After two weeks of cryptic teasers, memes, and mounting impatience over its secret drop date, Spotify finally released its highly anticipated 2024 Wrapped on Wednesday, December 4. Since the release, Instagram stories have been flooded with screenshots of top artists and songs. But what was expected to be an exciting moment for music lovers turned out to be a letdown for many.
What is Spotify Wrapped, Anyway?
Spotify Wrapped is a highlight reel of a user’s yearly listening journey on the platform, including top artists, favorite songs, and personalized statistics. Its appeal revolves around a moment of self-reflection and the chance to flex one’s music taste to their peers. Listeners will also receive thank-you videos from some of their favorite artists for being a fan.
However, many found that Spotify Wrapped 2024 was severely underwhelming and was an overuse of generative AI.
Why Are Fans Frustrated?
The controversy began with one glaring change: replacing the “Top Genre” feature with an AI-generated blurb of music styles that users played during a certain month of the year. Many listeners received odd categories such as “Vampire Boujee Football Rap,” “Indie McBling Vogue Pop,” and even “Twinkly Skateboarding Midwest Emo.” The most common was “Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop” which haunted every Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter fan. The “Top Album” feature was also missing from this year’s Wrapped, and these odd, experimental micro-genres as a replacement did not satisfy the audience.
Many Barons theorize that the data collection for Wrapped was skewed, only representing their music taste from the early months of 2024. Junior Natsumi Inoue shared, “I feel like it only collected what I listened to in January/February and really disregarded the music I streamed towards the end.” Maybe the question is: who didn’t feel a little wronged by Spotify’s selective memory?
Whether Wrapped had you bragging about being in the top 0.005% of fans for your favorite artist or photoshopping different album covers over your rankings, it remains a beloved tradition to conclude each year–awkward stats and all.
