That’s a wrap

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2023 (1022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every city believes it is unique, and in some ways — fat-boy hamburgers, honey dill sauce and Jeanne’s cakes, for example — Winnipeg offers visitors tastes that are singular to our corner of the world.

Is Winnipeg’s taste in music equally unique?

According to Wrapped, the year-ending list compiled between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31 by the Spotify streaming service and released Wednesday, Winnipeggers clicked on, mostly, the same songs from the same albums by the same artists that everyone else did in 2023.

The top 5 artists Winnipeg listened to the most on Spotify in 2023 were, in this order: Taylor Swift, Drake, Morgan Wallen, the Weeknd and SZA.

Compare that with Canada’s list: Taylor Swift, Drake, Morgan Wallen, the Weeknd and 21 Savage.

Three of the same names appear on the global Top 5 list: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, the Weeknd, Drake and Peso Pluma.

Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who in 2020 became the first non-English language act to be Spotify’s most streamed artist of the year, and Mexican singer Peso Pluma both perform in Spanish.

Perhaps Winnipeg has mid-continent kinship with St. Louis hip-hop artist SZA, because two of her songs, Kill Bill and Snooze, are listed in the city’s Top 5 most listened to songs, at No. 2 and No. 4, respectively.

At the top was Last Night by Morgan Wallen, which he performed at his Sept. 28 concert at Canada Life Centre. Miley Cyrus’s Flowers was No. 3 and Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2 by British singer and producer PinkPantheress and American rapper Ice Spice was fifth.

Canada as a whole liked Last Night, Flowers and Kill Bill — ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively — but grooved to Calm Down by Selena Gomez and Rema at No. 4 and Creepin’ by the Weeknd, 21 Savage and Metro Boomin, another St. Louis hip-hop artist.

Streaming rival Apple Music has its own version of a year-end curation, Apple Music Replay, and to the shock of absolutely no one, the algorithm it uses declared Swift as its artist of the year.

While the way Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services distribute royalties to artists is a contentious matter — the popular apps have disrupted the century-old revenue model for artists big and small, and not for the better — compiling what the city, country and world listens to in a given year creates a fascinating musical time capsule that hits home better than a Billboard top-10 chart.

Like the kids of 1956, who transformed a hip-swivelling country bumpkin into a global phenomenon, to the disbelief and disapproval of older generations, generation Z are the ones who drive the listenership of streaming services, hence Swift, Wallen, Drake et al., ruling the musical roost.

Of Spotify’s roughly 575 million global users, 31.5 per cent are between the ages of 18-24, according to the website Tech Report, and another 31.5 per cent of those are between 25 and 34. Men make up 58 per cent of Spotify’s audience.

So, for older streaming service users — even gen-Xers such as myself whose Wrapped list for 2023 is stacked with classic rock and includes none of the songs listed above — rather than shouting to the clouds, “Who is Pink Pantheress?” we might learn a bit about the world around us and lend an ear to what the kids want to hear.

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall