An Introspective Study of my 2022 Spotify Wrapped
Thursday 1/12/22
I know Spotify Wrapped is kinda cringe and people hate brands trying to sum up a year, but I embrace cringe and I want to talk about my music taste for the year. 2022 is a unique study of my tastes because I didn't actually use Spotify much for a large part of the year.
As discussed in Media Recommendations #37, I spent a few months bingeing all of Season 2 of Critical Role, and recently, I've been listening to another D&D podcast called Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Now I hate being alone with my thoughts, so while I usually will have my headphones in with music to fill that void, D&D filled that role for a large part. And so, Spotify did not get as much use.
The interesting impact of this on the trends in Spotify Wrapped compared to 2021, is that times of obsession are overrepresented in the data. In past years, if there was a song I played on repeat for a week, it would maybe make it to somewhere in the top 10 maybe, but the top songs would still be my evergreen faves. This year, when I had a song on repeat for a week, that would've been one of the only times I was on Spotify, and it would therefore be guaranteed top 5.
With that preamble out of the way, let's discuss my Spotify Wrapped 2022.
So first bit of data to analyse is my taste in genres. The top 5 they gave me is Rock, Dance Pop, Otacore, Indie Pop, and Anime. In the past, Dance Pop was my top genre, since a lot of my fave songs are 90s or 00s Pop like Savage Garden, Gorillaz, or Outkast. But I went through a phase of angsty rock music early in the year, where I constructed a play list of Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, and Nirvana.
In my younger years, I thought these and other teen angst bands were cringe, but earlier this year, when I recommended Sail by Awolnation, I went through a phase where I accepted sometime a bad mood needs angsty music.
Otacore and Anime are more a result of later in the year, when I started to listen to a lot of Anime OPs, and music by Vtubers. For those confused by the term Otacore (like i was), it basically means weeb music. Videogames, Japanese, Anime.
Next, my top song was Komm Susser Tod, from the soundtrack of The End of Evangelion. Now to be perfectly blunt, I didn't walk away from Eva a superfan. It was confusing at times, and often hard to follow. But at the time, I was going through huge problems with family relationships and self esteem. I was in a state where suicide was a real option, and unfortunately, the lyrics of Komm Susser Tod really impacted me.
Example lyrics:
So with sadness in my heart, I feel the best thing I could do, is end it all, and leave forever. What's done is done, it feels so bad, what once was happy, now is sad. I'll never love again, my world is ending.
You can see how easy it is for someone in a real bad place to get into a worse place with messaging like "it all returns to nothing, I just keep letting me down, letting me down, letting me down."
Now I am in a much better place, but I still appreciate Komm Susse Tod as a very powerful piece that sounds amazing and has very impactful lyrics. So even after I had gotten mentally better, I often replayed this song. 26 plays is not a lot, but again, I wasn't on Spotify a lot this year.
As for the rest of my top 5, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Imagine Dragons' "Believer" started out as a frequent play because of a meme song from Siivagunner if you'd believe me. But as that Angst play list became a more frequent part of my listen time, I started enjoying the song unironically. Out of Touch is up there as a happy accident. It's just a song I'm often in the mood for. And while it is tangentially a bad mood song, it's more often a comfort song.
Magic Circuit I've gotten more into this year. They're an Indie Dance Electronic band that sometimes features Vtuber personalities such as Nyanners and Ironmouse on vocals on their tracks. Slip is the first song of theirs I ever listened to, and it's still my big fave of theirs to this day.
Money Game pt 2, like Believer, I started listening to as a meme, since there was this clip featuring the best verse of the song circulating at the time. But then I legit became a fan of Ren and his music. He's often does stuff commentating on how much the world sucks and how we live in a society. Big recommend his stuff if you're unfamiliar.
Despite my suicidal angsty phase earlier in the year, my top artist was Ninja Sex Party again. And that's good news for my mental health overall, since NSP is all about absurd positivity. Despite there being no NSP songs, even in my top 10, I wanna attribute NSP being my top artist to the fact that I listen to so many different songs of their all the time.
