forestsofpine

Well, I sure am in a K-pop phase, haha.

Top Artists

1. SHINee
2. Taemin
3. Seventeen
4. TXT
5. ATEEZ

Top Songs

I messed up my top song stats a little bit by accidentally leaving a song on repeat for hours one day while muted, so I'm going to disregard that one (it probably was in my top 100 for real, but definitely not top five) and that puts my top five as:

1. Criminal, by Taemin - No surprises here, I love this song and Spotify actually under-represented the number of times I listened to it, since I love the choreo, too, and watched the MV often on YouTube as well as listening on Spotify.
2. Don Quixote, by Seventeen - This one was a bit of a surprise, I did listen to it a lot after they performed it live for the first time in January, but I didn't realize I listened to it THIS much.
3. Advice, by Taemin - Not surprising at all.
4. Super, by Seventeen - Also not surprising. Speaking of this song, they just performed it at the MAMA Awards and damn, but that ending still gets me hyped, even after listening to it so many times. From what I've heard, it was a massive hit in Korea, and you can hear the whole crowd holding its breath for Woozi's "Ping!"
5. Lucifer, by SHINee - This is the one I would have expected to be #2, tbh

Key's Killer was just barely out of my top 10 songs at #11, Satellite, Juice, and Identity from SHINee's Hard album were all in my top 25, and Guilty and the rest of the songs from Taemin's Guilty album all made it into my top 100 despite only being released on October 30. All in all, SHINee and its members had 31 songs in my top 100, so it's no surprise that SHINee and Taemin were my #1 and #2 artists, and I'm actually mildly surprised that Key didn't make it to the top 5 artists, too. I bet he was easily top 10, though.

More Top K-pop

Some of the other K-pop boy group and male soloist songs in my top 100 songs included:

• Rock With You, Aju Nice, and Hit (Seventeen) - The first two are two of my all-time favorite SVT songs, the third is a bit of a surprise, but I do like it.
• Devil By the Window, Farewell Neverland, and 0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You) (TXT) - Not surprising: two songs I really liked from their comeback in January, and my all-time favorite TXT song
• Say My Name and Bouncy (ATEEZ) - two of my favorites of their songs so far
• Rover (Kai) - earwormed the FUCK out of me
• Drunk-Dazed (Enhypen) - favorite Enhypen song so far
• Birthday (Ten) - this one is arguably under-represented since I love the choreo and watched it a ton on Youtube, too
• Mic Drop (BTS) - favorite BTS song
• Beautiful Liar (Monsta X) - 2023 release I liked a lot
• Maniac (Stray Kids) - one of my favorite SKZ songs
• Fantastic Baby (BIGBANG) - one of my favorite BIGBANG songs
• Hot Summer (from the Boys Planet competition show) - I've been kind of mixed on ZB1's releases so far, but really enjoyed this
• Blow (Jackson Wang) - great song
• Do or Die (Lim Young Woong) - fun and kind of nostalgic sound

Towards the end of the year I've been listening to Don't Go Insane (DPR Ian), Face (NU'EST), and Monster (BIGBANG) a lot, so I'm giving them an honorable mention even though they didn't make it into the top 100.

Girl groups were kind of under-represented in my top 100 songs, because I listen mostly to older groups and so my listening is a bit more spread out and doesn't get the big spikes from comebacks that my top five boy groups all did. If I had to guess, I'd say my top five ggs were probably IVE (who did get a couple comeback boosts, I especially liked I AM), Blackpink, T-ARA, SNSD, and f(x), in roughly that order, but with a bunch of other mostly 2nd and 3rd gen classics (Abracadabra, Nobody, I Love You, Red Flavor, etc etc etc) and a smattering of other 4th gen recent releases (especially Chaeyeon's Knock) mixed in.

Two more Korean (but not K-pop) songs that turned up in my top 25 were Here I Am from the Mr. Queen soundtrack and Kai (Jung Kiyeol, not Kim Jongin) and DK's Korean cover of Die Schatten Werden Laenger from the musical Elisabeth.



Everything Else

I think the non-Korean music in my top 100 songs mostly had the same issue as the K-pop girl groups, where most of my favorite non-Korean artists didn't get the same concentrated attention on a few favorites or recent releases, so entire groups and singers that I know I listened to a lot this year had only one or two songs in the top 100, or even none at all.

