It goes without saying that 2020 was a weird year. Just... weird. I've been working from home since March. I honestly thought, at the time, that they'd send us home for a couple weeks until this "coronavirus" thing blew over, then we'd be right back in the office. That, clearly, didn't happen. And they're not planning on sending us back to the office until (at least) July 5, 2021. Wild.
Because I've been working from home, I've watched a lot more TV and movies, and I've listened to a lot less Spotify. Nevertheless, as has become somewhat of an annual tradition here at Signs of the Times, I wanted to put together a quick blog to talk about my listening habits from the past year.
This year, I am not totally confident that Spotify got it right, based on their "2020 Wrapped" snapshot that they compiled for me. Don't get me wrong - I love Tom Petty, but there is no way that his "American Girl" was my Number 3 song of the year. And, unsurprisingly, Weezer was my top artist of 2020, but I am not sure that "Island in the Sun" was one of my top songs, either. In the past, I've put together a playlist of 50 songs, based on Spotify's year-in-review, along with some personal favorites that didn't make the cut, but this year I think I'll just give you what Spotify said were my Top 10, link you to a personally curated playlist that has nothing to do with my favorite music, necessarily, and shout out a few other favorites that seemed to be playing quite a bit over the past 12 months.
Let's sort through the data and get this figured out, shall we?
Spotify Wrapped - Top 10
Allegedly, here are the Top 10 songs I listened to in 2020... according to Spotify:
Analysis: Some of this is accurate. "Salvation" surely has a valid claim to be my top song of 2020, so I won't debate that at all. "Free Fallin'" has got to be right up there, as well, for some reasons that I'll explain later. "American Girl" is a great song, but there is no way on Earth that I listened to that song third-most this year. Not a chance. "Island in the Sun" is certainly a song that I heard a few times this year, but I don't know if it deserved to be on this list. The Doobie Brothers landing the Nine spot is a bit of a surprise, but I'm ok with all of the other songs on the list.
Spotify Wrapped - Top Genres and Artists
As far as genres are concerned, I think Spotify actually got it right, as shown below. I typically listen to a lot of alternative rock and throwbacks from the '70s, '80s and '90s. I don't know how they exactly categorize "Rock" or anything, so it would be interesting to see a bit deeper of a breakdown to see how much "Classic Rock" I listened to, etc., but this summary feels accurate. You can also see that a couple weeks listening to the "
Hamilton" soundtrack made an impact on my 2020.
My Top 5 artists of the year are all bands that I have seen in concert, so this is not surprising at all. I remember on several occasions going out of my way to listen to Weezer and Muse albums, specifically, so having them in as my two top artists seems fitting.
I was unsure who my top artist of 2020 would be, but it came as no shock when it was revealed to be Weezer, who I've felt for many years now has become my favorite band of all time. It is an honor that I will take to the grave that Spotify has appointed me as among the top 0.5% of their listeners in 2020.
Surprising Songs That Didn't Make the Spotify List
Spotify gives users a 100-song playlist of the songs they played most throughout the year. I was very surprised to see that several songs - most notably, "My Shot" from the Hamilton soundtrack didn't make that list because I know I listened to Lin-Manuel Miranda's nasaly little voice sing that song at least like 15 times. Here are a handful of songs that I had on repeat, whether on my computer at home or on the radio on the road:
Songs for Stockton
This is where the real fun starts. My wife and I had our first child back in October. It was truly one of the one good things to happen in 2020. As the due date grew closer, I began to feel a bit bad that I wasn't reading stories to the baby every night like Pinterest would make you believe a good father should. I came up with another idea - something easy to do each evening to help me bond with the soon-to-be-born child. I decided that each night I would play a song for the baby. One song a night with no duplicate artists. This ended up being something I looked forward to every day and was probably one of my favorite parts of the pregnancy process.
The result was a 75-song, five-hour playlist of some of my favorite songs from many of my favorite artists. I would throw the playlist on in the car when I was driving down to his pre-birth check-up appointments and many other times, when I wanted to think about my impending fatherhood. I really loved it, and I listened to it many, many times over the course of the second half of this year.
Of course, doing so skewed my Spotify stats, which is why random songs like "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" by U2 landed a spot in my Top 10. "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty was the first song in the playlist, which is why it's no surprise that it was my second most-listened-to track of the year. Because I listened to the playlist so often, I have some doubt as to whether my Spotify Wrapped playlist is an accurate depiction of my taste in music, and using the list provided by Spotify as my year-end playlist feels a little weird.
So... I figured I could just provide the entire "Songs for Stockton" playlist in this blog so you can check out the choices I made when deciding which music I wanted my baby to hear right off the bat. Behold:
(If the embedded playlist doesn't load, click here.)
*****
Well, there you have it. Like I said, it was a weird year, for sure, and the Spotify stats seem a bit skewed, but music is great and we can still enjoy it, all the same. Remember, if you haven't accessed your Spotify Wrapped stats, it's not too late! Be sure to click here and see what Spotify thinks you liked this year.
Whether or not that report is entirely accurate is anyone's guess.
Happy new year.
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