc i LOVE tracking my music
If most young people are neurodivergent it makes it neurotypical 😮
What made me feel the most empty this Spotify wrapped was that all year I was thinking this is the greatest year for music I've lived through. Almost all my favourite artists dropped albums. We had the greatest rap battle in history and it felt like the culture in music is shifting in a positive direction.
But when I got my wrapped it was just another year. 5 more artists. 5 more songs and it felt soo empty. You break down why so excellently Professor, this video was a great one!
My top albums in 2024 to me felt like:
Chromokopia - Tyler the Creator
Charm - Clairo
I Lay Down My Life For You - JPEGMAFIA
Dark Times - Vince Staples
The Drake Kendrick Beef (come on it's basically an album worth of songs anyway)
Although I discovered Billy Woods this year and so listened to Maps maybe three hundred times.
Not even gna give my spotisky list just messaging to say I love how you casually flex your family, that level of success I strive for 1day
"Its fun like the soda machines are fun with all the buttons" killed me 😂
My #2 song this year, Feather by Nujabes, I think I played on purpose maybe twice. It's just a song I'm not likely to skip, so spotify serves it to me often (it did this with DSCO by Sweet Trip for years). Spotify CONSTANTLY tries to push me the same few DOOM songs even tho I make a point to skip them every time, but it's because when he died I binged all his stuff for a couple of days. I suspect that dead artists/ended bands are especially attractive to the platform because they're basically cycling money around the industry without having to think about the artist at all. Spotify desperately wants me to listen to Nujabes or DOOM on there bc it's pure profit for them, and they know that if they keep rolling that dice I will end up hearing a pleasant song until it becomes unpleasant for me.
Spotify has kinda consumed my life this year because I obsessively followed new releases and playlist manicured them, but I am fully aware of tons of music I missed or sidelined because I was so focused on this one modus of listening. It's a habit I'll break next year.
Also, my wrapped was very dominated by early-year releases bc I was so focused on current year, but that kept meaning more and more albums as the year went on. The only artist I leaned in on hard enough to statistically overpower that effect was Doechii. Spoify doesn't even HAVE bbldrizzy, or 6:16 in LA, or most of the catalog of my favorite rapper I learned about this year, Your Favorite Color.
Thank you for this video, Professor. I've been a spotify subscriber for almost 6 years at this point, and I've grown increasingly disinterested in using it, but continued anyway because the devil you know etc etc. But you really opened my eyes with this video to the way that this company wormed its way into my brain that I was aware of on some subconscious level - for years now I've always had that "will this impact my wrapped?" question nagging in the back of my brain every time I listen to music. This video was what I needed to wake up to it. I'll be doing research tomorrow to see which music platform would be a better fit for me.
I truly miss the days of iPods and mp3s. There wasn't a better feeling than the first ride on the bus the morning after you added new songs to your iPod. No ads, no monthly subscriptions, no worry about algorithm and metrics. Just listening to what you want.
Thank you for the reminder of how music is supposed to be.
This really affirmed my background thoughts about this whole discourse around wrapped and the constant algorithmic quantification of art. I enjoy looking at it, but it always reflects a very brief moment in my year when I had songs playing in the background or some other weird moment when I wanted to listen to a single song over and over again.
My best album and song this year was You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To by Knocked Loose. The whole album is just banger after banger and flows so well.
My favorite song off the album and probably the song that best describes my year is the closer Sit and Mourn, which is just this long harrowing feeling of marching across an open desert into oblivion with the sand pelting your face as you try to weather it. You don't know what lies on the other end or when this storm will finally let up, but you know you have to get through it. Probably have only listened to it a few dozen times but every time it makes me well up with this determination. Thanks Skye.
I switched to Tidal this year. They show you how many songs you've streamed from each artist in real time for each month. No minutes or percentages or even top songs. And honestly I think that's enough to satisfy the "what HAVE I been listening to"
Tidal is great. Years ago I signed up for Jack whites record club and got the hifi for 5 bucks a month, and I keep that sub going 😅 not sure if it still works, I'm no longer in the club and still keep the discount. Worth looking into
Tidal is cheaper than Spotify and has better sound quality, there is no reason not to use it at this point
@@dilbophagginztidal is like 2x the price for the good sound
Wonderful as always professor! Here are my tops that I'm feeling from the year
Song - Skating by Vince Guaraldi
Artist - Kendrick
Album - Remember That You Will Die by Polyphia
Song: euphoria
Album: TMNT - Mutant Mayhem
Artist: Kendrick Lamar
Love that TMNT movie!
@ it was so good and the soundtrack is phenomenal
AVAA, I really think you're right about the panopticon aspect of spotify wrapped. This year my spotify wrapped and top 100 songs feels pristine, but I think it'd be nice if I had more songs on it that say more about my experience of music this year. Part of that is that a whole bunch of insanely good albums came out this year, but I feel like I need to drill down into more specific taste. I think it's worth considering for next year.
That being said, I like that spotify wrapped gives me a look back at my year. Some things I didn't expect to be on there are there because I listened to them a lot earlier in the year. They weren't really my perception of the year as the wrapped released, but it made me remember that yeah, I listened to a ton of MF DOOM like I do every year, and I had about a month where I was listening to MIKE albums near exclusively.
