In case you didn’t see it on everyone’s Instagram story (mine included), Spotify’s Wrapped was released last week. It’s an a thing that Spotify does every year and it essentially tracks all the times you felt empowered enough to listen to 7 Rings by Ariana Grande even though you have $12.83 in your bank account. BUT they present it in such a fun way that makes you forget why “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver was played 30 times in a 24-hour period. “You’re totally over that break up – Look over here at the fun colors, you spent 35 hours listening to Lizzo! You’ve never been more mentally stable!”

Over the past couple of days, everybody with a Spotify account was sharing their results on social media. Personally, I enjoyed seeing what other people listen to; music means something different to everyone. What I did not enjoy, however, was people posting their results and saying “this is so accurate.” Yeah, no shit, it’s literally your data. Spotify legitimately tracked every single time you played something off their app down to the minute – and you’re gonna sit there and act like Shawn Mendes isn’t your number one artist despite the fact that you listened to Seniorita every day from May 22nd to August 18th.

Regardless, I analyze data for a living, and I love the partnership Spotify and I have forged over the past 3.5 years. As I wrote last year when I was talking about my 2018 results, it’s a been a win for both parties.

“When Spotify goes off and sells my data to advertisers and Corporate America, they know they are getting the best possible data out there. As long as I continue to pay my bill on time they get to continue using my data to prop up their stock price. It’s the price of doing business, I pay money and they get to sell all 25,000 minutes of data that they gather from me, they have to play Michelle Branch for me whenever I want. It’s a win-win.”

In 2019, I listened to 27,000 minutes of music on Spotify’s platform. That number would have been way higher if I didn’t have to go to YouTube to listen to Christina Aguilera’s and Missy Elliot’s version of Car Wash, off of the 2004 film, Shark Tale, which was rudely taken off of Spotify with no explanation in September. Don’t worry, I’m fighting to get it back.

27,000 minutes is a decent amount of time, that’s the equivalent to 18 days, or 5% of the year listening to nothing but BANGERS. I love pop music more than anything, and I have no problem admitting that. The truth is I like all types of music: I’ve jammed out to disco bands like ABBA and Earth Wind & Fire with my mom numerous times, I workout to metal bands like Five Finger Death Punch, I have a 300 song playlist of strictly rap on my Spotify. I can go on and on about the different types of music I like, but the point I’m trying to make is that if the song is good, if it has a good beat, I’ll listen to it. I knew my genre results would be more skewed to pop but I expected a healthy mix of numerous genres as well. Yea, that didn’t happen at all. When I saw the genre breakdown of my year for the first time I actually burst out in laughter.

This graph is just hilarious, I don’t know what separates dance pop from regular pop but I guess I’m a fan of it.

I’m not insecure about my music tastes at all, I love pop music, I have no problem admitting that. The amount of people that compared my musical tastes to a 14 year old girl did not rattle me in the slightest. The only exception I take to that comparison is that 14 year olds today are listening to dumb artists like Bad Bharbie or Little Xan. A 14 year old WISHES they had the musical taste I have. I’m not worried, they’ll get there – it’s called growth; plus when Lil Xan inevitably overdoses on Heroin in 2 years and no longer makes music, a timeless wonder like Christina Aguilera will be waiting in the wings ready to bless these children with masterpieces like Genie in a Bottle.

While I’m on the topic of artists, I figure I’d touch briefly on who my top 5 are.

Calvin Harris being number one did not surprise me at all, when you churn out nothing but hits, being number one is expected. It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows for Calvin and I though. During Sony’s First Quarter earning’s report in March, they said that we could expect a new Calvin Harris by June 30. June 30, came and went without an album. So I waited for their second quarter earning’s report to see if it got pushed off, only to see that they completely omitted him and this album talk. Calvin Harris treated me like a girl who I’ve been pursuing and after numerous attempts, she finally agrees to go on a date with me – only to cancel the day of because she “doesn’t feel too good.” She says “we’ll for sure hang another day”, but we both know that ‘another day’ will not come. It’s been crickets on when Calvin will release new music ever since, and while I appreciate all the bops he’s given me throughout the years, I will admit, it’s frustrating. (I’ve talked about Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, and P!nk in extensive detail as apart of my weekly Music Monday series, so if you want to know my thoughts on those three artists, I’ve linked the blogs for you in their names.

While my artists scream POP KING, my top songs tell another picture.

For the second year in a row, One Kiss is my most streamed song, which, I’m not complaining about, but I really did think it would be Can’t Get You Out Of My Head by Kylie Minogue. For those who may have forgotten the song, CGOMH is one of the best pop songs ever made. I rediscovered it at the beginning of the year and it was a mainstay in the rotation. I wish Spotify showed the amount of times you played a song because I am very curious as to how close this race for number one was.

I’m not going to go into detail about each song because this blog is long enough but I will say that the fact that half my top 10 is Calvin Harris and Britney Spears Foo Fighters doesn’t surprise me a— wait what? Foo Fighters? WHAT 14 YEAR OLD IS LISTENING TO FOO FIGHTERS. (Really though; the most surprising thing is that Britney Spears is my number two most streamed artist but doesn’t have a song in the top 10). I didn’t plan on talking about the top 10 but then I saw Michelle Branch creep in at number 9 so I made an exception. She’s great and deserves all the praise.

Overall this year in review was expected – nothing but bangers. Say what you will about my musical tastes, just know that I do not listen to bad music. Won’t do it.

If you want to see the other 90 songs I listened to, you can find that here.