Cohorted Cult

With the influence of TikTok trends and Bo Burnham’s Inside back in May, everyone probably will have at least one song on their yearly wrap up they will be hesitant to share with the world. Especially when everyone’s TikTok feed is different. If you have a shared account with friends or family, your yearly Wrapped might look completely unrecognisable – the songs you listen to might have been drowned out by your friend’s ‘Songs to Fall Asleep to’ playlist.  

Before the 31st October, people rushed to change the outcome of their Spotify Wrapped –  swapping out their guilty pleasures with radio hits on loop up until the cutoff point. In the run up to Halloween, my social media accounts were flooded with people posting about how they were going to change their Spotify Wrapped this year. After all, no one wants to be reminded of how many times they’ve listened to break up playlists this year- unless it’s Red (Taylor’s Version).  

The public often judge when companies take their data with many of us hating how Facebook adverts are often based on your google searches. But we are on the edge of our seats waiting for our Spotify data to be analysed. 

Music is the evolved form of poetry – a way to express oneself to the masses in an attempt to feel less alone. When a song is released that encapsulates how you’re feeling, you might feel validated. Music is how we experience time – a song can transport you back in time: it can take you back to your first kiss, your favourite childhood film, that summer trip.  

Since music is a freedom of expression, studies have shown that listening to a certain genre might reveal something about your personality. Pop music listeners tend to be extroverted, honest and hardworking. Whilst rap music can be associated with violence, research shows that rap fans are usually outgoing and have high self-esteem. While many country songs centre around heartbreak, listeners are shown to be typically emotionally stable and outgoing. Rock music fans are shown to be creative but often introverted. You can find the full results of the study by Heriot-Watt University on the Very Well Mind website.

The soundtrack of our lives is exclusively our own. It can never be identical to another person’s so no matter what albums you’ve had on repeat, your music taste can never be wrong. Personally, I’m just glad November and December doesn’t count towards the yearly wrap up. Otherwise mine would be identical each year with how many times I play Christmas songs.