Anybody who is invested in a music based subculture would be very quick to call me a poser. They’d be right. Yes, it’s true. I’ve been caught on more than one occasion saying that I “don’t listen to mainstream music,” and I’ll be the first one to brag about how underground my favorite artists are.

What is a poser, though? Of course, we all know that posers are very lame, but what are they really? I am of the belief that a poser is a person who desperately seeks respect and individuality, and attempts to appear more knowledgeable about their interests to try and achieve these things.

This is where Spotify Wrapped comes in. Spotify Wrapped has established itself as somewhat of a ritual, being released every late November to early December since 2016. Using the data that they keep on our listening habits, Spotify is able to provide a short sort of individualized summary of things like top artists, top genres, and time spent listening for each of their users. They are also able to show us what percentage of listeners we “beat” in terms of minutes listened to our favorite artists (I was in the top 0.005% of Mitski listeners!), fostering a sense of competition. It is around this time of year that we see so many Instagram stories getting flooded with screenshots of Spotify Wrapped, and it is this time of year that Spotify always seems to move up in App Store rankings. Spotify Wrapped is a marketing campaign, a successful one at that, in every sense of the term. We are aware of this, but instead of the blatant disgust we often feel towards in-your-face marketing stunts, we openly welcome it like an old friend. Why?

Is it because we like seeing that we are amongst the top listeners of an artist? (I’m in the top 0.005% of Mitski listeners, if you didn’t know…) Is it because we like to show off how good our taste is, in hopes that somebody attractive will notice? (Been there.) Or is it because we don’t know ourselves, and we can’t quite say what we do or don’t like, and once in a while it is nice to be told who you are by an impartial robot? (Yes.) Whatever the reason is, it’s safe to say that the masses are drawn in. Many of us wear this data like a badge of honor. I am guilty of this. If I wasn’t, then I would’ve stopped talking about how I’m in the top 0.005% of Mitski listeners, but it looks like I haven’t. However, the pride that I feel right now is by design. I was elated when I saw how much time I’d spent listening to music, and I shared it online immediately. Obviously, it is in Spotify’s favor that listening to music is now something to brag about, because that means we will brag about it, even though listening to music for longer does not inherently allude to the idea that someone understands the songs better, or even that they like the songs more. All that we get in return are some numbers presented via soulless graphics, but we all seem to say “Thank you so much, Spotify, collect as much information as you want from me, as long as you compile it to make me look esoteric and cultured.”

Aside from the way that we turn ourselves into spokespeople for Spotify, is this a positive shift in culture for the way that we enjoy music? It is impossible to deny that the way our generation enjoys music is unlike how the angsty teens of yesterday did. Before streaming our favorite songs was a possibility, we would’ve had to tune in to a radio station, or get some potentially bad recommendations from friends or family in order to expand our musical horizons. These actions would require one to be at least somewhat involved in their local community. Now, with music streaming platforms like Spotify, we have algorithms that recommend songs that we are likely to enjoy. I don’t hate innovation. I don’t resent robots because I don’t understand them, or because they are smarter than me. I just happen to be a tad bit bummed out that they serve to make music a little bit more of a solitary experience. I think that part of the joy of music is listening to some really bad songs that other people really like, and letting that strengthen the love that you hold for your own jams. 

I doubt that we were ever supposed to advance to a point where it is possible to know every minute detail about when, where, and how we listened to our music. Perhaps, it is the availability of this information about our tunes that causes us to want to seem like we understand deeper. 

When music stops being about connection, a gap forms, and many of us fill the gap by turning it into a game. We try to score the most minutes imaginable. We try to seem like we know music better than other people, even though it might just be that none of us know it at all.

Music is art, first and foremost. It isn’t something that anyone can win at. Lately, I’ve been listening to physical forms of music, like records. The money goes towards supporting the smaller artists that I’m a fan of, and it causes me to be more mindful of what I am listening to. I won’t know how many times I’ve listened to my records, or for how long, but maybe it’s time that we embrace art foolishly, as was intended.