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Friday, December 27, 2019

A-Town Playlist: Top Spotify Songs of 2019


Another year has come and gone. New Year's Eve is nearly upon us, bringing with it another year-end A-Town Playlist! As many of you may have already noticed, Spotify has made the rounds, informing its users of their trends for 2019. This has become something that I have started to look forward to all year long, and reviewing my Spotify Wrapped playlist over the past week or two has been a lot of fun. Spotify gave me a list of my top 100 songs for this year, but I've curated that down to a 50-song playlist for your listening enjoyment.

Here's my Spotify playlist for 2019:


(https://spoti.fi/2Sw8LEV)


The Top 10

  1. Bambina - Vampire Weekend
  2. This Life - Vampire Weekend
  3. Salvation - The Strumbellas
  4. Body Talks - The Struts
  5. In Love with a Camera - The Struts
  6. Could Have Been Me - The Struts
  7. One Night Only - The Struts
  8. Africa - Weezer
  9. The Power of Love - Huey Lewis & the News
  10. Hollywood Nights - Bob Seger
It was a big year for Vampire Weekend and The Struts! Between discovering new albums and preparing for concerts, music by those two artists was constantly pumping through my earbuds and Google Home Mini.

The Strumbellas landed a spot at the top of the charts in 2019, earning the bronze medal for their catchy tune "Salvation."

Weezer's cover of "Africa" graces my year-end playlist for the second consecutive year. I've finally come to terms with the fact that this version of the song is better than the original.

Shoutout to Huey Lewis! I have no idea how "The Power of Love" song cracked my Top 10, but it's a great song from a great movie, and if Spotify says it's true, it must be.

Bob Seger made his debut on the playlist this year. I spend hours listening to his greatest hits before attending his farewell tour in the fall. "Hollywood Nights" is certainly one of my favorite tracks.

2019: The Year in Concerts

I had the privilege of attending a couple really great concerts this year, and Spotify took note of my preparatory efforts. My top songs included many from the discographies of Train, The Goo Goo Dolls, The Struts, Bob Seger and Elton John.

Strange Songs, Courtesy of Spotify

Occasionally, a weird song will catch my attention. Such was the case in 2019, and I've thrown a couple of those odd anthems into my mix, including the following:


Pump-up Songs

I don't really have a "workout mix" or anything like that, but I'll often boot up Spotify if I want to feel like I can run through a brick wall. I've teased it for years but never truly put my nose to the grindstone - if I were ever to make "The Big Ticket 3," some of these songs would be on the soundtrack:


New Artists, New Favorites

According to Spotify, I discovered 466 new artists this year. I spent, apparently, seven hours listening to Vampire Weekend - particularly their new album, "Father of the Bride," which, by and large, was very enjoyable. I've also included some of my favorite songs from a few other "new" artists in this year's playlist, including:



Timeless Classics

I've scattered in some older songs by my favorite artists, as well, including tracks by Tom Petty, Three Dog Night, Cold War Kids, Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers and The Revivalists, among others bands that I can't quite classify as "new."

The Wedding Playlist
I got married back in September. This may be news to some of you. Surprise! As we ramped up for the big day, I created a playlist for the reception. Several of those songs cracked Spotify's Top 100 for 2019:


World Citizen

Spotify informed me that I listened to artists from 28 different countries in 2019, including Elton John (United Kingdom), AC/DC (Australia) and Juanes (Colombia).


Top Genres

I listened to a bunch of different genres in 2019 - predominantly several types of rock (classic, pop rock, modern and punk rock), with a smattering of pop music that I probably Shazammed from the radio on my drive to work.


Overall Listening Time

At the time that my Spotify Wrapped report was sent to me two weeks ago, I had spent 30,613 minutes listening to Spotify in 2019. That's just over 510 hours or 21 entire days of time, and blessed be the name of Spotify Premium for it.

This included 13,771 minutes (229 hours) listening to podcasts. If you're looking for any recommendations, Spotify says I most enjoy sports, comedy and history podcasts. A couple of the shows I constantly listened to to pass time while at work this year were:

Top Artists

It comes as no surprise to me that The Struts were my top artist for 2019. Spotify reports that I spent 15 hours listening to them this year (although that number might have increased in the past two weeks since I was given these stats), much of which came directly before and after their killer concert this summer. If you want to check out their setlist from that show, click here. I can honestly say that The Struts concert was one of the most fun and enjoyable shows I've ever attended.

Here are my top five artists for 2019:
  1. The Struts
  2. Bob Seger
  3. Weezer
  4. Vampire Weekend
  5. The Goo Goo Dolls



Top Artist of the Decade

As I mentioned last year, 2018 was the first year that I really, seriously started using Spotify. A more accurate depiction of my listening habits for the entire decade would need to incorporate numbers from my iTunes library, which would take much more effort to calculate. However, my top artist of the decade, based on Spotify stats, checks out, and it should not be a shock to anyone who knows me.

It's Weezer, the group I have called my all-time favorite since I discovered them more than 15 years ago.


***

That's it for this year! It has been quite an auditory adventure for me, and I hope you perhaps were able to find some new music if you read this blog. If you're up for some conversation, let me know who your top artists were in the comments below, on Twitter (@atownmania and @sottunderground), or hit me up on Facebook.

Finally, if you're a Spotify user and haven't had the chance to do so already, be sure to head to https://spotifywrapped.com to discover your top trends for 2019!


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