On one of the most anticipated days of the year, a buzz of people all over the globe frantically opened their devices and logged into Spotify to see their Spotify Wrapped 2022 on December 1st. After seeing their top songs and artists, their smiles of anticipation turned into ones of confusion and disappointment.

This year’s Wrapped was exciting and unique, but it was also slightly disappointing. Many were not too happy with their top songs and artists as they felt that it did not properly reflect their listening throughout the year.

A new feature Spotify added this year was the listening personality and patterns, which described what type of listener the user was. Wrapped included a summarized page of everything about the user’s music taste for this year in multiple different colors and easy links to share their Wrapped. People started to post their Wrapped on social media and compare their year’s listening history.

However, many felt that their actual statistics did not accurately measure their current taste in music. They felt that most of their top songs and artists were from the first half of the year and that their music taste had now changed. 

Swathi Kotrakona, a Lambert Sophomore, felt the same way about her top genres. 

“I literally had the most diverse taste in the second half of the year, but obviously that didn’t show up in my Wrapped,” Kotrakona said. 

Furthermore, for parents, Wrapped was even more inaccurate due to their children using their Spotify as well, making their top songs Cocomelon rhymes or Disney sing-alongs. Coupled with most of the data being taken from the first half of the year, this makes it extremely hard for their Spotify Wrapped to be correct.

Spotify also isn’t the only platform to make these recap showcases. Apple Music’s new Replay is another recap similar to Spotify’s Wrapped, and Instafest displays users’ top artists as well. Wrapped, being the most popular of the three, received the most recognition this year, and its unusual style was also something that people did not easily forget. Many were wondering what Spotify meant when it said, “This year, you had layers like an onion, but you listened to music, unlike an onion.” It seems they were trying to be unique and quirky, but it came off as random and confusing for most users. 

Spotify’s new feature told users what genres they tended to listen to in the morning, day and night. Some were normal genres, such as happy pop, but others were never heard of before. Goblincore and Vampire music was definitely genres that caught people off guard, and paired with adjectives such as tender and gentle, one might come to see that they listened to “Gentle Cottagecore Goblincore” in the morning and ended the day with “Tender Vampire Goth”.

As confusing as it was, this did help market Spotify’s Wrapped even further, and in turn, increased awareness of Spotify. Perhaps it was all a clever marketing move, especially with the share links at the end of Wrapped and the customization of the graphic. Sure enough, people’s Wrapped were posted all over a variety of social media platforms. 

December 1st, 2022 was certainly a day filled with excitement. Although many people felt their Wrapped was not accurate, it’s always thrilling for many to be able to see songs they liked at the beginning of the year as a window to the past.