Anyway, the albums I've been thinking about this year from my own perception are DAMN, I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, and Beware of the Monkey
Preemptively giving this video 👍👍. I cancelled Spotify years ago and I don’t miss it at all!
What do you use to listen to music? Because unfortunately streaming is the only affordable way to listen to a lot of music.
I used to use SoundCloud, it's still streaming, but better in many ways... Until it wasn't.
I feel like Tidal has its own issues too.
SAME AND BUYING MUSIC IS SO FUN NOW. I HATE SPOTIFY
@@elijahclaude3413you don’t need to listen to everything ever created. Buy whatever you love and get the other stuff when you want/can. It’s really that simple. After a year of no Spotify you’ll have $120 of music you picked. Own, etc. I have only been doing this for 6 months and it’s way better for me. I bought old albums even (OutKast, Biggie) and new ones too (Denzel, Doechii, Pete&Bas).
I actually fuck with the music as opposed to just listen/stream. It’s a massive difference in my consumption.
@elijahclaude3413 I buy my music as well. If you have an mp3 player and a disk drive you are golden. I also like to support the local music community. I’m not from the USA and I’m not from the biggest city but there’s plenty of local music.
My top 3 albums:
Phoebe Alice Lou - Shelter
Peach Pitt - From 2 to 3
Damien Rice - O
This year to me had a heavy emphasis on rejoicing in the sadness. Being sad is such a potent part of life and these albums encapsulate that feeling for me through and through. I was waiting for this video even though I didn’t realize I was and I couldn’t agree with ya more! CDs are the staple for music in my car and I plan to keep it that way. Funnily enough though, I think it would be cool if RUclips did something like spotify wrapped in terms of your most watched channel, etc. You, my good sir, would 1000% be my number 1. AVAA Prof
AVAA Sky! I completely understand and agree with the points you made. I never thought people made playlists to listen while they sleep for their wrapped to look a certain way, that feels a bit crazy to me. For me I’ve always used wrapped just as a synopsis of my year instead of something I need to use to fit in. With that being said I think the albums I listened to the most according to feeling/ lasting impact would be(not in order):
Brat - Charli XCX
The Forever Story - JID
MMATBS & GNX - Kendrick
Scrapyard - Quadeca
The rise and fall of a Midwest princess - Chappell Roan
As a near 30 year old I love to see what I listened to thru out the year with wrapped it sorta transports me back to a feeling or place
But I didn’t think too deeply about the formatting of people and their taste based on perception
Entertaining take ultimately very thought provoking
Thank you. The quantification of something qualitative, like the enjoyment of music, is exactly what I have been thinking about a lot.
my top 3 songs for the year, not according to spotify:
1. NO GOD IN THUNDERDOME by HEALTH (my fav song, it's hard to put into words how much i love this song. even though it was originally written for a GTA game i don't even play, there's a sort of haunting beauty to it that im obsessed with)
2. Slaves & Bulldozers by Soundgarden (I've been listening to them since as far as I can remember because my dad loves them and their hits are played often on Sirius XM channel 34 lithium, the 90's angry rock/grunge station that he also loves and listens to constantly. but this was the first song of theirs i found and fell in love with all on my own, not because of him or that channel, and it quickly became my favorite song of theirs)
3. Professional Griefers - Vocal Mix by Deadmau5 and Geard Way (a classic, early 2010's era techno song with the king of emo music. tbh, i was obsessed with this song around a decade ago when i was 14 and emo, and then i completely forgot it existed for many years until i randomly stumbled upon it again a few months ago. and i quickly became obsessed with it, partly because of nostalgia, but also because there's just something about Way's delivery and my brain loves to chew on the borderline-nonsensical lyrics.)
my top 3 albums, not according to spotify:
1. Songs of a Lost World by The Cure (i had been wanting to listen to more of them, then found out they released a new album! i decided to test out my fancy new Bluetooth headphones i bought myself with a black Friday deal as an early Christmas gift, and was blown away. Some day, when I have the time and energy, I'm going to write an essay on how I believe this album acts as a closer to their career, although i don't know if they plan on releasing any more new music)
2. DAMN by Kendrick Lamar (I decided to give the album a long-overdue relisten while on a flight, and goddamn was there shit i missed the first time around, from songs I forgot I loved, to a new understanding of what the album was about, what it says about Kendrick himself. and fully reaffirmed his spot as my fav rap artist)
3. RAT WARS by HEALTH (my 2nd fav band's newest album. every song got added to my main playlist, the only song i really skip is the last, and it's probably my most-replayed album to date)
Man I love you videos! Thank you for taking the time to make them!
