When phone usage is allowed, students instinctively reach out for their earbuds or headphones and begin to play music. This is a habit that can be viewed as second nature to many students at Chamblee. It is very common here at Chamblee to see students, even teachers, listening to music. You might even be listening to music right now. Students who use Spotify or Apple Music, spend the year patiently awaiting the infamous ‘Wrapped’. Originally done by just Spotify, but has also been introduced to Apple Music. These wrapped/reviews are summaries of each listener’s music listening record from the past year.
Naturally, this year’s Wrapped was highly anticipated, especially by Chamblee students. Tarannum Ahmed (‘27) was one of those eagerly awaiting her Wrapped.
“It’s basically a summary of who you were the entire school year, and it says a lot about a person,” said Ahmed. “I also like posting my wrapped so I can flex my amazing music taste.”
Last year, Wrapped came out November 29, 2023, so people were getting excited all November. Finally, on December 4, this year’s Wrapped was released. But did it live up to the expectations of the students?
The first thing many students complained about was how late wrapped was released. Aiden Armstrong (‘26) noted how late Warpped was released.
“I was really anticipating [my Warpped] this year but it was really late,” said Armstrong. “I thought it was gonna be at the end of November.”
For being so late, students had hoped that this year’s Wrapped would live up to their expectations; unfortunately, Wrapped was poorly received by a majority of students. Most students pointed out that it lacked the fun from prior years.
“I think last year’s was a lot more fun and creative,” said Ell Bowers (‘26). “Last year, it gave the list of genres and places in the world where people have the same music taste as you.”
Even teachers shared that they felt this year’s Wrapped was underwhelming. Eleventh Grade Literature and Composition teacher, Brooke Arrington, felt that this year’s Wrapped was missing the personalization from previous years.
“When I got [my Wrapped], I didn’t even really want to share a lot of them, because I didn’t feel like it was that personalized,” said Arrington. “And I noticed that almost everybody got the same era or vibe. I wondered, how is this catered to me? Everybody I know got Pink Pilates Princess something.”
Other students have brought up potential inaccuracies from Spotify, stating that their top songs or artists were wrong.
“Taylor Swift is my number one artist this year, even though I made sure that I was not listening to her music,” said Sophie Price (‘26). “I was so appalled when I opened my Spotify Wrapped and saw that she was my number one artist.”
Trends like this could be due to Spotify trying to push bigger and popular artists. Spotify’s shuffle feature is far from random, clearly favoring more popular songs and artists. Because of this, songs by popular artists, like Taylor Swift, may have been played more than people thought they had played.
Overall there was much disappointment regarding the 2024 Spotify Wrapped. Students have even decided to make a switch from Spotify to Apple Music. After the disappointment of this Wrapped, Kate Lim (‘25) is one of those students who made the switch.
“I actually just recently switched to Apple Music, because their replay was better,” said Lim. “It looked like [Wrapped] was made by AI. It’s like they just threw it together five minutes before it was due and said, here you go.”
Some students have had doubts about Spotify Wrapped before the disappointment of this year.
“I do not like Spotify Wraps personally. It was cool at first, but now it’s gotten progressively worse,” said Elizabeth Gamba (‘27). “[Spotify is] losing ideas, and it’s low effort and kind of sloppy now.”
