Spotify Wrapped was released on Wednesday, December 5th, this year. It gives fans of the most popular music streaming service in the world the chance to view their listening statistics for the last year and decide whether to be overjoyed or miserable about their top songs and artists.
However, this joyous event for many music fans also spawns six hundred and twenty-six million amateur music connoisseurs, each with their own expert opinion on the songs and artists you love who seem determined to tell you just what they think of your music and why their music is better. In this article, we will tell you why this trend needs to stop and just how ludicrous the idea that your music taste is better than anyone else’s is.
Since 2016, Spotify has released its Wrapped feature every year, a truly innovative idea that helps keep intrigued users coming back for more every year and away from competitors such as Apple Music. Despite this fascinating piece of technology relying on a vast amount of user data being tracked by a team devoted to this cause, which might concern some people, the opportunity to view their yearly listening habits is one challenge to turn down for most users. It is exciting for them to see who they listened to the most in a year and what song they listened to the most. It all seems like a great thing that Spotify has done, an act that shows they appreciate their listeners and want to tailor their app experiences. However, though it isn’t the company’s fault, one truly annoying thing has stopped our experience of this feature from being pitch-perfect. The problem? Overly passionate, non-qualified music critics whose only job at this festive time of the year is to criticise and critique when everyone else is merry! Quite frankly, it’s time for these people to change their tune!
Where does this anger towards people who appear to be passionate about the music they love come from, and why are we getting so worked up about something that seemingly doesn’t matter? These are some questions that you may now have. I think that a person’s music taste is something they can’t help and certainly shouldn’t be challenged by someone who thinks they know better—our taste in music changes with what happens in our lives at certain times. We are really into a singer called Frank Turner, and I have been for some time because I can associate with some of his songs, and lots of his music discusses interesting topics. By next year, we will likely have a new favourite artist, someone we might not like, but we might feel they are just the person to get us through next year. Perhaps Sabrina Carpenter will produce a song that connects with me (we must admit, though it’s not likely). There is no point criticising someone else’s music taste because it would be dull if we all listened to the same thing.
There would be no cultural variety or the chance to discover new types of music you like, and there would be a real problem with people feeling unrepresented and like there is nothing to associate with. Please consider the number of girls Taylor Swift has empowered with her stirring lyrics that her words have helped many people through hard times. Music has the power to do this and should almost be labelled as a naturally occurring painkiller because it can help take away people’s fears and worries. In our opinion, running along the seafront on a Saturday morning with ‘Get Better’ by Frank Turner or even ‘A World Of Your Own’ from the Wonka musical (give musicals a chance) is our way of recovering from a hard school week, an hour with just yourself and the deep thought that music evokes.
And anyway, it’s way better than listening to the people of the Lincolnshire coastline yelling at their misbehaving dogs or talking about car insurance. Music is a kind of therapy that nothing compares to, so it shouldn’t matter what people choose to listen to. From Adele to Nirvana, listening to anything you enjoy is perfectly fine, and it shouldn’t be up to others to tell you the right thing to listen to. Don’t try to fit in because music taste should change as the world changes around you; move on with it.
To summarise this article, which has turned into even more of an angry ramble than we’d hoped, music taste is not something which should be criticised because everyone has their reasons for listening to their favourite artists and the music they listen to is probably a fascinating insight into their personality and what kind of life they lead. There is no such thing as the right song to listen to, just one that strikes the right chord with you. Everyone thinks that what they do is the right thing, and this is okay, but remember that it is pointless to argue about the music someone listens to because it is an entirely subjective thing that differs from one person to another. Telling someone they listen to the wrong music is like telling someone they have the wrong eye colour, and we hope no one does that…
By Truman W
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar, Alford, Newsroom