so top 3 albums and probably artists too:
1. taylor swift - tortured poets department
2. charli xcx - brat and the brat remix album
3. zach bryan - the great american bar scene
Thank you for describing this uncanny feeling I got looking through wrapped this year. I don’t think there has been another year where I enjoyed music as much as this year, and there is no quantifiable number Spotify can give me to show that
I wanted to talk about this for so long, so thanks Prof. Skye. My top albums for this year are as follows
1. WILLOW'S Empathogen - I was planning on studying in my school library for some upcoming exams; when I arrived and sat down I opened Spotify and saw an ad, a suggestion, something that showed that the album was available for listen. I had to this point never given a WILLOW record the time of day, but I just went "f*** it" and went through. My plans to study were immediately cancelled and I spent the entirety of the planned session playing and replaying what I think to be one of my favourite albums of all time now
2. Tyler, The Creator's Chromakopia - I've never been aware of the wider music industry and have rarely been a part of "album drops" and their culture until this year, and I think Tyler gave the best experience I've had of it. The teaser's were the most hyped inducing things I've ever been a part of, from music videos to official song leaks from tiktok, it felt magical being a part of an event and getting hyped about it with friends. It is my favourite Tyler album simply because of how much that experience added to it, and it sounded damn good to boot.
3. Outside Air's Forever - After a year of my favourite band's silence, I got the devastating news this year that they essentially broke up, or more so, split off into a duo and an individual. They continued to make and put out songs but the duo was set to embark on their first album as Outside Air, and I was excited to hear new music from some of the most talented people I've heard in my short life on here.
4. Kendrick Lamar's GNX - I got into Kendrick the year before he would have one of the greatest runs in hip-hop history I have ever witnessed. Last year was more of an introduction, getting acquainted with TPAB and MMATBS and getting a taste of his work. This year I went through all of it, with the beef adding fuel to the fire of my love for his work, and he tops it off with a whole new project that I get to enjoy off first listen, and dissect with the rest of the world, something I had previously never done or been a part of, which makes GNX special to me on the level that Chromakopia is.
5. Lil Yachty's Let's Start Here. - It's a project from the year prior but I managed to fall head over heels over it this year. Id only ever heard a few tracks from it which I really loved from last year, but then I decided to take the plunge after randomly finding Fantano's review on it. He was describing "the BLACK Seminole." And how it was akin to a Pink Floyd track which I really loved "Great Gig In The Sky" and I wanted to hear what that sounded like, so I paused his review and went to check for myself. It was better than I had imagined, so I went through the whole thing that night. The transitions, the sound signature, the vocals and the fact that this was a LIL YACHTY PROJECT FLOORED ME. It is undeniably my most listened to album this year and to this point, my favourite album of all time.
Thank you
I knew I had to watch this video the moment I saw the title and I saw it's by you
I already had a few issues with wrapped, firstly, maybe on a pity note, because it starts celebrating a "whole year" of music when the year hasn't even finished yet, so automatically if an artist decides to drop anything in December, they're screwed. I left using Spotify years ago (first to Deezer and now I use Apple Music) and knowing how little Spotify paid artists was my biggest incentive (and listening to songs in any other app shows how BAD the audio quality is on Spotify, it's scary how it remains the main platform even with all the issues it has and how little it cares for artists and the music itself, so I already had this idea that Wrapped was mostly a marketing gimmick to make people share their brand, and I've never considered the aspects of individuality and brand loyalty that you brought up
And your point about quantification really made me think on how a lot of the larger fanbases (some of them people refer to Stan Twitter) opperate on always having to quantify their favorite's success in an imaginary warfield against other fanbases instead of celebrating the music. Even in a microscale, there's always a risk of the fanbase eat itself because the fans are always finding ways to compete with each other and bringing the numbers to back them up.
Of course I don't see a problem people sharing their Wrapped and feeling curious about their listening habits thruought the year, but I wish more people would bring this conversation on the quantification of music and how the pursuit for individuality makes us bland (something that I've never thought about before watching this video), so thank you for that
I don't always comment because many times I watch your videos on TV (and there are some videos I still have to watch, sorry about that), but I really want to express how I appreciate your views and approach for album reviewing. Greetings from Brazil :D
really appreciate this. articulated a lot of feelings that i personally was experiencing regarding the commodification of an art form. definitely feeling a severe spiritual sickness that comes with streaming as a model and by extension the quantification of literally everything you do within the panopticon of the internet.
I feel like I engaged with more music this year than my non Spotify streaming year end suggests.. and I think it’s because I spent a lot of hours listening to you talk about music. Aside from that this year felt quite empty as far as listening to a few things a lot. Tyler, Yuja Wang specifically playing Philip Glass’s Étude no 6, and The Cure Disintegration in preparation for their new album. In reality I listened to it maybe twice but the first time was such a memorable experience that it defined a big part of my year.
AVAA! I usually like the reflective nature of Spotify Wrapped, a platform I am scared of leaving because I've been on there for 15 years or so. But it has been particularly bad and unrepresentative this year. Partially because it's way worse after the layoffs, and most importantly because the best album of the year, Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee is not on Spotify (partially as an act of rebellion against Daniel Ek) and I've been listening to little else outside of that album.
PS: Hope you find the time to make a video on that incredible album one day, would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on it.
The Spotify Wrapped this year has been disappointing, and I don't think anyone is missing out. Over the year, Spotify has significantly changed its layout, which now feels uncomfortable. I can barely discover new music and am stuck with songs from my own playlists being repeatedly recommended. As a result, my listening history has become really boring this year, and I no longer get recommendations for new albums from artists I follow.
