Tis the season! To post your Spotify Wrapped on social media, that is. In this special holiday episode, Bridget digs into the history and legacy of Spotify Wrapped, and sits down with her producer Mike for her first peek at her own Spotify Wrapped (no judgment, please!)
What was on your own Spotify Wrapped ? Leave us a voicemail at 571- 310-1859 and let us know!
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There Are No Girls on the Internet. As a production of My Heart Radio and Unbust Creative, I'm Bridget Tod and this is there Are No Girls on the Internet. It's that time again. That's right, Happy Spotify rap season to all who celebrate. For users of the music streaming platform Spotify, this is the time of year when we get are wrapped, a visual breakdown of how much and what kinds of music we spent the year listening to Spotify first debut It's Year in Music in but two years later they added statistics about which artists and how much time Spotify users spent listening. In twenty nineteen artists. Jule Hamm, who was then an Internet Spotify designed the pleasing social media friendly layout to communicate this data visually, which leads us to the Spotify Wrap that takes over our social media feeds this time of year, and it really takes over. According to CNN, in the first hour of Spotify Wrap release, the Twitter search showed the hashtag Spotify wrapped had been used over fourteen thousand times. So why do we love Spotify wraps so much? And what does it tell us about our online selves? Now we know that Spotify relies on algorithms and artificial intelligence to surface music that we might like. It's actually one of the main draws of Spotify over other music streaming platforms. Who doesn't like the idea of a robot curating personalized playlists for us while we sleep. But if we're consuming music because Spotify's algorithm has picked it for us based on our habits and what that algorithm has been able to glean about our habits and identity, that means our Spotify wrapped isn't so much a reflection of who we truly are in our heart of hearts as it is a reflection of who we are as defined by Spotify's AI. They don't just show me my own tastes, preferences, and identity, they also shape them. So in Spotify gives me my wrap for the year, they're not just showing me that these are the preferences of a thirtysomething black que or already woman. It's also kind of creating what that identity means. When we post our Spotify wrapped on social media, we're trying to tell the world something about who we are, and we're looking to see if our tastes are more impressive, more cringeing more hip or more refined than our friends. And in this way, Spotify has done a great job of turning surveillance, the kind of thing that many of us would be uncomfortable with in any other context, into a fun digital personal branding opportunity. To be clear, I am very much not above this, And in this special holiday episode of There Are No Girls on the Internet, I'm sitting down with my producer Mike to take my very first look at my own Spotify Wrapped for the year and dig into what it says about my identity in this very weird digital age we all find ourselves in. I just hope it's not too embarrassing to do in this podcast. So I've really got to start this conversation by lifting up Jewel Ham, the multimedia visual artist who created what we know as Spotify Wrapped today. Spotify Wrapped did exist before Jewel, but the kind of Spotify rap that we see taking over her social media feeds if you're feeding anything like mine, Jewel really did champion when she was an intern at Spotify in twenty nineteen, and I feel like she really didn't get her do that is tail us old as time when it comes to technology. Whenever there is something cool or interesting or unique or creative, especially if it's not a hard tech thing. Nine times out of ten there is a woman and a black woman behind it. So shout out to Jewel. Also Howard University grad. Uh, So we wouldn't even be having this conversation if not for her. It is interesting how the Wrapped is such a visual thing when we think about it, because it's it's audio, right, we're listening to and it's a list of the top songs that were tracks that we've listened to. But when I think about rap, I think about a list that looks aesthetically good, is tailor made for social media that I think that's really what made it a thing that people talk about. Oh absolutely, And I think like that's something that's so funny about Spotify Wrapped. I even feel a little bit weird making this episode because I feel like Spotify Wrapped posting it on social media is a little bit like that old George Carlin bit where my stuff is stuff and everybody else's stuff is ship. Like everybody thinks they're Spotify Wraps has something interesting or unique about them personally, and then nobody actually wants to look at anybody else's Spotify wrapped, you're just like, oh, good for you. You listen to Taman Paulo, well done. But when you post your