The biggest time of year for music listeners comes at the end of November, when the biggest music platforms release your music streaming data. This consists of your top artists, songs, and genres. These platforms have turned watching what you do into something exciting. 

The predicted top genre of what students streamed was pop and rap, with the most streamed artists being Taylor swift, Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and Kanye.  When asked why he likes Taylor Swift, Nick Leonord starts singing Love Story, but says he likes Kanye better because he “made her famous and is more consistent”. 

Even with the cliques and trends at Victor, some choose to not listen to mainstream artists today, like Phish, BANKS, Sonder, Childish Gambino, and Fall Out Boy. “They’re different and sound cool”, Colby Stone confirms.

Maria Boone comments that Spotify Wrapped matters because it shows how one’s “personality has changed over the years”, where Tippett Reinson disagrees because “sometimes I listen to things that don’t describe who I am”, and that one can’t base who they are off of the music they listen to. Music is music.

Of the students interviewed, it was a tie between who listens to music on Apple versus Spotify. While Apple Music is known for having better music quality, streamers gravitate towards Spotify because of the aesthetic and ease of it.

Senior Ellie Vanderwater explained that she prefers Spotify over Apple Music because it is easier to navigate and “creates playlists based on your music preferences.’ ‘

Finding your playlists, recently listened too, podcasts, etc. all in one place is efficient, whereas Apple Music has lots of wasted space. Spotify has many cool features, like allowing you see what your friends are listening to, as well as join in on it with the “join jam” feature. 

Given all the different ways to listen to music, the majority choose mainstream artists and platforms. This led to the theory that students are influenced by their peers.