06/12/2025


spotify wrapped 2025


written as part of the 2025 advent calendar


looks like it's that time of the year again when i call into question executive decisions and black box results like i expected better, or at least different outcomes. or like i didn't listen to the music myself

let's see what we're working with here

first off, the yearly stats:

this was kind of fun. and i can appreciate how clever they were for basically turning "you listened to music from this decade the most" into countless potential "unc age" memes. hell, i'm to blame for one too

memphis rap? i must've listened to like, a handful of three 6 mafia songs at most. in fact, i'm pretty sure this comes from phonk. ahem, i mean

rare (<- if you use tiktok or really any social media it's imperative that you read this, and then watch -> this) phonk (i will die on this hill) (but i can't go on this tirade again now)

since most rare phonk samples come from some manner of memphis rap of some sorts of another. i'd love to see how spotify tags their songs genres. besides, once we get to the actual top 100 songs playlist there's not a single memphis rap track

neat! looks like when i'm not trying my hardest to be inteus' number one listener globally i can get other stuff here (i have genuinely no recollection who came out on top in my wrapped 2024 and 2023)

i suppose this also checks. i wasn't trying to be inteus' number one for no reason

alright, looks like i can't buy anymore time.... we're gonna have to get into the songs themselves. being shown my top song by being made to guess it and then just getting hit with the answer you didn't want like that is a new level of humbling

i may be cringe

but i am free


(some of) the top 100

alright, that's everything of note or interest from the slides. i'm gonna go through the top 100 songs playlist now and highlight some, well, highlights from this year

first off, the top 10

  1. ayesha erotica x mo beats - yummy (righteous remix)
    • i hope you appreciate my honesty and openness with you, dear reader, i could have just lied you know?
  2. miracle musical - labyrinth
  3. evanescence - going under
  4. TOMÓRROW - ННД
  5. lil ugly mane - uneven compromise
  6. evanescence - bring me to life
  7. joji - glimpse of us
  8. igorrr - unpleasant sonata
  9. flobots - handlebars
  10. wheatus - teenage dirtbag

man, i liked labyrinth. how the hell did it make it to number two though?? i don't remember listening to it nearly as much as, i dunno, anything really. as for others, yeah, they check out. i honestly expected teenage dirtbag to be higher but this must be recency bias couse i've been looping it a lot in the past couple weeks. honestly it's criminal how good this song can be and how mediocre and forgettable (at best) the rest of the album is. a worse offender is handlebars, the song is alright but the rest of the album? tiring, it's weird to see it in the top 10 at all, much less above teenage dirtbag

alright, some other highlights now, more or less in order of appearance in the playlist. probably less than more

yeah, this looks pretty good


(rare) phonk highlights

as someone who'd consider himself to have his finger on the pulse of the scene, the term "rare" phonk kind of crept up on me. like, i get it, and i honestly think its a great name, both functionally to serve as a clear distinction between drift or other now mainstream subgenres, and from the naming standpoint, paying homage to rare, a pillar in helping the scene expand

i also really like it for nostalgic reasons, having run into it very early in it's conception. they weren't quite my introduction to phonk, that honour goes to this mix from way back in the day oh god, oh fuck, it's been 9 years? almost two digits worth of years? i'm gonna vomit

anyway anyway anyway i'm not here to be on the tirade™ again. just wanted to highlight some phonk tracks from my top songs playlist of this year separately

most of my phonk listening comes from local files and youtube though so it's very underrepresented in the top 100 playlist. while i'm on the topic i'll list some of my other favorite phonk tracks from throughout this year. it's my website and i decide when we're shifting tracks to phonk