own, you feel like you're really saying something about who you are as a person. And kudos the Spotify because that is some really good marketing that that they have been able to make it so that people feel so like it really says something about who they are when they post this on their social media feed. It's true And as like a data person, I really thinking about like what it said about me, Like my wrapped is crazy. This year, I was so surprised at what was there. Uh, but I think it was like, a it's not like it's a representative sample of what I've been listening to during the year. It's a sample of what I've been listening to on Spotify. So I was like, what do I use Spotify for? Use it to play albums and I use it to create stations. I used to hate the idea of just trusting an algorithm to choose media for me to listen to, but I guess at some point during the pandemic, I just completely said fuck it and went with it. And it's actually great, Like they do an amazing job of just creating a playlist of songs that I want to hear based on something that I put up there. Okay, so I have so much to say about this. First of all, it is so funny. So as we know, Spotify is definitely algorithmically driven, and so I was like, oh, uh, looks like you've spent a lot of time listening to sad As Bo Burnham songs this year, And it's like, that's what you fucking surface me algorithm. You know, you know, fit's what I listened to because you've been servicing it to be this whole year. So absolutely true. It is the it's like the kind of cheeky little like, oh, it looks like you spend a lot of time listening to BA. It's like they know, because they're elgo with them services surfaces it to you. So absolutely true. And I do think this year, you know, I'm going to dig into my own Spotify raft in a minute, which I hope is not embarrassing. But I do think in pre pandemic, I would definitely be excited to show my Spotify raft on social media. Even though I just said, like people post there so their Spotify raft on social media and does anybody really care? I definitely was not above that and definitely did it and like we'll do it this year as well. But I pre pandemic, I was much prouder of the music because I feel like it said something different about me. I feel like, and especially weird years, I don't know what they say about me. I feel like it's like, Wow, what a weird year I've had. I can't even tell you if I listened to a lot of music, some of the stats on my Spotify wrap, and I'm like, did I really listen to that song? This much? Like that seems weird. I just think it's a weird year. And as we experience things in our real life like the pandemic and the insurrection and like other real life crises, it is so interesting to see how that is reflected through data points that we consumed on a digital interface. It's very interesting and I feel like, yeah, pre pandemic, I would have said my Spotify wrap says something about me. I don't know what it is, but something this year especially, I'm like, I don't even know if I can if I trust this because it seems so out of whack. With how I feel and who I am. It's been a weird year. Yeah, it's been a weird year. So should I get into my Spotify raft? Yeah, I think you should. I think uh, you know, it's for at the end of the year to December. It's nice to take a break from a lot of the negative stuff we often talk about and let's just talk about some music. Let's talk about some music. So this is I'm gonna dig into this. I guess we should get into it. Yeah, if you recognize that that it's actually my first number one, Okay, I thought it was clever, So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you all my top three. My number one play a song of one is Doja Cats get into It, And honestly, I'm not mad at it. I love Doja Cat. She could be a little problematic, but you know, she's my she I'm I'm I like her. Uh, get into It is definitely um a song that I I listened to pretty frequently and it's not surprising to me that it's I'm a little surprised is my number one, but I'm not mad at it. I'll take it. I feel like Dojaquette has songs that just get in your head. That is absolutely true. I spent probably a year talking about how I wasn't how I wasn't a cat, I was a cow move if you know that do Jaquette song, So definitely do Jaquete earworms. Does she have a lot going on on TikTok o her being my number one? It's definitely the TikTok influence on my listening habits. A couple of other songs that are big on my Spotify Wrapped, Pink Panthers, another musician who was huge on TikTok who was in my Spotify wrapped but the Anxiety and Willow Smith that song meet Me at Our spot huge on TikTok. I'm sorry for just singing. I know that probably sounded bad, but uh yeah, I definitely see the TikTok influence on my uh Spotify wrap Definitely a lot of songs I heard I didn't know before I heard on TikTok and then found on Spotify and saved and listened to over and over and over again in one apparently so so now we've got the TikTok