Last year's Spotify Wrapped was exciting imo as they used data in a very creative way to show the genres I listen to and the cities where those genres are popular ik it sounds silly, but the algorithm this year seems off-it didn’t really reveal anything new to me. I’m considering switching to Tidal because of the current state of my music library tbh and I know I love music of various genres, and do not wanna be labeled in any way.
I spent most of this year listening to some of the worst recieved albums in recent memory. VULTURES 2 was my top album,I listened to eternal atake 2 a lot as well. I don't think a lot of people in the post-spotify wrapped world would admit to that and that makes me sad. And if you think my crusade of "bad music" is about to stop,i plan on going thru the Soulja Boy backlog.
And don't think i was trolling or torturing myself,i like both albums.
Soulja boy has some heat ngl, but about 75% is trash lol 😂
Ea2 is an enjoysble album
One of my top songs was Alright by Kendrick, while I like the song I felt like I listened to other songs much more. And then it hit me that because I tend to listen to my own playlists I must’ve been subjected to Spotify’s “shuffle” and I put quotations because apparently Spotify’s shuffle feature doesn’t actually shuffle songs at random but instead curates a queue of songs they THINK you’ll like. This also would explain why I have Denzel Curry who I once again like but only would have one song or two once in a while, and freakin Kanye West despite not following up with his recent projects.
I know there is a lot of discrepancy around this but I am one of those people that have self proclaimed ‘diverse’ music taste. I just like collecting and sorting songs into playlists and exploring music history and culture. But until Spotify sorts out shuffle or I listen to specific songs exclusively for data spread, my wrapped will look like an only rap fan when it could have prog rock, contemporary jazz/fusion, indie pop, hell even video game music. Just something that I would be satisfied to say represents me.
My top songs were: Share My World by Mary J Blige, Stir Fry from Migos, and Raydar by JID
In addition will recommend video game stuff because I want to get more people on game, so to speak.
Atlus is most well known for their Persona games and music and while they are great and only get better with each entry, music from the sister series Shin Megami Tensei is so unique in that it fuses grunge, electronica, and traditional eastern music to fit the atmosphere of post apocalyptic Tokyo. The 5th game and it’s rerelease is arguably the strongest
Been checking your videos for a few days since stumbling upon your Mahashmashana review and I love how your brain works. I love the perspective.
It would be a dream to have a brain like yours pore over our record. Put the criticality back into music criticism.
Always tried to articulate my dislike of spotify wrapped to my friends, but I'm dismissed as ruining fun. Loved your points and glad to have caught this premiere.
My #1 album must have been OK Computer by Radiohead
My alarm is the clock intro to Pink Floyds "Time" so that's gotta be #1 song
To pick a different artist from those two, I really got into all the albums of King Crimsons first run, probably spent most time listening to them.
AVAA!
Hey Doc, first time long time, would you be able to expand on what you meant around 3:50? Are you saying that if you think you have a guilty pleasure, really it’s just that you’re being classist or racist or some sort of other “ist” (because you think that for example you shouldn’t be listening to something because it’s ‘girly’ and thus not actually a guilt pleasure you are just a mysognist)
I think I agree with this point in general but I’m curious about what you think about artists like Kanye, R Kelly, Led Zeppelin, MJ. Many of my favs turns out have really hurt some people and I do feel guilty when I listen to their stuff. I think that qualifies as a guilty pleasure. Thoughts? Thanks as always for your insight honestly and analysis ❤
AVAA professor
Honestly I agree with a ton of the points in this video. I remember in the beginning of the year my whole top ten spots were from Black Thought’s Cheat Codes and then for the rest of the year I decided to not listen to that incredible album to get it out of the list, and now the album is ingrained in my mind as just something to get out of the way. It has made me appreciate one of my favorite albums of all time much less which pisses me off
thank you for this video! i love your perspective and energy! just good to get different perspectives and open up to new ways of thinking and feeling about things. do you accept requests? i would for you to do a review on the front bottoms!!!! i value your thoughts and perspectives so much, they’re my favorite band, it would be so cool to see ur insights / feeling on em ❤🎉
AVAA! kendrick was for sure the most impactful for me this year. mavi’s shadowboxing was absolutely remarkable. finally, my own music had a hold on me this whole year. it was a fantastic year for music in general!
AVAA! Thank you for always providing different perspectives, Professor. My top album of this year was Charm by Clairo
i have most of the same feelings about spotify wrapped, but i got the biggest dopamine hit when it told me i was in the top 500 jane remover listeners
dude i love frailty what did you think of the new album?
Quarters of Change (small indie band from Brooklyn), Kendrick Lamar, and a bunch of people at the intersection of Jazz and House. Great video Skye, can probably be extrapolated much more broadly than just music!
Spitting as always Professor Skye. Much of the talking points on data remind me of some things that Byung Chul-Han talks about in "The Transparency Society" and our obsession with needing EVERYTHING to be made visible and quantifying everything, leaving no room for "negativity". We are cyborgs in a sense already with our phones being our extra limb that's just not integrated directly in our bodies, but I appreciate what you speak to here bc the danger of that slippery slope is us becoming the same and becoming dull blown robots.
