Last year was another year of really loving Hamilton it seems – along with some pop and instrumentals.

This visualization is a little off because it’s based on data from the last 365 days and not 2021, but it’s close and I like it.

My top ten artists:

1. Leslie Odom Jr. – for Hamilton
2. Lin-Manuel Miranda – Hamilton again
3. Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton – obvious
4. Weezer – because I loved their Teal Album
5. Vitamin String Quartet – due to their instrumental versions of songs from Bridgerton
6. Call Me A Hole – actually a mash-up of Nine Inch Nails and Carly Rae Jepsen on YouTube
7. Poppy – all because of one cover of a t.A.T.u. song
8. Montaigne – thanks to making the new theme song for My Brother, My Brother and Me
9. Lil Nas X – because Matt was surprised I didn’t know any songs by him and claimed I actually did. Turns out, I had heard Old Town Road but didn’t know who performed it
10. Spice Girls – because my neighbors started blasting Spice Girls at 3 in the morning and it put me in the mood to listen to more

My top albums:

1. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
2. Bridgerton (Covers from the Netflix Original Series) by Vitamin String Quartet
3. Weezer (Teal Album) by Weezer
4. All The Things She Said by Poppy
5. Spice by Spice Girls
6. Heaven & Hell by Ava Max – but only one song I think
7. Nena by Nena – again because of one song
8. Release Me by The Like – thank you Barnes & Noble for making me listen to this all day until I loved it over a decade ago
9. 7 EP by Lil Nas X
10. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish

My top tracks mostly make sense given the top albums and artists, although there are few stragglers – numbers 9 and 10 don’t have artists or albums that show up on my top ten lists.

1. Call Me A Hole, Nine Inch Nails / Carly Rae Jepsen Mash-Up – I can’t believe this was my most played song, although I’ll note that it’s actually tied with a real song haha
2. All The Things She Said by Poppy – tied for first
3. Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) by Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton
4. Kings & Queens by Ava Max
5. Guns and Ships by Leslie Odom Jr.
6. Nur geträumt by Nena
7. Old Town Road by Lil Nas X
8. Technicolour by Montaigne
9. You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive
10. Merry Happy by Kate Nash

Spotify Wrapped gave some interesting bits of information, but I don’t think it reports as clearly as Last.fm – plus, Spotify only considers data from 1/1 through 10/31.

Looks like I’m pretty average as Spotify users go.

I really have no idea what this means. I don’t think I’ve ever thought to myself “time to listen to some spooky and bold music.”

This, on the other hand, seems super accurate! I didn’t even realize how accurate it was, but now I love it.

As for live music, 2021 was obviously better than 2020. I went to one concert – The Aquabats, The English Beat, and Dead Man’s Party; it was awesome! I saw one virtual concert – The Aquabats! Legion of Righteous Comrades! You Pick the Set List! Livestream Concert! That title sure had a lot of exclamation marks. I saw a singer/guitarist at a small event.

I also saw The Nightmare Before Christmas Live-to-Film Experience at the Banc of California Stadium, which features Danny Elfman, Paul Reubens, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Billie Eilish, and Ken Page. Plus, at the end Steve Bartek of Oingo Boingo joined Danny Elfman on stage to play Dead Man’s Party.

And I can’t leave out more Hamilton! I saw Hamilton at the Pantages twice in 2021!