Spotify Wrapped

About

Spotify Wrapped refers to the annual, personalized and statistical compilation of a Spotify user's music listening history, released by the company every December. Ever since the company started the viral marketing campaign in 2016, it has consistently received meme attention across Twitter and Instagram most notably. Spotify displays the user's statistics to them in a streamlined and corporate-stylized fashion, giving them insights into what genres, artists, podcasts and playlists (etc.) define their personality. Spotify Wrapped parodies and Spotify Top Fans are two of the most notable meme trends based on it.

History

Spotify began experimenting with the idea of Wrapped in 2015 when they created, for the entire platform, "Year in Music," which included the combined statistics of all users to show the favorite artists and songs from that year. The next year, they instead created personalized statistics for every user, calling it "Wrapped," which was released around December 10th, 2016. In early December that year, users on a Spotify message board^[1] first talked about "2016 Wrapped." Many of them, like the user Roadie, wondered if the feature was going to include personalized statistics. Additionally, on this messageboard, users also voiced concerns about not yet receiving their email link. Starting on December 10th, all Spotify users received their email link. This start date is evident in the first tweet ever posted about Spotify Wrapped on December 10th, 2016, by Twitter^[2] user @AbiRakheja (shown below).

Spotify Wrapped continued to see increased virality and attention as the company released it every year in early December. As evidence of this, in 2017, its second year of being released, Spotify Wrapped received more attention on Twitter than in 2016. Tweets^[3] began surfacing after 2017 Wrapped was released to users on December 5th, 2017. Spotify added new features to Wrapped like the amount of time a user spent streaming music and quizzes for a user based on how well they know their own music taste.^[4]

Spotify Wrapped was released every year following 2017 going into December 2021. Other notable features were added to Wrapped every year like what astrological signs people gravitated to most in 2018^[5] and its Top Fans feature in 2020.

Online Reactions

In December 2016, people online weren't reacting strongly to the new Spotify Wrapped feature. Tweets mentioning "Spotify Wrapped" in December 2016^[6] weren't as prominent as in December 2017.^[7] Twitter users in 2016 mostly showed praise of the feature, like Twitter^[8] user @ablabrenda, who tweeted, "My Spotify Wrapped playlist is probably the best representation of me out there," on December 15th, 2016.

In December 2017, a new reaction to Spotify Wrapped was percolating on Twitter of people being embarrassed by their music listening habits. The first Twitter user to make a joke about this was @oliviajadeburke,^[9] who tweeted on the morning of December 5th, "well me spotify wrapped has truly outed me as an emo dunno how to feel" (shown below).

Another common reaction to Spotify Wrapped that started in 2017 was the abundance of people posting their Wrappeds on their social media and how annoying it was, also, how the unveiling of their music taste affected the way their followers perceived them. The first Twitter user to make a joke about this conflict was @inkerley,^[10] who tweeted, "I don't trust any of you fuckers sharing your Spotify Wrapped playlists. Anyone with that stable a sense of self is not trustworthy IMO," on December 5th, 2017. A more notable example (shown below) was also posted on December 5th later that night from Twitter^[11] user @annetdonahue. It received 209 likes over the course of four years.

Twitter users also reacted in 2017 to the strange genre names that Spotify namedropped on them. The first internet user to make a joke about this was @anna_shetler,^[12] whose tweet (shown below) received 16 likes when posted on December 5th, 2017.

This insistence on weird genre names continued to grow over the years. More notably in December 2021, Spotify users reacted to the genre Bubblegrunge appearing in their Wrappeds. For instance, Twitter^[13] user @punkflop posted a tweet (shown below) that received 39 likes in one day.

Related Memes

Spotify Wrapped Parodies

In 2017, Spotify Wrapped Parodies emerged on Twitter as a result of the 2017 Wrapped infographic that users received at the end of their Wrappeds. Many internet users shared these condensed versions of their Wrappeds to Twitter, causing the infographic to become over-saturated across many platforms. The first meme creator to exploit this over-saturation was Twitter^[14] user @papsby, who photoshopped Smash Mouth's “All Star” into their Wrapped, changed their top genre to "Meme Rock" and also referenced notable 2017 music memes like Big Shaq's “Man's Not Hot.” The meme (shown below) received 138 likes after being posted on December 5th, 2017.