algorithm what you see which then drives listen to Spotify. Well yeah, I often feel like the algorithms are working in tandem. It is like the TikTok algorithms. Algorithms got me, the Spotify algorithms got me. It's like like an intersecting algorithm. I'm just a slave to whatever they surface to me, and I'm just like, yes, give me more. Yes, that'll be a new area of intersectionality of like how the algorithms interesting. Honestly, I'm speaking of bow Burnham. He's got this line in Inside where he's like, Daddy made some content just for you, so open wide. That's kind of how I feel, just like, yes, give it to me, give it to me, all right. So let's get into my number two on my Spotify raft, which is a little bit of an outlier. Um. It is the song Jet by Wings. If you are a listener who is in your twenties or early thirties, you're probably like, I don't know what this is. I think people know Wings. I don't. I don't think people know Wings. So for people who don't know Wings, Wings is a It was an offshoot ban of the Beatles started by Paul Paul McCartney. Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Paul McCartney in the eighties. The song came out in so definitely not a current hit. I have a soft spot for it. I feel like people get down on Wings. I really have a soft spot for Wings. And fun fact, this was not the only Wing song to make an appearance on a Spotify raft, which I don't even really know what to make of. I think you really like Wings, I guess so. And also, when I as a kid, my dad would sing this song to me because he said that Jet was a nickname for Bridget. It is not. The song is not about a girl named Bridget, but I believed that when I was young, I could see it would be appealing to think that it was that apologist singing to a girl named Bridget. Yeah, it really was. And so it's just it's a song that has us. It's it's I'm almost embarrassed that it's as high as it is. But you know what, can I say? I like Wings? I like you know what? And I got two Wings songs on the on the Spotify wrapped and I'm not ashamed. Yeah, nothing to be ashamed. It's a pandemic. It's a pandemic. Listen to as much Wings as you need to get you through this pandemic. Listen know whatever you want, like, don't be ashamed of your Spotify wrap Listen to whatever you want in this pandemic, whatever you need to get you through. My number three song on Spotify wraps again is another TikTok classic, Nobody by meets mitsky Uh. That was a little bit of a TikTok meme. And again I'm I'm kind of grateful for TikTok as I've gotten into it as a platform. Look, I feel like I hear new music all the time that I wouldn't have heard, you know, being someone who is we'll say a bit older than the typical TikTok demographic, getting insight into different kinds of music has been really interesting. So yeah, of my top three, two of them are definitely TikTok, TikTok algorithm chosen for me. You have to give me some tips on how to use TikTok because mine is entirely animals, which like, I like animals, I like funny animal content, but I'd like something else in there. But it doesn't serve me any music. How do how do you get to serve your music? I don't know. I guess I just the algorithm. Gods have have chosen me to get those A cat all the time on TikTok so. A couple of other things. Things to note from my Spotify rapped one is that I was definitely all my black girl feeling myself ship. Uh, very overrepresented person on my town. My Spotify rapp was Megan the Stallion, specifically Megan the Stallion's thought shit And I remember, I don't know if this is weird to say when there are no girls on the internet. One the Shorty Award for our mini series and Disinformation, that was really when Megan the Stallion's Thoughts ship creeped into my Spotify plays more. She has this line where she says, bitch on the ship per the Recording Academy, and when we won the Shorty Award, that really was like a line that I identified with this, like, oh we uh also are the ship per Recording Academy or a Shorty Academy. Yeah, I'll take it. And it really makes sense because my according to Spotify Rapped, the mood for my music that I listened to one was confident and bold and so I got I think I got a Megan the Stallion to thank for them. Let's take a quick break cut back. Another artist that I was not surprised to see but makes a lot of sense was d m X. I was a huge DMX man when I was a kid. Loves d m X, and DMX died and I will never forget it. I was the day where I had back to back to back to back meetings and calls and zooms, like professional meetings, and I got the push notification on my phone that DMX had passed away, and all through these meetings where I had to have my like fake zoom voice on, you know that fake enthusiastic voice that you do when you're on zooms and you kind of want to die, but you keep got three more. I had to keep that voice on, wanting so badly to do nothing but blast DMX. And I remember when the final call happened at like six thirty and I was like, okay, thanks