Top 3 albums listened this year:
1. Two Star & The Dream Police (Mk.gee)
2. Leather Blvd (B-Cool.Aid)
3. Díptico (Agustín Pereyra Lucena) R.I.P.
AVAA Skye! I’m so blessed to be able to listen to People who Aren’t There Anymore by Future Islands, Adult Contemporary by Chromeo and Why Lawd? by NxWorries
My top songs are generally the stuff Spotify decides to play after my bedtime playlist runs out. Which means many of the songs I have no memory of ever hearing at all
You no you can turn that off though? It's like the first thing I did when I got Spotify cause I don't like random shit. Just want what I want.
This is why I just listen to music on RUclips. I'm not bothered by ads, don't care about metrics and most of the artists I listen to can be discovered through RUclips (not premium)
Definitely listened to a lot of Kendrick (MMTBS in particular) mixed in with a bit of Max Richter, Hans Zimmer (LOVE OST's), Emile Mosseri, JID, SchoolBoy Q and Mac Miller (I also vividly remember a month where Frank Sinatra was SLAPPING for me)
Only regret is that I haven't listened to Ab Soul more
Top 3 Artists this year
- Billy Woods
- Jamie XX
- Charli
Top 3 most listened to albums
- History Will Absolve Me
- In Waves
- Brat
Makes sense
This year felt to me like Jeff Buckley, old school funk and in the last couple of months a great appreciation for jazz, especially Japanese jazz - thanks for the great video!
Really felt what you said about flattening in the video. Just as a society we flatten ourselves to be so many different things. Wether thats ‘likable’ or ‘successful’ or whatever else!
for me if I had to give my spotisky ripped my top artist would 100% be Mitski. This was the year I got the chance to finally see her live and wow she is just incredible. I think I listened to The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We at least 20 times on vinyl. And I know for sure I listened to I Bet On Losing Dogs all the time.
Number two would probably the the artist Roar. Also another artist I got to see live for the first time that just blew me away. He is just so good.
Number three feels like a tie for me between Adrienne Lenker and Akira Yamaoka. Akira Yamaoka composed the silent hill two soundtrack and I’ve listened to it in full on vinyl at least once a week for like two months. And Adrienne Lenker’s music has just defined the last 3-5 months of my life especially her album songs.
also I LOVE your videos.
artists
1. porter robinson
2. underscores
3. hi im chris
songs
1. presumably dead arm (617 session) by sidney gish
2. vanilla twilight by owl city
3. easier to love you by porter robinson
albums
1. ceebo let go! by hi im chris
2. wallsocket by underscores
3. sock-footed teddy hyde
honorable mention to detahjae and lone, borealis that album had me in a chokehold for like a month
Underscores. That's the tweet
You are so good for this.
1. Black and Blue - I’d play the first few tracks driving down to go swim with a couple of old swim buddies in the bay before work on foggy LB mornings
2. Short and Sweet because I’d play it for my girlfriend whenever she was having a bad day
3. Untitled EP my friends and I have been working on writing every Wed for the past few months
Love your vids Prof. Skye keep it up!
I’ve always had a distaste for Spotify wrapped for several of the reasons you bring up, but ofc I’m too curious not to look. Love your point about how what you feel like was your biggest/most listened to music of the year IS your biggest music of the year, not what Spotify tells you. Our narratives are definitely much more powerful, intriguing, and human than a little counter.
Also, I hadn’t thought about the cult of individuality thing. When you said how music is something we do together, it really drove that point home for me. Wrapped is definitely one factor driving us to consume music individualistically and obsess over ourselves (from an imagined and fabricated outside perspective). Sharing music with others and learning/celebrating the tastes of others is some of the most rewarding experiences music has to offer
Lord help us, he learned the pause function.
Since 2021, when I embraced my Africanhood, I started listening to a lot more African artists and their music. I swear a whole year, I listened to more African music than any other genre combined. When I tuned into my Replay, I noticed my genre of the year was Hip Hop. Although it is possible, I find it odd.
The primary reason is because African music is not listed as such, they either called Worldwide, Afrobeats, afro-beats (with an hyphen), alte, pop, amapiano 😔 For some reason, this genre is not centralised, it's very disappointing.
If the algorithm is based on repetition, it's very hard for it to recommend me African music because apparently I was listening to "worldwide" and then changed to something different, when they're actually the same genre. But if I listen to Kendrick, Metro Boomin, Future, the algorithm will go "Oh! You like Hip Hop? Bet! Here's more"
you're the only person in your field with an actual principled stance on Spotify. love to see it as a nothing artist Spotify already felt wasn't even important to pay at all.
AAVA, this really is an awesome video, and I appreciate you for making me question the way I engage with music. Aquemini by Outkast, Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty, and shadowbox by Mavi were probably my 3 albums of my year. I’d heard the first two before, but I bought their CD’s and used them so much on the way to and from school. Mavi’s album was amazing and just continued to grow on me. Also shoutout to Vince Staples, I really got into his stuff this year. And I cant forget the new Bon Iver EP (and the rest of their work)! And finally, shoutout to all the stuff on the top 40 like Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter for always being on at work!
