My Spotify Wrapped was, in a word, horrendous. I don't consider myself a particularly cool person—I mean, I call myself a Spathlete with minimal irony. I usually show up to school in a child-size Wildlife Conservation Society t-shirt. I can lecture at great length on whether or not the United States federal government should substantially increase investment in high-speed rail. (The practical answer is no. ) All that is to say, I don’t think of myself as cool or stylish or indie or…whatever.

As for my music taste, depending on your meter, I might measure exceptionally high or low on coolness. I am a giant Taylor Swift fan, despite my rejection from Ticketmaster’s verified fan program. I listen to the Howl’s Moving Castle soundtrack on loop, and, when I tire of that album, the Downton Abbey score, and when I tire of that, either Mulan or Hercules. Faye Wong’s Taiwanese-pop hit, “红豆,” is the only song that can bring me close to tears. The simple refrain of 有时候, 有时候…

Anyway. I stream a few artists formerly deemed indie—Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Japanese Breakfast, beabadoobee—but I confess, I only started listening after each musician gained a fanbase of millions. Other recent favorites: A Sunny Day in Glasglow, Kishi Bashi, Ragamuffs, Maude Latour, Luna Li, Sambassadeur. And, of course, I indulge in a few niche tracks by local artist Carlton Roe, who I had the honor and privilege of debating.

Judge for yourself: is my music taste cool?

Well, according to Spotify, my top genres of 2022 included show tunes and classical performance. That smashed my ego a bit. And if you’re saying, “Avery, you admitted to playing the Hercules soundtrack on loop; of course show tunes would appear in your top genres,” stop saying that. I’m blaming the classical performance genre on my violin teacher and again, Downton Abbey.

Also according to Spotify, I “seized the day with royalcore, healing, mystical” and “embraced the night” with “theater kids, Victorian, dramatic.” I bristle at these claims—royalcore? What is that? Mystical? I am staunchly anti-astrology. And Victorian? What Victorian music did I listen to?

My top song was Lucy Dacus' cover of “La Vie En Rose” with “Better Than Revenge” stomping into second place. I detest “Anti-Hero,” but the track snuck into my top five, likely due to my father’s insistence that I play the hit single on car rides. (He relates to it, I think.) And I was in Taylor’s top three percent of listeners, which hurt. I was aiming for the top 0.5% of Lucy Dacus listeners. Alas, alas.

So, even with my awareness of my lack of coolness, I still wasn't thrilled with my very uncool Spotify Wrapped. I did not share it on social media. I did not send anyone screenshots of my top songs or genres or artists. Many other people did broadcast their music taste on Instagram, though. The garish neon graphics flooded my feed. I learned a few things.

First, Lana is popular again. Or did she never diminish in popularity? (Is she still blonde, or did she dye her hair back?) Second, when my friend declared himself a “SZA stan for life,” he was not joking. He wormed into SZA’s top 0.001% of listeners. Insane. And lastly, people felt so, so comfortable sharing all their Spotify Wrapped information online. Their favorite artists. The songs that consoled them or inspired them. The hundreds of thousands of minutes spent with headphones plugged in, the world tuned out.

Why was I so ashamed of my Spotify Wrapped? Maybe because I thought it defined me, somehow—my personality, my interests, my musical palate crunched into numbers. I spent under ten-thousand minutes on Spotify, much less time than some of my peers. But my listening data, theoretically, should have served as a snapshot of my experiences and emotions of 2022. Of who I was as a listener, but also as a student, a friend, a creative.

And the data didn’t represent that. My Spotify Wrapped didn’t feel accurate—or was my mental portrait of myself the real inaccuracy? Either way, I was not pleased.
Maybe in 2023, I’ll reinvent my music taste, and by extension, a little bit of myself. Or maybe I’ll just switch to Apple Music.

- Avery Chu '25