On Nov. 30, Spotify released this year’s “Spotify Wrapped”. Spotify Wrapped is a huge marketing campaign on social media by Spotify. The campaign allows Spotify users to view a compilation of data about their activity on the platform. The data can show them anything from their most listened-to song(s) or their top artist(s). It allows users to share it on other social media pages, like Snapchat and Instagram. This is huge among teenagers because they love to see who is listening to what, and how much.

The student population had many different top artists this year, including Slipknot, Tyler the Creator, My Chemical Romance, Alec Benjamin and many more. But this years’ top artist was the American singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift. In 2022, Swift released her tenth studio album “Midnights” on Oct. 21. Followers of Swift were so excited to hear this album because this was her first time releasing new music in almost two years. A little more than a week after she released “Midnights”, Swift announced on Good Morning America that she would be going on tour for the first time in four years. Fans were both excited about the upcoming tour and proud of Swift for all of the work she has put toward her career this year.

“I think [her being the top artist of the year] is well deserved because she came out with a lot of great music this year,” senior McKenna Barret said.

Other than Swift, another artist who hit the top of the charts this year was Harry Styles. Styles had both the biggest album of the year and the most streamed song of the year. His newest album, “Harry’s House”, was released on May 20 of this year and fans immediately grew a connection with the album. Styles’ hit song off the album was “As It Was”, which people from all over the globe were listening to. “As It Was” was streamed on Spotify over 1.6 billion times, not including other streaming services like Apple Music and YouTube. Styles was a part of the popular boy band “One Direction” for many years until they decided to take an indefinite hiatus in 2016. Fans were worried about the next time they would be able to listen to some of their favorite artists again, but Styles started up his solo career in 2017. Styles started so soon that a lot of his fan base from years prior stayed with him throughout his solo career, and most are still with him today.

“It definitely makes me happy [to see him achieve all of these huge honors] because he is someone I listened to growing up, so it is really cool to see him making it on his own,” sophomore Megan Ellis said. 

Other top awards from this year included Imagine Dragons being this year’s top vocal group and “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” being the Best TV and Movie Track of 2022. People love being able to express themselves through music, and students hope that Spotify plans to continue this tradition for years to come.