Andover students can often be spotted moving between classes or studying with their headphones in, immersed in songs that span everything from focus tracks to pre-game anthems. Spotify remains a common platform of choice as its expansive catalog and personalized selection draws a loyal campus following. On December 3, the long-awaited Spotify Wrapped came out, igniting a familiar wave of Instagram posts, friendly comparisons, and even debates between friends. Here is a closer look into how students are responding to their annual listening recaps and the feature as a whole.
Ellaine Ban ’28
“I listen to music a lot when I’m studying, walking to places, and especially while playing squash. My listening time was nine days, and my top genre was city pop. One of my top artists was Stray Kids. I expected that, so I wasn’t too surprised. Wrapped made me realize that I’m getting a little bored with my music taste. A lot of music I listen to follows a pretty similar beat and chord patterns. [Between my friends and I] the thing that caused the most excitement or shock was the listening age part. We have a very interesting range of music tastes. I have a friend who got 93 years old, and another who got 100…I think overall the wrapped is a nice way for Spotify to kind of increase user engagement. I feel like sometimes I’m a little bit embarrassed to share it with other people, in fear they may not like my music, so that kind of detracts from the fun of it. But overall, it’s in good spirits and it’s fun.”
Tabitha Wei ’28
“When I opened my wrapped, it was my study music that showed up as my most-played song. Spotify also said my age was 70. I had a lot of classical music for studying, and I also remember I had a phase where I started to listen to my dad’s favorite songs. With these factors added together, when I saw my wrapped, I started laughing and I was kind of shocked. The songs that I was listening to were calmer and I feel like they help me focus and do my homework. But, it doesn’t really reflect who I am. Some of the songs I played were pretty sad, and I’m a pretty happy person… I listen to a lot of The Marias, Beabadoobee, and also Gracie Abrams.”
Andy Song ’29
“I listen to music a couple hours everyday, mostly to study or when walking to class. Honestly, I wasn’t really surprised; I kind of knew who would be my top artist, my top album, etc. There were some surprises in there because sometimes if I just start playing on Spotify different songs come on shuffle, so some of those songs got on my Wrapped, which was kind of weird, but everything else was honestly really normal, like really expected. My top artists included Billie Eilish and Keshi. My top songs were pretty much all Billie Eilish, and my top albums were Gabriel, by Keshi; Happier Than Ever; and Hit Me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish as well. My top songs were Billie Bossa Nova, Oxytocin, [and] Bittersweet by Billie Eilish. For Billie Eilish, I was actually in the top 0.2% of global fans… I want to get to one of those top fans [next year] because now Wrapped actually shows you as a top fan if you’ve listened for long enough. That’s my goal for this year.”
Edward Kim ’29
“I was shocked by how good it was at picking artists and songs that really stood my taste. Once in a while, there were songs that really didn’t fit me, but most of the time, it pleased me. The songs that they suggested, especially the ones that match my taste, are my favorite part of wrapped… My listening time was quite a big number, but I do listen to music while working in silent for at least four hours every single day. So, I feel like it wasn’t too surprising. My top artists are Bruno Mars, AJR, Adele, and Benson Boone. I feel like the top artists that I usually listen to appear in my wrapped, which just helps me refresh my playlist and add more songs to my favorites.”
Elle Park ’29
“Mine was not that accurate, and I feel like…well, it was definitely AI. And it also didn’t take the last couple of months into account. I was like, ‘I fear Spotify did not cook this year.’ They said my top artist was Beabadoobee [but] I had a spurt of listening to her in one month, then I didn’t really listen to her for much after that, so…not super accurate. A more accurate top artist might be MARINA, Green Day, [or] Weezer because I listen to their songs throughout the whole year, more consistently.”