More people exploited their Wrapped infographics in the days that followed. For instance, “Africa” by Toto was referenced in a meme on Reddit ^[15] and Crazy Frog was referenced in a meme posted to Funnyjunk ^[16] (both shown below).

Spotify Top Fans

In 2020, Spotify Wrapped incorporated a new statistic for its users, Top Fans. The feature allowed users to see who they were in the top 2 percent, 1 percent or even 0.2 percent of their most-streamed artists. The first meme creator to exploit this infographic was Twitter^[17] user @rubyinnes who photoshopped an image of pregnant Sonic the Hedgehog as her most-streamed artist. The tweet (shown below) received 121 likes over the course of one year.

X Wrapped

As early as 2017, internet users began using the phrasal template "X Wrapped" to describe other things that could have a yearly, statistical wrap-up. The first internet user to make a joke in this vein was Twitter^[18] user @MandolinReyne who posted a tweet on December 7th, 2017, imagining a Wrapped that, "tracked our most used words or phrases of 2017." Her tweet (shown below) received 19 likes.

The most well-known example of this phrasal template is the idea of a "Pornhub Wrapped." This concept was first uttered by Spanish-speaking Twitter^[19] user @apfeltini whose tweet (shown below, top) received six likes after being posted on December 8th, 2017. Twitter^[20] user @Matt_Scribble posted a parallel tweet three days later (shown below, bottom) that received three likes after being posted.

Pornhub Wrapped continued to be used as a concept going into 2021,^[21] inspiring "Top Artist Parodies" like the one shown below, tweeted by Twitter^[22] user @osomabinsnappin on December 1st, 2021.

Spotify Users vs Apple Music Users

Another prominent meme concept that arose from Spotify Wrapped discourse was the comparison between Apple Music users and Spotify users with Spotify users getting a Wrapped and Apple Music users not getting one. The first internet user to make a joke about this difference was Twitter^[23] user @_alexmontgomery who posted a tweet on December 8th, 2017, about Apple Music users feeling left out (shown below).

In December 2021, this dichotomy was joked about further. For instance, Twitter^[24] user @notorious_KRG posted a meme on December 1st, 2021, that used the Two Guys On A Bus format (shown below). The tweet received roughly 5,900 likes in one day.

However, Apple Music did unveil its "Replay" feature in 2021,^[25] which is a parallel version of Spotify Wrapped.

Spotify Wrapped 2022

On November 30th, 2022, Spotify users were given their personalized 2022 Wrapped in the Spotify app. On the day of, multiple Twitter users and meme creators across social media platforms started photoshopping their Spotify Wrapped results, inserting different songs, artists, concepts, settings and scenarios into the text of their infographics.

For instance, on November 30th, Twitter^[26] user airbagged exploited the new "Your morning started with" section by replacing the text with masturbation signifiers, gaining roughly 77,700 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also on November 30th, Twitter^[27] user casseroleboy exploited the text to make fun of the January 6th, 2021, Storming of the U.S. Capitol Building, earning roughly 243,400 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Unlike previous years, multiple Spotify Wrapped video memes were posted to Twitter that exploited the stylized video graphics. For instance, on November 30th, 2022, Twitter^[28] user grumpy_twink showed a screen-recording of their "Top Song" result, revealing that the song was "Mice Repel" by Ultrasonic Pest Repeller, earning roughly 2.2 million views and 167,300 likes in one day (shown below). It is also likely that Twitter user grumpy_twink's "Top Song" was in fact "Mice Repel" by Ultrasonic Pest Repeller due to an inferred mice infestation problem.

Spotify Wrapped is out! pic.twitter.com/fSgxvuA8bP

— euan (@grumpy_twink) November 30, 2022

Spotify Wrapped 2022 Meme Templates

Spotify Wrapped 2023 and Burlington

In the 2023 edition of Spotify Wrapped, Spotify told users where geographically their tastes most closely aligned. Many users, specifically listeners of indie rock and other guitar-based artists, were surprised to discover that they were pegged to Burlington, Vermont, leading to jokes about the city and the type of people who apparently reside there.

Search Interest

External References