Algorithm altercation

An old friend has been posting his response to Spotify's "Your Top Songs 2020", which purports to be one hundred of one's most-played tracks on Spotify during the last year (not counting December, of course).

I say "purports", but who am I to argue with an algorithm?  

Well, there is the small matter of "Garbage In Garbage Out".  

Not that I listen to garbage, but I often put a playlist on, then get to work on something, which means if a given track appears on a playlist -- which Spotify has generated in the belief that I'll like it -- it will get played, and racked up amongst my favourites, even if I haven't actively "liked" it.  It's more likely that I didn't dislike it enough to wipe my hands and press the "skip" button.

Nearly a quarter of the tracks on this so-called "Top Songs" list are items I haven't marked with the green heart to designate my approbation.

I don't think there's anything on the list I hate; I do recognize the tracks, for the most part.  In the "top ten", six tracks could be categorized as classical (early music, really), and of the remaining four, two are songs I do love, and the other two --- I'm okay with, but really, there's stuff way further down the list that I would think is more representative. (HAIM, Dawes, Mott the Hoople, Annie Lennox, Vampire Weekend and Mozart, if you must know.)

Of course, if you're dealing with algorithms, sometimes you do need to get hands-on.  Last Christmas, I made myself a Christmas playlist of about two hours' worth of songs that have special meaning to me, or call back specific memories.  One song I considered was the Swedish ditty "Nu är det jul igen".  My girls were fans of Arthur's Special Christmas when they were little, and it's a catchy little song.

Unfortunately, after listening to about a dozen versions on Spotify, I couldn't find one that wasn't a bit on the precious side.  After Christmas, I realized what I had wrought; I spent the next few months banning Scandinavian pop songs from my feed on Spotify, which had decided, based on my searches, that I was crazy about singers of whom I'd never heard, singing in languages I don't understand.  (My apologies to all you Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, and Finns out there; your mastery of many languages puts me to blushing shame.)

My friend, posting what amounted to an essay on Facebook (well, he is a music therapist and a professor, to boot), was perplexed to find Justin Bieber heading his list -- apparently his more recent stuff.

The trouble is, if you let any song by any artist into your Spotify feed, the algorithm will assume you must want more.  

I pray that Spotify never finds out that I rather like "What's the Name of the Game".  That's a Swedish invasion I can do without.