Because while I may have only had 6 NSP songs in my top 100 play list they made me, other bands I have to be in the mood to listen to. But I'm always in the mood for NSP, and if I have my library on Shuffle, I never skip an NSP song.
As for the rest of my top 5 artists, these ones were also consistently in my good books. Magic Circuit I have sung the praises of above. And while I said that I had 6 NSP songs in my top 100, there were also 6 Magic Circuit Songs. Nyanners is my favourite vtuber, and also a really good singer. She does vocals for most of my favourite Magic Circuit songs, but she also releases songs outside of their collab. And while some of them are shitpost songs like Hey Boy Hey Boy (subtitle: I wanna fart in your mouth), others are legit bops such as Foolish Heart, which was my Top Song last year. She also recently released a cover of Snake Eater (from Metal Gear Solid) that I'm a big fan of.
Maroon 5 got really into my good books this year. I've always thought Maroon 5 was alright, but this year I took the chance to really explore their catalogue, and found there were many songs of theirs I enjoyed that I didnt even know was them like Harder to Breath or their new one Memories.
Imagine Dragons, as I mentioned above, was originally a meme follow, but I became a fan of quite of few of their songs, not just Believer, but Radioactive, the tie in song for Arcane: Enemies, and I like their new one, Bones.
My "Listening Personality" was The Deep Diver, which just confirmed my suspicion that this year's Spotify listens was very often obsession based. When I investigated Maroon 5, I went back and listened to all their stuff. When I followed a couple of Magic Circuit songs, and then their new album came out, I listened to all of it, multiple times.
Not a lot of regular vibing with music this year. It was either I was in the mood for some serious jamming, or I wasn't listening to music at all.
And that was my Spotify Wrapped for 2022.
I had an angst period which ended up being over represented in my top 5 artists and songs, but I also deep dived on some more happy and chill music in Magic Circuit and NSP.
I'll try to listen to more music next year and expand my scope, to try and discover more music, and try to stay in a happier mood. Best wishes for next year!
Here's a link to my top 100 if anyone wants to interrogate the rest of my music taste:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1F0sijgNaJdgit?si=7EEwTg0LS3-cVUBqqui5oQ&utm_source=native-share-menu
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Drabble: Figuring it out (Project Sekai timeline drabble)
While the three Vocaloids were walking through this Sekai as they were aware of, Maroon had been observing the surrounding for anything unusual. Anything...Unstable.
So far nothing bad seemed to happen, which is good as that indicates this bubble dimension seemed stable. But how it is fueled is something else, so he decided to sit on the nearest bench and calmly mediated, trying to sense any unique energy signatures and strangely enough there's nothing he could feel aside from the aura's he can sense from the other two aura users wandering around.
"...Now that's odd. There's gotta be something fueling this place."
He was scratching his chin, remembering that his father said that this dimension wasn't fueled by normal means. This would mean that it's more magical than he originally thought it'd be. Unless...
"..."
Maroon, with a heavy sigh decided to grab his phone and called his father.
"...Hey dad, so this bubble dimensions you talked about. Can I check another one real quickly? If possible one that's less crowded than this? I need to confirm something real quickly."
It was a quick and short conversation that ended up with Maroon heading back to the realm between dimensions, where his father resided. There the two had a small talk about what he experienced about the dimension thus far, causing his father to nod.
"...So you have a similar thought as I have." Zephyr responds, which his son nodded. With that, Zephyr opened a dimension gate for Maroon to enter.
"...The dimension you'll be going to is more chaotic than the one you've been through at first. It was close to bursting, but I've temporarily stopped it by linking my energy source to it's. There's no danger still, but you'll see what I mean."
"Right.." Maroon looked at the throat of the portal, before looking back at his father as he had an idea. "Dad--" Maroon spoke up, "Can you bring Tsukine along to this dimension? She might be a big help uncovering what these worlds are all about."
Zephyr nodded, causing his son to nod back and go through the portal.
Once through, Maroon noticed the state of the dimension it is in. Chaotic was definitely something to describe. It seemed like a world that is of European origin by the looks of the architecture, but it seemed incomplete, a potential mess. Gears were peeking through the parts where the floor wasn't there and there also seems to be buildings upside down in the sky.