Wait, Tidal gives 1 cent per stream? Wow! That's way better than spotify
Song: your silent face by new order
Album: brat by charli xcx
Artist: wolfgang amadeus mozart
AVAA, had a weird mix of music this year:
My number 2 album would Tantric Bile's Unbidden - which I think might be the coolest contemporary jazz album out! Some truly insane things happening on it
Number 2 would be Brat - no explanation needed, on the other side of the globe so I had a real Brat winter
Number 3 would have to be Kim Gordon's The Collective - which I think is the first time I've really genuinely enjoyed trap/trap-adjacent music
"flattening" feels very accurate. i stopped using sny streaming service for music years ago because of ads getting in the way of me listening to music. I've been hoarding full discographies for bands in the form of MP3s for much longer than these music streaming services have been popular. i'm perfectly happy to just open up winamp and play my jams that way! and i often encourage my loved ones to start doing it too. you never know when a streaming service will remove the music you love. you never know if that song you care about will suddenly disappear from the internet entirely. i enjoy finding obscure things and often i find that i wind up the last source for locating those songs when the media gets deleted or removed for whatever reason. there's a lot of joy that can come from manually hunting down new music rather than having some algorithm determine what it thinks your music taste should be. why box ourselves in when there's so many interesting kinds of sound in the world that you could discover for yourself? sorry for my rant, btw. i just feel strongly about this subject lol great video!
If you say you listened to it more, it is mathematically true even if you've heard something else more times. Real attention and engagement with art doesn't just happen by hitting the play button. In photography, there is an important distinction made between just looking and actually seeing while in the act of making photos. You must be engaged to create and you must be engaged to appreciate.
Most played
1. Billy woods: Aethopes
2. JpegMafia: Scaring the hoes
3. Los Chicanos: Que no se olvide
Aethiopes is a masterpiece
Dont even care that they’re pop asf:
In no particular order cause i cant pick favorites:
Peggy & Danny - Scaring the hoes
Charli - BRAT
Herbie Hancock - head hunters
Magic Sam - West Side Soul
Typewriter - 2023 demos
All on spotify, scope typewriter they rip
AVAA, but really, this may be your best video to date (that I've seen) and I wholeheartedly agree. I'm 33 and I already feel too old for this shit. People would rather be passively submissive to streaming algorithms than explore on their own or support their local scene. It just makes me sad.
Top 3:
#1 New FJM album (despite it just coming out, I'm obsessed)
#2 Tchaikovsky Swan Lake (because my 15 month old and I take baths together, and I decided to try listening to classical music while we do and now that's a whole thing).
#3 Vulfpeck - Live in France (whole concert) because RUclips Premium is my streaming service (I think it's 0.008 compared to Spotify's 0.003 if you have Premium) and one of the benefits of that is that live stuff uploaded to RUclips can enter your audio listening collection, and we love to dance round the kitchen with the baby and Vulfpeck.
AVAA!
my spotisky ripped 2024:
1) kendrick lamar - for obvious reasons, but also because i listened to mr morale a bunch (also what got me into your channel!); i even got a kdot tattoo as my first tat this year
2) apsilon - german rapper who raps/sings a lot about the anger and the fears of (Turkish) 3rd generation migrants whose grandparents came to Germany as guest workers in the 60s; he's put out his first album "haut wie pelz" and i would loooove to hear your thoughts on it one day haha
3) voir dire by earl sweathshirt - this album got me through a rough time beginning of the year, even though i barely listen to it currently
AVAA! This has been an exceptionally good year for new music imo! So many great albums and I don't think Spotify wrapped reflects it in any meaningful way.
Some of my favorite albums include:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title
The Smile - Wall of Eyes
The Smile - Cutouts
Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
MGMT - Loss of Life
The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstacy
Vampire Weekend - Only God was Above Us
Geordie Greep - The New Sound
English Teacher - This Could be Texas
Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Mount Eerie - Night Palace
Colin Stetson - The Love it Took to Leave You
Top tier video. Have not heard this person before, made me do some self reflection.
Oh, the irony that an obsession with individuality turned us all the same......AVAA!
ur spotisky idea is great and I actually bee doing this with some friends for some time now, usually around late november when the whispers about wrapped start we tell each other what we think our top 5 songs, albums and artists look like and also when we think something won't show cuz it ain't on streaming, for example i thing watch the party die and 6:16 would've been in my top 5 if it would've been on streaming. I also like to stay as true as possible on my wrapped (mostly cuz I forget that wrapped exist a month later) cuz i think its a good opportunity to put ppl u know on to good music or be put on to shit urself. At worst ur getting clowned for a few days and literally a week later its already irrelevant and at best u can introduce someone to a certain artist/album/song that could become they favorite.
what I feel like my top 5 most listened was:
Artists: Kendrick, Zel, JID, Newjeans, future (Spotify said Kendrick, Zel, Kanye, JID, Travis)
Albums: KotMS , GNX, WE DON'T TRUST YOU, Blue Lips, American Dream and maybe Might Delete Later or Chromokopia (IDK spotify didn't gave me my most listened albums)
Songs: Like that (my hype before the beef was crazy), hot one, America has a problem kenny remix, euphoria, and then probably either supernatural or right now by nwjns (spotify said Not like us(apparently I've listened to this song almost 400 times), euphoria, like that, hot one, and otonoke by creepy nuts, I feel like if the diss tracks weren't there it would look pretty similar to what i felt my top songs where)
I FEEL like I listened to Lord Huron, Ashniko, and Silversun Pickups the most this year. I couldn’t tell you any album name, but I CAN tell you that I thoroughly appreciated every time one of their songs began playing. I love seeing everyone else’s music feels for the year.
