Blair's Spotify Wrapped 2019

This December doesn’t only signal the end of the year, but also the end of the decade. Silver Chips Online (SCO) surveyed Blazers about their favorite artists, genres and songs of 2019 and the decade, as well as how their taste in music has changed over the past ten years.

Data was collected via a Google Forms survey that was posted on SCO's Twitter and was sent and posted on @mbhs4, an Instagram account run by and for Blair students. Over 60 students responded, and their responses are analyzed below.

Without further ado, the 2019 edition of Blair's Spotify Wrapped. 

Average Number of Minutes Listened To: 41,772

In 2019, Blazers listened from as few as 3,000 minutes of music on Spotify to over 520,000 minutes, with an average of 41,772 minutes.

Top Artist of 2019: BTS

BTS was the most common top artist of 2019 with over 11 percent of the vote. The runner-up was TylerThe Creator with just under six percent. Honorable mentions go to Kanye West and Taylor Swift.

Top Song of 2019: "Sunflower" by Rex Orange County

Blazers listened to a great variety of songs this year. Out of the 65+ students surveyed, only two had the same top song, which was "Sunflower." 

Top Genres of 2019

1. Pop
2. Pop Rap
3. Rap
4. Hip Hop
5. K-Pop

Pop had the overwhelming majority of this vote, but the rest of the genres were fairly close in popularity. 

Junior Elise Haverland doesn't note too much change in her music taste in the past year, but sees major differences between her current playlist and her throwback playlists. Her new playlist is a blend of songs that she hears and likes, regardless of artist or genre, whereas her throwback playlist has more generic Top 40 pop songs. "I'll go back to my old playlist that I had, and I'll just jam out to some old Selena Gomez from like 2008," Haverland says.

Top Artist of the Decade: BTS

BTS was the top artist of the decade as well as the top artist of the year with just over eight percent of the responses. Drake and Taylor Swift tied for runner-up, and honorable mentions go to Twenty One Pilots and XXXTENTACION.

Junior Che Moorhead sees similar changes in his taste over the past ten years. "Six-year-old Che loved pop music. Taylor Swift was one of his favorite artists," he says. Since then, he's gotten more into other genres like hip hop and discovered a deeper passion for rap. He also notes that his music taste has become more culturally diverse. "I've definitely exposed myself to a lot more multicultural genres," he says, "I've gotten a lot more into bossa nova and a lot of types of jazz, I like artists in languages I don't understand, like I love Latin trap music," he says.

This multicultural music taste is reflected in some of Blair's favorite songs and artists, seeing as many of the survey results, for both 2019 and the decade, were from countries all over the world and in languages other than English.

Top Genres of the Decade

1. Pop
2. Rap
3. Pop Rap
4. Hip Hop Rap
5. (tie) Rock and K-Pop

There was not much change between the 2019 and decade results for genre, although pop was somehow even more popular throughout the decade among Blair students than it already was just for 2019.

This past decade of music was full of new artists, styles, and even genres, like memerap, and with the introduction of new music streaming services, such as Soundcloud, it became even easier for artists to gain attention. These apps also helped students' tastes to evolve by making a diverse range of music more accessible to listeners worldwide. In the next decade, music will continue to diversify and become even more accessible as new artists take the stage and old ones retire.