Whether it’s the rhythmic jingle of a TV commercial or a part of the background noise at the grocery store, music is a part of our everyday lives. From adding suspense to our favorite films or hyping us up at a party, the world would be a much quieter place if it weren’t for the melodies that occupy our everyday lives.
There’s many ways to listen to music, such as CD’s, cassette tapes, or records. But these days, one way to listen to music reigns supreme over the others, streaming.
“Over the past few years, the number of music streaming subscribers has soared at a rapid pace,” Statista.com research expert Marie Charlotte Götting said. “Today, nearly 616.2 million people listen to their favorite artists or discover new ones via online streaming platforms.”
However, to stream music you need a platform to listen to it on. In 2023,
Holt students used a variety of platforms, the most notable being Spotify with 78.1% of votes, followed by YouTube with 21.9%, Apple Music with 20.3% and smaller platforms, such as Musi and SoundCloud, adding up to 9.5% of votes.
Holt students averaged a whopping 51,829 minutes streaming. Timothy Lucas (‘24) accumulated 205,493 minutes streaming, which is roughly half a year of listening.
“(I listen to music) about 90% of the day,” Lucas said. “If I’m not doing anything or even if I’m doing something, I’m probably listening to music.”
Throughout the many minutes Holt students listened to music, many genres were represented, the most significant being pop followed by other notable genres such as rap and rock.
“I enjoy pop music since it is a much brighter option compared to other genres of music,” Isabella Karatsoupa (‘27) said.
With thousands of genres existing in the world, different types of genres and subgeneric appear as time goes on. Some of the notable genres emerging in 2023 for Holt consisted of Singer-Songwriter and Escape Room, as well as sub-genres such as POV: Indie.
“(I like POV: Indie because) it’s more calm and not shouting or violent and probably because it’s more relatable,” Payton Gayden (‘27) said. “(My favorite artist is) probably beabadoobee. (My favorite song is) Apple Cider.”
However, music is incomplete without one crucial factor: the artist. With hundreds of thousands of artists debuting each year, Holt’s artist taste is very much varied. However, only one is able to come on top.
Consistently breaking records, Holt’s top artist for 2023 was Taylor Swift, followed by Drake, The Weeknd, Lana Del Ray and SZA.
“I’ve been to three of her tours … The (Eras) Tour was probably my favorite tour by far because it covers all ten of her eras,” Emily Beard (‘24) said. ”My favorite song is called ‘Call It What You Want’ … It’s a very personal song to me about someone who’s been in my life for a few years now.”