In a few cases, entire COUNTRIES worth of music managed to be unrepresented. I listen to a lot of French and Russian music, yet somehow neither made the top 100, even despite a mini-Françoise Hardy phase mid-year.

Some of the non-Korean songs that did make it to my top 100 songs included:

• Young and Beautiful (Lana del Rey) - I listened to quite a bit of her music, but this was the only one that made it to the top 100. It was the highest English language song, though, so it really made it.
• 今宵多珍重 (Danny Chan) - Popped up in a Spotify mix one day and I thought it was really pretty and listened to it a bunch, especially over the summer.
• San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers In Your Hair) (Scott McKenzie) - I was reminded of its existence and how much I like it after hearing it randomly in a coffeeshop last spring.
• Queen of Kings (Alessandra) - My favorite 2023 Eurovision song.
• 飛行模式 (Hua Chenyu) - Another artist I was surprised didn't have more songs on the top 100, since I have several of his songs in pretty frequent rotation. That said, some of my favorites - in particular, his cover of 平凡之路 - aren't on Spotify, so that probably threw off the stats for him a bit.
• เบื่อคนขี้เบื่อ (I’m Not Boring, You’re Just Bored) (Tilly Birds) - From the Only Friends soundtrack! Songs from Moonlight Chicken (plus the original), Kinnporsche, and The Eclipse also made it.
• Bloody Mary (Lady Gaga) - Yes, I was reminded of how much I liked it when it went viral on Tiktok because of Wednesday. But Gaga actually did manage to get multiple songs in my top 100 this year. Born This Way was another, it's one of my go-tos when I want something energetic and uplifting.
• Until I Found You (Stephen Sanchez) - The first time I heard this one, I literally thought it was a 60s song I'd somehow never heard before, despite spending most of my childhood listening to the oldies station on the radio whenever my dad was driving. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was released by a 19 year old in 2021.
• L-O-V-E (Nat King Cole) - Speaking of romantic songs from the 60s... one of my favorites!
• Ramunder (Garmarna) - I love modern music styles blended with folk songs and folk instruments, and this is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite groups in this genre.
• Sombre Sky (Rastak) - Persian music was also under-represented in my top 100 vs how much I listened to it, but at least this one made it on.
• Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land (Marina) - Marina was another one where my listening was probably spread out across too many songs, because I listened to her a ton but somehow this was the only song that made the top 100.
• Everyday (Buddy Holly) - I had a bit of a Buddy Holly mini-phase over the summer, he's one of my favorites from my childhood of oldies radio.
• Alone Together (Fall Out Boy) - Quite surprised this was the only Fall Out Boy song in the list, but at least it's a good one.
• Never Look Away (Vienna Teng) - One of my all-time favorite songs.
• House of Memories (Panic at the Disco) - This was the song that screwed up my stats when I accidentally left it playing on mute for hours.

Artists and songs I listened to a lot that somehow didn't make it onto the top 100:

• Faun - Not even Federkleid? This was probably the most shocking omission from the top songs list for me.
• Loreena McKennitt - One of my favorite singers for going on 30 years, my listening was probably just spread out across too many of her songs.
• No classical or opera at all?? I would have thought the Masquerade Waltz at the very least.
• Altai Kai - I'm surprised nothing from Altyn Taiga made it.
• Enchanté (Dirt Poor Robins) - Turned up in a Spotify mix a few months ago and started a mini-Electro Swing phase that didn't manage to make it onto the top 100. But here's an honorable mention.
• The Communists Have the Music (They Might Be Giants) - One of my son's favorite songs, so I played it a lot for him.
• The Doors - My daughter likes them and so do I, so we listen to a lot of them in the car together. But not enough, I guess, or else it was just spread out across too many songs to boost one onto the list.
• Time in a Bottle (Jim Croce) - Popped up on shuffle one day with my husband in the car, he'd never heard it before and LOVED it, to the point that it ended up being #1 on his Spotify Wrapped for the year
• Qué vendrá (Zaz) and Faghat Yek Bar (Martik) - A couple more songs I listened to a great deal this year via his Spotify account, so they didn't show up on mine.
• Vesna - They were a quite recent discovery for me, so it's not actually surprising that they didn't make it, but I'm giving them an honorable mention, too, because some of their songs are extremely my jam and I won't be at all surprised if they make it on the list next year.

