On November 29th, Spotify released their highly anticipated musical recap, “Spotify Wrapped” for 2023. After scrambling to curate their Spotify listening habits by the October 31st deadline, many awaited the release of this year’s Wrapped with bated breath.
For the third year running at the Chronicle, we gathered data to see how Hoggard students listened to music throughout the year. We gathered 55 responses from students across all grade levels and took a deep dive into their musical habits to create the 2023 “Hoggard Wrapped”.
Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey, this article would not have been possible without you!
For the third year in a row, Taylor Swift is Hoggard’s top artist, with a record number of fans for Hoggard Wrapped! 23 respondents listed Swift as their overall top artist, and an additional 11 listed Swift in their top 5 artists. This comes as no surprise with the singer’s ongoing “Era’s Tour”- the highest grossing tour of all time- and the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in early July, and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in late October. One student said of Swift “I just think it’s so funny how majority of the music on my Spotify wrapped is rock stuff but then Taylor Swift is my top artist ‘cause she’s taken over 2023”.
Swift was also Spotify’s most streamed artist, but how do Spotify’s other top artist’s compare to the data from Hoggard?
Out of Spotify’s Top 10 U.S artists, all 8 of 10 artists made an appearance in Hoggard Wrapped. They are as follows: Taylor Swift (34 responses), Drake (9 responses), Morgan Wallen (6 responses), The Weeknd (4 responses), 21 Savage (2 response), SZA (eight responses), Zach Bryan (8 responses), and Kayne West ( 1 response). Notably, Puerto-Rican singer Bad Bunny, ranked at #5 overall, is missing from Hoggard’s data, along with Mexican singer Peso Pluma ( ranked #10).
There were a few other artists who were notably missing from the Wrapped. Indie supergroup BoyGenius–who performed at Wilmington’s Live Oak Pavillion last summer– were represented only by one song “Cool About It” from their 2023 debut album “The Record.” BoyGenius member Phoebe Bridgers was completely missing from the list, alongside “Renaissance” superstar Beyoncé who had only one response.
Other popular artists included Lana Del Rey (11), Noah Kahan (10), Morgan Wallen (6), Frank Ocean (6), Olivia Rodrigo (6), Hozier (6), Travis Scott (5), and my favorite band, Rainbow Kitten Surprise (4).
Popular songs this year include Swift’s “Champagne Problems” and “Cardigan”, Frank Ocean’s 2016 hit “Pink + White”, Zach Bryan’s “Burn, Burn, Burn”, and Kendrick Lamara’s “DNA.”
Combined, all respondents listened to over 2 million minutes of music, which amounts to almost 4 years straight of listening! The average total was 39,378 minutes, or around a month, of straight listening.
This year, Spotify released a new feature in their Wrapped– telling subscribers where in the world their music taste most closely aligns. Out of those who responded, the most popular location was San Luis Obispo, California followed by Burlington, Vermont; Flagstaff, Arizona; and College Station, Texas.
Although Apple Music’s Replay did not include location features, it did tell users their top album– unlike Spotify. Popular responses included Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season”, Zach Bryan’s self-titled album, and a variety of Taylor Swift albums.
This year’s form also included some personalized responses with the addition of the musical guilty pleasures category. These are the songs and artists that students hit play on the moment Spotify Wrapped stops collecting data on November 1st. Hoggard students love boy bands, from One Direction and Big Time Rush of the 2010s to 90s legends NSYNC.
Finally a list of favorite podcasts:
Moments- Lexi Hidalgo
Ologies- Alie Ward
Very Really Good- Kurtis Conner
Emergency Intercom- Enya Umanzor and Drew Phillips
F1R The Girls: A Formula 1 Podcast - Tiggy Valen, Sarah Hannigan, and Chesa Sacchi
Duolingo Spanish Podcast- Martina Castro
Bookmark’d with Sara and Des
Crime Junkie- Ashley Flowers
Anything Goes- Emma Chamberlain
Extras
With all the data, I put together a few fun extra posters and playlists!
This playlist contains every song mentioned in Hoggard’s Wrapped:
While this one contains a song from every artist:
And a breakdown of Hoggard’s favorite artists!
