Monday, July 14, 2025
For many high school students, music is more than just entertainment: It can provide a soundtrack to their lives, some Lynbrook and East Rockaway high schools students say. From late-night study sessions to car rides with friends, the songs they play often become intertwined with memories, moods and milestones.
So when the streaming platform Spotify releases its ‘Wrapped’ feature each December, summarizing users’ listening habits for the year, many students view the even as its own holiday of sorts, a personalized look back at how their tastes have evolved.
“When I look at my previous Spotify Wrapped, it’s definitely changed,” Gianna Longo, a senior at Lynbrook High, said. “In the beginning of high school, I listened to what everyone else was listening to, but now I’ve been able to cultivate my own music taste, which I’m very proud of.”
An informal survey of 44 students at the two high schools conducted by the Herald revealed a cross-section of teenage music culture. The results offer a glimpse into the artists, genres and moments that shaped the students’ year in music.
The most common artists among the students were some of the most streamed worldwide: Drake, Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo.
Lamar’s “Not Like Us” surpassed 2Pac’s “Hit ’Em Up” as the most-streamed diss track on Spotify, while Drake and SZA have had multiple songs on the Billboard Hot 200. Rodrigo earned a Grammy for Best New Artist in 2022, and Swift has 12 Grammy wins.
Some students said their top artists did not reflect their personal musical tastes.
“I do not listen to SZA and Drake that often anymore,” a Lynbrook student in the anonymous survey said. “I don’t think they should be in my top five.”
For others, Spotify Wrapped was a spot-on reflection of their year.
“It was 100 percent accurate, because I listened to the playlist with all these artists and songs for most of the year,” a East Rockaway student in the anonymous survey said.
Despite arguments over the accuracy of the platform’s analytics, music was a constant companion, most of the students said. The median number of minutes spent listening to music in the past was 33,484, and some students neared surpassing 200,000 minutes.
“I listen to music 24/7,” said Noemie Rivera, a junior at Lynbrook High who listened to over 150,000 minutes — most often to the Swedish rapper Bladee.
For many, music serves as both a social glue and a source of personal identity. Lynbrook senior Chloe O’Callaghan, whose No. 1 artist was Swift, said that musical helped her connect with friends this year.
“Music is a very important part of my life, and it’s brought a lot of my friends and I together,” O’Callaghan said, reflecting on summers spent at camp with friends, singing along to Swift and other favorites.
For some students, Spotify Wrapped, “like a mirror,” reflects how their tastes have evolved over time.
Longo, who plays trumpet in the Lynbrook High band and sings in the chorus, said that her top five artists — Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, Queen and Swift — tell a story of musical exploration that reaches back to the 1960s and ’70s, a period that she believes produced music with deeper meaning and artistry.
“Music from those time periods is a lot more raw,” Longo said. “They use a lot less autotune, and they’re longer songs. It goes to show the lengths of dedication to music writing from the ’70s.”
She added that she has an affinity for the complexity and creativity of older music. “I think I definitely would’ve been at Woodstock,” she said.
Her band class, Longo said, has discussed the commercialization of modern music, and how it seems to value quick profits over artistry.
“A lot of pop music is in a 4/4 time signature, but older music had more variety and complexity,” she explained. “I think artists in the ’70s worked harder to make music they were passionate about rather than just trying to get listeners.”
Longo gave Spotify’s algorithm credit for helping her discover new songs, with its personalized recommended playlist.
“I struggle to find a playlist of songs I really like, and it takes a lot of work to create a good playlist,” she said. “So having Spotify do it for you is very helpful.”
The novelty of the Spotify Wrapped feature itself added an element of fun, Longo said. “I think some of the categories are so funny,” she said with a laugh. “When they were doing the music evolution, and it said my vibe in March was ‘pink Pilates princess cowboy,’ I have no idea what any of those words mean.”
Although most students agreed that their Wrapped was fairly accurate, a few noted discrepancies. Some mentioned that they sometimes forgot to pause Spotify overnight, leading to inflated listening times, while others were surprised by how certain songs or artists made it to the top. One unidentified student even speculated that AI-driven mistakes might have affected the Wrapped feature, commenting in the survey:
“I feel like it’s not the most accurate because AI created this year’s Wrapped. Also, AI messed up everyone’s top 100 songs, so if that was messed up, how do I know if my Wrapped was also messed up?”
Many students view their Wrapped playlist as a time capsule of memories, a reflection of personal growth and an ongoing journey of musical discovery. For them, it serves as a personal yearbook in the form of sound.
