2 December 2021

Fashion.at's Karin Sawetz 'Top Songs 2021' playlist presented by Spotify Wrapped

'Spotify Wrapped' calculated from streams of individual accounts over the year appeared at the personal accounts of Spotify users in the same time when the official charts of most-streamed artists, albums, songs were released yesterday on 1 December. I was positively surprised by the playlist for my account which is used mainly for the research of new music tips for fashion.at/music. Recently, I started the work on the annual Fashion.at year review in music with a playlist and top music videos. The moment I thought the first time about music highlights of 2021, 'Point and Kill' by Little Simz and Obongjayar came instantly into my mind. The Fela Kuti-like song with its strong message to lead a self-determined life also when it's endangered by violence from authorities was released together with a video which transports the serious message with wit. The video will be described in the upcoming Fashion.at review of top music videos 2021 as a perfect communication of a political message with music and reference to a cultural setting.

At the second place is an older song, a word-rap on Indian music with flute played by Jay Ghandi - a relaxing track I hear when times are stressful. 2021 wasn't easy - for nobody! But the order of the tracks doesn't necessarily reflect the quantity of streams only. The tracks are arranged in a classical playlist-manner so that the tempo of the rhythms and musical directions are changing from slow to faster beats and genres like African music, rock, soul or disco. The melodic song 'Foot Forward' by James Blake is followed for example by the electronic beats of 'Attitude' by Lewis OfMan.

According to the press release of Spotify, the personalized Wrapped experiences are inspired by the music that was listened by the individual account holder as well as "by the creators who soundtracked the world around us." (Source: newsroom.spotify.com/2021-12-01/the-wait-is-over-your-spotify-2021-wrapped-is-here/) Selected creators of the songs of the 'Your Top Songs 2021' Spotify playlist appear actually via 'Wrapped 2021' inserts with video where for example Billie Eilish thanks listeners for including her music on their Wrapped playlist.

I won't reveal here entirely my playlist - as it's personal. But the official Fashion.at favorite tracks and videos will be published soon on fashion.at/music.