Receiptify Comparison

Edit: my friend just reminded me that Receiptify can give you your top 50 artists for the last 6 months, so I did that to compare. It also had a few surprises, but put a lot of artists/groups/genres I thought were under-represented in my top 100 songs list on Spotify back into their rightful place near the top of my listening habits, so I am happy about that. Here's the top 25:

1. SHINee - same as for the full year on Spotify, not at all surprising
2. ATEEZ - #5 for the year didn't surprise me, but #2 for the last six months does a little bit; it sure does go to show how much the Bouncy MV rearranged my brain in June, I guess
3. Taemin - he's probably second for the year but third for the last six months because I listened to him more at the start of the year anticipating his release from the military, but then was listening to more SHINee and ATEEZ over the summer after Hard and The World Ep.2: Outlaw came out. I listened (and am listening!) to the Guilty album a ton, but it only came out on Oct 30 and I guess didn't have enough time to catch back up to ATEEZ.
4. Seventeen - Super came out in April, so six months cuts off the biggest comeback boost they got this year
5. TXT - seems about right, they got a bit of a comeback boost with Chasing That Feeling this fall and I still had my favorite songs from The Name Chapter: Temptation from January on regular rotation in addition to some older favorites
6. Marina - THERE she is, still can't believe only one of her songs was in my top 100 on Spotify
7. Key - And there HE is, too. I told you he would be top 10, and it wouldn't surprise me if he beat Marina in the first half of the year since I loved Killer so much.
8. Fall Out Boy - YUP, also zero surprise
9. TVXQ! - Huh, now this is a bit of a surprise. I guess I did listen to Mirotic (song and album both) a fair bit this fall, but I wouldn't have guessed it was to the point of getting them in the top 10.
10. Enhypen - Also a surprise, and I can't even think how it happened. I listened to a lot of Drunk-Dazed and Sacrifice (Eat Me Up)? That's all I got.
11. f(x) - Okay, so my guesses for top K-pop girl groups were mostly correct in terms of which groups, but I was way off on the order 😆
12. T-ARA - see #11
13. Altai Kai - Aha, here they are, too - I like them as background music and am very confused how they didn't show up in my top 100 songs.
14. BIGBANG - Mostly just three songs over and over (Fantastic Baby, Bang Bang Bang, Monster), but damn are those three bangers
15. IVE - I really thought they'd be my top K-pop girl group this year, but third in the last six months isn't too far off
16. Le Sserafim - Huh, I'm surprised they beat Blackpink and SNSD, I guess it's a comeback boost effect?
17. Nat King Cole - One of my favorite voices ever
18. Lady Gaga - As I said above, she's one of my go-tos when I want something energetic
19. The Doors - Courtesy of my daughter's awesome taste in music 😊
20. Faun - At least they're here, but I'm still surprised they're this low. I honestly would have guessed top 10. Maybe I listened to more of them on YouTube than I realized?
21. Placido Domingo - My love for opera finally makes its presence known!
22. SNSD - love them
23. Loreena McKennitt - love her
24. (G)I-DLE - This is a huge surprise, actually. I guess I played I Want That so many times trying to decide if I liked it or not that they made it all the way to the top 25 for the fall. 😆 I still don't know if I like it or not, lol, I wish more of the song sounded like Miyeon's pre-chorus.
25. Joshua Bell - I love violin music, so not surprising to have him turn up here.

Other stuff I mentioned in the main post:

Garmarna at #26, Lana del Rey at #27, Hua Chenyu at #28, BTS at #30, Monsta X at #32, Stray Kids at #33, Blackpink at #34, Lyube (a favorite Russian group) at #35, Berliner Philharmoniker with more classical representation at #36, They Might Be Giants at #44, Buddy Holly at #48, Lim Young Woong at #49, and Zebda, Françoise Hardy, and Alizée all in the top 50 for France. Also a shoutout to Pete Seeger at #29, who I did not mention earlier, but am thrilled to see so high because I've loved his music my entire life.

Happy listening! Did you have any interesting surprises in your Spotify Wrapped?