What I learned from my Spotify 2024 Wrapped
A man is known by the music he ACTUALLY listens to.
Is a man really the music he listens to? I asked myself as I watched the year review video Spotify made for me.
I was surprised because the data defied everything I thought I knew about me and man.
I try to be particular with my music in that before deciding what I want to listen to, I identify the phase I am in and then go for artists I find relatable for that phase and its moods. For example, if I am in a seen-it-all phase, I find that I don’t care about knowing or changing the world so I indulge in introspection or relationships. What I do after that is search for artists who are about introspection and relationship or listen to ones I know. In this case, I’d listen to Tom Waits or search for a genre that is dark and yet musical and find an artist like Bohren & Der Club of Gore.
Or, if I am in an ideas-can-change-the-world phase, I listen to Bob Dylan or lookup ‘best poetic songwriters’ and find an artist like Gill Scott Heron.
Whenever I am a smart dude who likes a little technicality, I go with rock/heavy metal music with a little complexity. Rush, Zappa, Iron Maiden, early Metallica. When I am a techno pessimist, I like stimulating things like sex or gambling so I listen to Japanese noise for hedonistic buzz. When I am a rural lover, I go with folk. When I am angry with the world, I listen to thrash metal. When I am a genius, I listen to classical music.
As soon as I saw the Spotify review video, I opened it but paused— to guess what I would have listened to the most. Considering I have transitioned from a world-changer to a family man this year —which has come with a huge demand for me to distract myself (proved by my indulgence in meaningless cricket videos on YouTube)— I thought I would have listened to a lot of technical music for distraction.
Or I may have listened to a lot of Pink Floyd for relaxation.
But that wasn’t the case. Neither was I listening to Tom Waits’ Hold on a lot.
Spotify tells me that of my five most listened songs, four are by my teenage obsession Blink 182. A band that sings about teenage crush, lust and angst. The other song Sweet Child O’ mine is from my childhood too.
‘Of course,’ I told myself. ‘That’s all I have been listening to.’
There have been no Waits or Rush. What I actually listen to has nothing to do with phases. Although Spotify too tells me that in August I was in a ‘Cyberpunk Rhythm Games Thrash Metal’ phase listening to Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth, while in September I was listening to ‘Old West Banjo Bluegrass’ followed by Pop Punk in October.
What I learn is that the artists that I have listened to irrespective of the phase are the ones I truly listen to.
I haven’t been on a teenager phase in all this. But what I have been is desperate to feel good. And nothing has given me that more than the songs I listened to sixteen years ago. Apparently, the music you listened to when you were the most vulnerable emotionally can make you feel good time and again.
Phases come and go but you remain. The you that has been there as a constant all these years despite changes in thoughts, ideas and phases. The you who actually just wants to feel good.
Of my top 5 artists, there is another that surprised me:
Slayer.
I don’t remember being death or violence-obsessed this year but what I remember is I listened to a lot of Slayer in my early 20s—the second most emotionally vulnerable time in my life.