The Origins of Spotify Wrapped
The first variation of Spotify Wrapped began in 2015, when the streaming service issued what was then called a “Year in Review” for its users in early December. However, that statistical compilation ranked the top artists and songs across all listeners on the platform rather than personalizing any data. The following year, various users on Spotify message boards began voicing a desire to incorporate personalized data into the next “Year in Review.” Spotify listened, and in December 2016, the modern iteration of Spotify Wrapped was born. It was also the first time that the word “wrapped” was used in the roundup. The spread of Spotify Wrapped over the years came with backlash. Who can forget the allegations that a former intern pitched the design concept and didn’t get proper credit or the ongoing suspicions that the latest version was underwhelming and less creative because it was AI-generated?
Despite this backlash, ever since Spotify Wrapped became popular, other music platforms like Apple Music, YouTube, and Tidal have followed suit with their own versions of an annual review for their listeners—but none of them have had the same cultural impact. Much of this is due to the effectiveness of Spotify’s branding and how easily memeable that branding has become.
The Memeification of Spotify Wrapped
According to Know Your Meme, the first ever tweet about Spotify Wrapped was written by @AbiRakheja, who pointed out that his compilation was almost entirely populated by the bands Coldplay and The Lumineers. Of course, the memes would get more creative, satirical, and self-deprecating as time went on, but this first official tweet does go to show that the impulse to post about one’s own personalized list and its predictability has existed since the beginning of Spotify Wrapped.
As the virality of Spotify Wrapped increased from 2016 onward, so did the memes. In 2017, @oiviajadeburke tweeted that Spotify Wrapped “outed me as an emo, dunno how to feel.” The online reactions started to lean further and further into playful embarrassment and gentle mocking. Queer folks joked about how Spotify was using their top artists to “out” them, Swifties started feigning surprise that their Lord and Savior was their number one artist yet again, basics mocked their own basic-ness, and trolls made light of everyone else’s incessant social media posts as if their top five artists were of national concern.
Other aspects of Spotify Wrapped that always generate memes are the confused reactions people have had to the service’s niche genre classifications and strange additional features. For instance, @punkflop joked about the fact that one of their personalized genres was called “bubblegrunge,” which sparked its own mini-meme in 2021. Last year, the platform used people’s music profiles to humorously inform listeners where in the country their tastes most aligned. People quickly satirized this feature as it became clear that most folks seemed to be from Berkeley, CA, Burlington, VT, and Cambridge, MA. This year left much to be desired on that front, although there was still a cringe-inducing AI-generated podcast clip announcing users’ Wrapped lists that sparked plenty of humorous hot takes.
Naturally, Spotify Wrapped memes gave way into more self-deprecating humor as well, as people started to parody the graphics and features to comment on their own trials and tribulations over the past year. For instance, in 2020, @grumpy_twink satirized what we can presume to be their own mice infestation fiasco by using the Spotify Wrapped graphics to reveal that their top song was “Mice Repel.” Other folks have made light of their financial status and mental health struggles as a way of humorously reflecting on how they powered through difficult times. The relatability and virality of these memes go hand-in-hand with the old adage that laughter is the best medicine.
Why Spotify Wrapped is a Vehicle for Self-Deprecation
As Spotify Wrapped became a mainstay on the internet, its cultural relevance became less and less about the initial intent of providing listeners with data about the music they love and more and more about memes. Is Spotify complaining about this? Not a chance. These memes increase engagement with the platform every year, allowing it to trend across several days as more of these reactions go viral. In short, it’s a win-win situation for all involved.
Regardless, who could have expected that an annual aggregator of music data would become the vehicle for such humorous self-deprecation? What makes Spotify Wrapped so memeable is how easily it can be repurposed to create relatable, honest humor. When you come across those cheesy graphics, you know it’s a Spotify Wrapped reference—talk about effective branding! This ability to be repurposed is perhaps one of the biggest prerequisites for a successful, shareable meme.
Just like how Girl Math became an engine for poking fun at the various hoops women might jump through to justify their spending habits, Spotify Wrapped has become an avenue for a similar kind of self-mockery. Your top artists and songs can say plenty about not just your tastes but also your mental state and the kind of year you may have had—be it joyful, moody, or anything in between.
This brings us to the other big prerequisite for a successful meme: a clear connection that can be drawn between pop culture and an average, relatable experience. For instance, if your bestie was among the 0.005% of fans who listened to Lana Del Rey the most, you might want to check up on their emotional well-being. Chronically online folks have used their Spotify Wrapped to make a direct correlation between the music of culturally identifiable artists and the everyday challenges of being an average, sometimes basic, and sometimes emotionally volatile human being. After all, one need not know me personally to suss out my identity as an internet-obsessed gay man with a flair for the dramatic. Just look at my Spotify Wrapped!
Thumbnail Attribution: Sara Kurfeß
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