The floating merry-go-round from the other bubble dimension was odd enough yet realistic. This clearly showed that whatever this dimension is running on isn't on normal logic-- probably due to the energy source the dimension is-- or was fueled by.
"..."
He looked around the building he was currently inside and noticed unfinished paintings, books, even empty notes. After a while he noticed the sheets of paper were music sheets, he started to organize these. If not for the person who's sheets it originally was made by, then at least for someone who might want to pick it up.
The books that were unorganized he sorted it in order-- or at least he's trying to.
As for the floor, he uses a bit of alchemy to build the tiles so the place would be without holes.
Once he was finished, he stretched a bit and looked at the more organized room. It was still a bit dusty, but it wasn't as cluttered and or chaotic as it was. While there is still a big gap where the wall should be, he felt like he could do it another time if he had that opportunity.
"Having fun helping others out?"
A familiar voice of the pinkette and Magical girl Johou Tsukine could be heard. A chuckle came from Maroon as he looked at her direction with a grin on his face.
"Well, you know me, I prefer a tidy room than a messy room." He responds as he gave the other a high five as a greeting. "This world's a mess-- you can see that, right? How long have you been here anyway?"
"...Maybe it's that way for a reason." Tsukine responds. "Do you know the story of Alice in Wonderland, right? Did you know that the story was about Alice's dreams, right?"
"...Yeah, but isn't that different from what this is?" Maroon responds, raising his eyebrow at what she said. "I know this dimension, including another one I've been in a few minutes ago isn't fueled by normal means. Or are you hinting at the fact that these dimensions are fueled by dreams?"
"That's one possibility," Tsukine responded with a nod. "But looking at the world's atmosphere and the unfinished creative work it seems like there's a possibility that it's something emotional-- feeling. Which is exactly what I'm feeling throughout this whole world."
"..Emotions and dreams, huh..."
Maroon had started to ponder. Dreams-- or even imagination itself for that matter can vary greatly, he was aware of that. As he looked through the now organized sheets of paper, he decided to take a closer look. The world, the books, art, music sheets-- they all seem to share a theme... All of this seemed unfinished as if the people didn't have what it took to continue it, for what reason he did not know, but it wasn't something he was going to dwell on-- he's got something else to focus on.
"...If that's the case that means these that these bubble dimensions don't last long, or eats the person's dream or feelings, like a flame burning the candle away. In other words.." He looked through the gap where the wall should be, not finishing the sentence, but the hint of it was probably clear enough to know what he was trying to say.
The two stare once again at the chaotic scenery, letting the general atmosphere of the place and the information they knew sink in...
"...Tsukine--" Maroon spoke up. "Do you think that maybe, just maybe, worlds like these are something we could think up of? Where our own thoughts, feelings and dreams can create worlds?"
"...You're seeing it with your own eyes," Tsukine responds, with a calmer tone as the somberness of the world is sinking in her mind. "There's a likelihood that at some point that you might make a new world by accident. Whether it's a world as chaotic as this or not is up to your imagination."
She couldn't help but rub her own arms to try and keep herself warm before looking at the blonde male once more.
"..Shall we get going? This place is dreary."
"..."
Maroon nodded before speaking up.
"...Give me a second, I need to do one more thing. Stand back Tsukine."
After a second of processing her throughs, she nodded before she gave him some space to do what he needed to do.
With that, he created a small concentrated ball of fire, before throwing it through the gap and high up in the sky, before the flame hovered above the city's center and turning into a big flame that burned in the sky, forever burning.
"...If this world's theme is unfinished work, then I'd like to set my mark of this world here as this flame that hopefully guides them metaphorically to their destination or to steer them to the path the want to walk to once more."
Silence came from the both of them, before with a nod to the both of them, they decided to head back to the realm between dimensions.
During their way to there, Maroon spoke up to Tsukine once more. "Say, since you've already helped me out here, I hope it's fine if I can ask if you want tot tag along. The dimension me and the others are going to is one where there's an amusement park and a circus by the looks of it. Who knows, you might have some fun there while you're at it too."
"...Who knows. I'll check in on it first for a few minutes before making my decision."
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