This video mended a part of my soul I didn't know had a crack. AVAA my list:
-better oblivion community center (the band with Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers)
-Scrapyard (album by Quadeca)
-Shoegaze/dreampop (the genre couse why not)
Yves Tumor 🎉
Dude idek if this is related to the video but yeah I never get good recaps because I used YT Music on my phone, Apple music on my laptop, iTunes on my home PC, I have music that I've downloaded as MP3s, and I have CDs I love to bump. I am the optimal way to listen to music.
My top song of the year: Sound and Vision
Top Artist: Masayosi Takanaka (a guitar magician who brings joy through music) and Keith Jarrett! (Thanks for your homework prof, I really find his KoIn concept live album a perfect choice for study bgm)
Top Album: The New Sound (I love Holy, Holy and Terra so much)
AVAA, love from Suzhou, China!
LOVED this video.
This year I spent a lot of time driving to and from school/work and almost all of that time was spent listening to King Gizz. I think I had 300 hours with them, which is probably not too far off from how much I've driven this year. My next four, based on both numbers and my personal opinion, were White Denim (love the album with Raze Regal), Kikagaku Moyo, Mong Tong, and l'Eclair. As a second year uni student, I was really embarrassed that my stats and favourite artists were so weird. Everyone's Spotify wrapped seemed so much cooler than mine, but outside of maybe one or two top played songs everyone's was largely of the same selection. I wanted to post something to my instagram about it but I was too embarrassed to do so. I don't know why I felt so disappointed that my taste is so much different than anyone else but I guess by your thesis this isn't a bad thing.
Saw Mong Tong at the White Hotel last year, and Kikagaku several times. Both introduced to me by Spotify, where else would I have heard them? Don't be embarrassed by your list, everyone else was not cool, your list was!
AVAA!! If I'm being honest about my songs that I feel have been on repeat this year for me, they're Is There Really No Happiness by Porter Robinson, Falling in Love Again by Joyce Manor, Father Time by Kendrick, and 3 Summers by Jeff Rosenstock. Some of these are on my Wrapped, some aren't, but these are 4 songs I think about basically every day. Numbers aren't everything, I think Skye is right that this comment says more about me and my tastes than my entire Wrapped does
Hey just wanted to let you know that, although I only watch one of your videos every now and then, when I do it is always interesting, entertaining, engaging, and well: always positive. Thanks a lot for that ❤ Also, nice Bathrobe!
im really glad to see this video as ive been thinking the same thing for a while. i feel like, while it is cool to see data at the end of the year, its definitely a much better method in my opinion to instead come up with your own lists based on what you think you listened to most, or what impacted you the most through the year. as for my list as i expected, and feel is much more accurate than my wrapped: my top albums (based on how much i found myself going back to them, not best albums to come out this year) would have to be:
-DEFINITELY 'retrovision' by honey revenge (a BANGER album that i listened to a TON this year)
-'ikigai' by futuristic
-'and then there was moses' by kvng moses
-why not 2' by grieves
-and honestly probably 'hybrid theory' by linkin park (since i went back on a listening journey through their old albums, even though meteora is actually my favorite, i definitely gave hybrid theory more of chance to shine this year)
some top songs would be
-DEFINITELY 'hellhound' by deathbyromy
-'the pines' by 070 shake
-'i'm not yours' by the haunt
-'small talk' by russ
-'euphoria' by kendrick
and a lot of others but i'll leave it at that :)
It is It's difficult for me to fully remember what music impacted me as long ago as January, but thanks to Prof Skye the past month has been filled with Fievel is Glauque, so that would probably be on my Spotiskye Wripped. AVAA!
I always say there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure, only pleasure!!! Thank you
And agreed with everything you said about Spotify. I listened to leisure panic by Dan Kelly (great Australian album) on cd in my car on repeat. The new sound by greep was my no. 1 album on Apple Music. And im pretty sure I put the first devo album on the turntable the most, to get to the satisfaction stones cover.
I listened to a whole lot of Wilco and it got me through a tough, tough time this year. Nowhere to be seen on my wrapped though! It's almost as if that silly statistic does not matter :> AVAA
@cherti what album would you recommend?
@TALKOFSD Start with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but my favourites are Being There and Summerteeth
Shot In The Arm is the song that really got me through, though.