guys, and then I turned off my computer and I blasted X Gonna give It to You, which is my favorite DMX song. And so it's not surprising to be the DMX is so heavily in my Spotify rap because I remember when he died and it really. It hit me hard and I I listened to a lot of DMX. I guess yeah. I feel like everybody in America was listening to d m X after that. Was X Gonna give It to you in a movie? I feel like I know exactly what you're thinking of. It's in an episode of Rick and Morty. That's why you're thinking of It wasn't in a movie. It was, definitely it probably was, but I know I know what you're remembering it from. Okay. Another song on my Spotify wrapped list that I was not surprised to see at all is Daft Punks Georgio. That is a song that I deeply, deeply, deeply funk with whenever I have a podcast interview where I want to edit it to bring a certain kind of tenderness or a certain kind of beauty, or a certain kind of meaning. I listened to that song because it's a song of a uh really famous producer basically telling his life story of how he got into music, how he got into producing, and it's so lovingly edited that it's such a good reminder of the power of listening to someone tell their own story in their own words. My whole life. I've always had a thing for listening to someone tell their own story and their own words, and I feel like that was a much of a In terms of music, that was a much bigger thing, kind of back in the day in the nineties. You know, spoken word. I've always had a song if it's someone giving a speech or explaining something with a little bit of like sound design around it, love it. A couple of other examples of that would be UM, Mutual Slump by DJ Shadow, where it's DJ Shadows then girlfriend is talking about how much she loved remember Zannah do the roller skating? How much she loved Zanna? Do you love it? Um, Everybody's free to wear sunscreen the Boss Learnman thing where he's like, no matter okay, graduates, no matter what you do? Where sunscreen? Uh. Little fluffy Clouds by the Orb where it's just a beautiful um, a beautiful voice over of a woman describing what the clouds and the skies were like when she was young. You know, when people make podcasts, if you're doing an interview in the field, you often have to get levels, and so you might ask the subject a question, you know, what did you ever breakfast? So that you can check the levels. And I always from that song. I always asked what because of that song? I always asked what were the skies like when you were young? And the kind of answers that you get when you ask somebody what were this guy's like when you were young, It's really interesting. I was once interviewing a French migrant and he said, I never saw these guys. I don't know, and I remember thinking that was such a powerful answer. More after a quick break, let's get right back into it. I have always had a thing for someone explaining something that's meaningful to them with beautiful sound design. It will always be something that like just getting like feels right in my brain. Yeah, those songs were all like podcast. I feel like spoken word tracks of the nineties were the first podcast, like like right in, let me know what you think. This is my big theory. Boken word tracks of the nineties were the first podcast. Somebody proved me wrong? Can you give us a little taste of year Spotify raft mine? Oh no, I don't know immediately, No, No, it's what was on there. I feel like the early two thousand's are gonna call me and want their music back, So let's just skip it. So for better or for worse, that is what my Spotify says, I spent my year consuming, and to me it kind of shows that I was bouncing back and forth between the new, you know, the TikTok field songs taking over my earbuds, and the old, the reliable songs I grew up with that have stuck with me. I think it's a fair reflection of the year I've had a little all over the place, to be sure, and perpetually caught between looking to the familiar, to fine comfort, while also trying to look toward the future, whatever that holds. So this is where you come in. What was your Spotify wraps like this year and what do you feel like it says about you? Give our voicemail a call at five seven one three one oh eighteen fifty nine and leave us a voicemail and let us know and you might even hear yourself on a future episode of There Are No Girls on the Internet. That's five seven one three one oh eight fifty nine. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or just want to say hi? You can reach us at Hello at tang Godi dot com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangodi dot com. There Are No Girls on the Internet was created by me Bridget Todd. It's a production of iHeart Radio and Unboss creative Jonathan Strickland as our executive producer. Tara Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, check out the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. And then I have been home with and then I have been he with