Spotify Wrapped
Dec. 7th, 2025 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aggienaut In previous years I sometimes listened to music on Spotify but I'd get tired of its bad selection abilities and hated the commercials -- I don't mind the Aussies around me, I don't hear their accents any more, but somehow the Aussie accent in commercials absolutely grates on my ears, maybe its the combination of the accent with the usual saccharine-sweet ridiculously-cheerful excited-about-some-dumb-thing-no-one-would-be-excited-about-tone. Well at some point in my wisdom apparently I paid for premium, I don't remember doing this but it seems I did, and the algorithm has gotten better enough that it's surpassed the current youtube "your mix" I used to listen to (which seems to only play a very small selection of songs over and over again these days -- I really miss Pandora's "I'm tired of this song" feature (Pandora has been disabled in Australia))
So that annual end of the year "wrapped" thing Spotify does might actually be relevant for once. I was genuinely curious because I have the utmost trouble describing my music taste to people. (Funny story, one of my coworkers when I worked at the icecream factory was asking me this, so I named what I thought was the most well known band I like, Flogging Molly, and then he asked, "like, okay which radio station here plays that" and I just had to laugh.)
Anyway so these are apparently the genres I like. It's funny there's so much "country" because pop country makes me want to projectile vomit, but I've always liked for example Johnny Cash or like the Corb Lund band is pretty awesome without being too far off mainstream country (though they do have a few songs i can't stand, but man, Student Visas, No Roads Here, Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier, The Truth Comes Out; and Dave Stamey... but i digress.
This boggled my mind because like, I've never heard of "Possessed by Paul James." I was like who the hell is this? And then when you look at my list of top songs:
The only song by Possessed by Paul James is the only song in the first 20 that I hadn't "liked." and it's certainly not because it wasn't presented to me to have the opportunity for me to do so. What Spotify thinks is my top artist is somehow essentially the single artist I have declined to give a like to more than any other! And yet it keeps foisting it on me, WTF Spotify! As it happens, listening to the song right now, I don't terribly mind it, but I think it still falls just shy of something I'd give a Like to.
And maybe you can call it the song of the month but the song I've been in danger of playing too much for myself lately is Gasoline Lollipops - Mary Rose
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Date: 2025-12-07 01:53 am (UTC)suddenly, i start getting AI music or stupid podcasts about trump
really annoying
to avoid all this lizard feed, i would need to join YT for $24 a month just to keep the ad junk out of my feed
so i stopped logging in to YT, and if the going gets rough, i just clear the cache on the browser and start over
annoying as hell, i think i know what you mean
the AI is good until it's not, and then it's just bad
UGH
the title of the song, possessed, should be a clue that it's AI messing with you
Ggggggggh. ♫¸.•*¨♥✿♪
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Date: 2025-12-07 01:58 am (UTC)duh
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Date: 2025-12-07 01:58 am (UTC)I don't thiiink it's an AI artist or anything, and its close enough to things I like I could see how the algorithms might think I'd like it, but you'd think the algorithms would also have a way to be like "okay we've presented this song to him 20 times and he hasn't liked it yet and usually it just takes 1.2 plays of a song he's going to hit like on for him to like it so maybe we stop playing this song so much hey?"
I also wish spotify had a dislike button, it seems like that would help it steer towards songs I like even more than just what I liked a lot. And plus it would just give me some satisfaction hitting dislike on some songs ahaha.
(admittedly I also pay for youtube premium, I god damn hate hearing ads — and also the ability to play music with the screen off was a big draw)
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Date: 2025-12-07 02:01 am (UTC)LOLWTF!
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Date: 2025-12-07 02:11 am (UTC)And actually now that you mention it, I notice that neither the Stanfields or Amigo the Devil appear anywhere in the top 30 or so songs I listened to in the last year. I do know offhand I like some songs by them, recognize the name, but how it decides who it thinks my top artists are seems like a total random draw. Like Deer Tick has numerous songs I like a lot that made it into the list of top songs but somehow it doesn't think they're one of my top artists?
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Date: 2025-12-07 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-07 02:35 am (UTC)They're another one where if someone just named them before I had seen this Wrapped I would have said I don't recognize the name — but unlike that Possessed band, when I look at the list and see their songs I can confirm oh yeah I do like that song ahaha.
When asked by random people with presumably mainstream listening habits I'm tempted to say "you won't have heard of them" but tha specific line was the archtypical "hipster" thing to say when I was in college (I don't hear about hipsters anymore, I wonder i they're not a thing any more or were just a particular bugbear of my particular cultural niche) so I instinctively try to avoid saying specifically that.
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Date: 2025-12-07 02:45 am (UTC)Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).
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Date: 2025-12-07 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-07 03:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-07 03:57 am (UTC)"Americana" sounds more normal but at the same time does have me wondering what of my decidedly alternative tastes is Americana. I picture more like Bruce Springsteen (which i don't actually mind but it doesn't come up anywhere in top listens), and further if i wasn't American would i still get that category? I have no idea if those bands themselves are American?
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Date: 2025-12-07 04:05 am (UTC)That does sound interesting, though.
I'm not even sure what Americana is. I think 'The Music Man' and Sousa. :D
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Date: 2025-12-07 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-07 07:22 am (UTC)you've got a good algorithm ))
it's funny that they are able to censor us, but we aren't able to censor them, give me a dislike button
i remember when someone who didn't like what i or others said would just block us – "no comment for you!" – ha-hah!
my partner has youtube premium if i need it, but i refuse to get sucked in to their game
they've ruined many a poor video caster, by taking down channels
they've removed songs i've used for playlists
i suspect it's all driven by copyright
adverts and redirects
if they had something worth my time i would subscribe
'gootube', i call it, owned by google, run by cia implants
or so i am told...))
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Date: 2025-12-07 07:25 am (UTC)or you might disappear into the matrix !
i look at it this way, how can they know what i like, if i don't even know myself what i like?
; )