I really appreciate your interest
Big up Tidal, RUclips and professor skye😇🔥
I love hip-hop’s embracement of physical media 👏
I used to live in Carson City... great little town. Anyway, I never thought of the wrapped thing in that way, but you're 100% right, especially for teenagers. I would have curated a playlist to play and up my numbers. I already think about streaming to show my support for an artist, and fully admit to streaming songs for 35 seconds until it counts as a listen and then jumping to another track I want to boost the numbers on. I can totally see people having that same mindset for their own numbers.
Man what I would give to have a conversation with you about what you mentioned here 3:51 .... or at the very least a 2 hour long video on the subject😂 idk why that was so interesting to me
Oh that was incredibly interesting to me as well. If this was a petition for him to make another video of him elaborating on that then this would be my signature :)
AVAA, I think you perfectly expressed what I was feeling this year about Spotify Wrapped. It kinda makes listening to music feel like a game where you have to get the 'best' score. I noticed halfway throughout this year that I was putting on a playlist when I would go to sleep just to get a bigger amount of total minutes listened. (pretty sad if you think about it) so I switched to using a mp3 file player on my phone since I have quite a big CD collection. this way I could just enjoy my music without having to 'worry' about stats that at the end of the day don't matter.
My top 5 albums this year are:
Dark Times - Vince Staples
KOTMSV2 - Denzel Curry
Samurai - Lupe Fiasco
No Need For Alarm - Del The Funky Homosapien
Vaudeville Villain - MF DOOM
The decision to listen to my music without it being tracked is honestly surprisingly freeing.
I never use the algorithm. I read reviews music news etc and listen to what sounds interesting. Whenever I listened to stuff Spotify recommends it's usually dull.
My most listened to artist this year was Cardiacs, which love or loathe them is certainly not flat.
Hello professor! I just recently found your channel and am slightly blown away by how well you're able to articulate your thoughts in one take with no real editing. Guess it comes with the job. Anyway, I have a somewhat unique perspective in that I wasn't all that invested in music until some time last year. I obviously listened to music and had preferences, but hadn't really looked into it enough to appreciate the meaning that it can have. So that makes this year my first full year being truly invested in what was going on, both in current music and the significant amount of releases from the past that I had missed out on.
On Apple Music, the platform that I've used pretty consistently throughout the year, they go even further than the annual review of what you listened to, releasing a recap every month. And despite the valid criticisms I've heard of these recaps, I've continually been looking forward to and reading them each month. Yes, that makes me 13x worse than those who are just into the annual recap, and it definitely does impact what I go on to listen to in some way, but I still feel like it's been a tool for good to some degree. Each month, it's really just given me a chance to reflect, both on the actual music that I listened to within the time frame, and on the significance of it: what exactly that music means to me and why I chose to listen to it so much. Or even if I'm disappointed that an album/artist didn't make it on there, reflect on how that music means enough to me to be disappointed.
I also think that a year is fairly arbitrary amount of time, so I'm going to ignore the time frame and give some music that has meant a lot to me recently:
Ants From Up There - BCNR has dominated my listening for a long time now, and is just all-around incredible
Igor - Tyler the creator, Velocity : Design : Comfort - Sweet Trip, and We Got It From Here... - ATCQ are all albums I got into recently and have really connected with
Everything put out lately by Cameron Winter has been beautiful, including his just released album Heavy Metal, which is very much worth checking out
Thank you for what you do on here, your analysis is always interesting and I find your videos weirdly engaging for the format they're in.
Professor, I'd say you're probably a shoo-in for having ADHD. I say this as someone with it: we neuro-divergent people tend to gravitate together b/c we think in similar ways.
I've never understood the appeal of Spotify wrapped, so I've never used it, but completely get your points about it! As someone in ed-tech, the "flattening" effect of data is very real. There was a great quote about how data collection will always lead to collecting an ever-expanding amount of, & justifying the increasing collection of, said data under capitalism, but I've forgotten who. AVAA
I don't think you have any clue about what you're talking about.
Song: The Colour of Spring by Mark Hollis
Album: The Magnolia Electric Co. by Songs: Ohia
Artist: Ween
really loved and connected with porter robinson's smile :D , got really into census designated after not liking it for months, favorite new artist discovery this year was joey valence & brae! No hands is such a fun listen i'll be going back to for years.
AVAA Professor I agree with the points you made here my too 3 that I can think of on the top of my head are:
Mavi - Shadowbox
El Cousteau - Merci, Non Merci
Beabadoobee - This Is How Tomorrow Moves
AVAA! Even though it just came out my album of the years gotta be GNX. I also loved ABNH by Doechii. Third favorite release this year is probably Fabiana Palladino’s self titled she’s making classic dance synth pop records and I wish she wasn’t so underrated. She’s signed to Jai Paul and her dad is Pino Palladino the famous session musician (played with The Who, D’Angelo, David Gilmore, more) but her record is great in its own right, if you needed a co-sign though she’s got them all from the best of em
Most played song:
Prayer - Kendrick Lamar
such a powerful message and instrumental and it's not even released
Most played album:
Labor Days - Aesop Rock
incredibly unique production and theme that feels dismal but not hopeless, mixed with a distinct rapping style
Most played artist:
Frank Ocean
finally sat with Blonde and Channel Orange for the first time and was blown away