The time has come: my music taste is now determined by an algorithm, and if that weren’t bad enough, a bunch of kids on my Spotify account are cheerfully leaving their mark on my musical profile. What once began as a personal oasis of taste, carefully curated over the years, has now become a playground of conflicting genres and kids’ pop, thanks to the Spotify algorithm.
Every week, Spotify dutifully presents me with a new Discover Weekly, full of songs that supposedly reflect my taste. But in reality, the Spotify algorithm seems to have no idea what I want. I imagine the confusion within: the poor system unable to decide whether I truly enjoy melancholic ballads or Disney soundtracks straight out of a kids’ show. Every now and then, I get a bizarre mix of heavy rock, followed by a Minecraft song, and then a cheerful hit from K3. After all, what’s an algorithm to do with a user who suddenly blasts the Macarena through the living room?
Did Spotify kill my DJ?
Where I once had a DJ who would switch without warning from The Beatles to the Macarena, bringing an element of surprise into my life, I now have to watch as the Spotify algorithm takes the reins. I miss that bold radio voice that paid little attention to my taste and occasionally played something that made me think, “I would never have chosen this, but I’m glad I heard it.” Now I’m continually stuck in an algorithmic bubble of predictability, though these days that bubble is thoroughly disrupted by a few kids’ musical choices on my account.
Maybe it’s time for drastic measures. A morning of hardcore punk, a playlist full of cheesy après-ski hits, and wrapping it up with some obscure jazz. Let’s see if I can reset the system, a sort of musical version of CTRL+ALT+DELETE. Maybe then, the Spotify algorithm will look on in confusion: what is this user’s taste, anyway?
Still, I catch myself occasionally smiling and singing along with the latest K3 hit that unapologetically lands in my “recommended for you” list. And somewhere, in that chaotic mix of my melancholic ballads, heavy rock songs, and Disney tunes, I find an unexpected charm. Maybe that Spotify algorithm is a bit like that old radio DJ, pushing me – consciously or not – a little outside my comfort zone. A chaotic bubble, but one that never gets boring.
