What your Spotify Wrapped won't tell you
Whether it’s “Forever Your Girl” by Paula Abdul while getting ready, “Stop” by the Spice Girls on the way to school, or “Paint By Numbers” by Harry Styles to wind down after a long day, I’ve built a catalogue of songs to accompany my daily activities. Radio listening and online streaming have become such regular parts of my routine that my days feel colorless without seeing the familiar green of Spotify. The melodies woven into each song can evoke different moods, memories, and mindsets that add a special hue to everything I do.
The philosopher Etienne Gilson says that music, through elements such as harmony and timbre, is capable of rousing the emotions of individuals, and that “indeed with some of them it wields an almost unendurable power over their affective states.”1 Studies have shown that hearing expected chord progressions within a harmony elicits positive feelings in listeners by activating the amygdala and hippocampus. The brain is effectively trained to predict the next note by repeatedly listening to familiar sound patterns.2 For instance, playing a New Wave song that I’ve never heard before would still sound good because of how many times I’ve listened to The Lotus Eaters’ “German Girl”, Nena’s “99 Luftballons”, and Tears for Fears’ “Head Over Heels” on my headphones. Additionally, the use of major or minor chords could respectively bring about joyful or somber feelings in the listener.3 The major chords of “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey motivate me to take on the day with my head held high, while the dissonant minor chords of “Nothing New” by Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers put me into a more contemplative mindset.
Furthermore, Starcke, Mayr, and Georgi found that creating intentional sequences between one song and another can aid in swaying one’s mood towards a desired emotion through what is called the Iso Principle.4 It involves first listening to a song that reflects one’s current mood, such as sadness, and following that by progressively playing music that matches the desired state, like hope, for example. If I’m having a rough day, I could acknowledge my feelings by first listening to “Did You Like Her in the Morning?” by NIKI. Then, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis could follow, with its well-wishing nostalgia. Finally, I can seal my conviction for a brighter future with “Better Days” by Ant Clemons and Justin Timberlake.
Aside from resonating with feelings, music also lingers in memories. According to Gilson, “Sounds likewise would be lost in the void of discontinuity, as Saint Augustine pointed out fifteen centuries ago, if memory did not harbor and measure them so that the mind, aided by the imagination, can arrange them into distinct groups each one of which constitutes a sonorous form”.5 Sound only lasts for as long as a note is played, yet such a fleeting existence lives on through the experiences and events that it accompanied. “Pomp and Circumstance No. 1” by Edward Elgar is merely a 6-minute composition, but it has immortalized itself as the graduation march that has accompanied thousands of graduates as they walked across stages to receive their diplomas.6 For several weeks after my high school graduation, I set that distinctive tune as my morning alarm because hearing the opening notes simply reminded me of the pride and fulfillment that I felt on that very day.
Now, I’m in my first year of college, and there’s still a long way to go before Elgar’s memorable piece accompanies me across another graduation stage. In the meantime, I spend my time studying for exams, creating presentations, and writing papers, all of which I accomplish while listening to music. Dacillo et al. conducted research that found that students had better memory retention when they listened to pop songs while studying.7 The reason lies in the Arousal-Mood Theory or the mediating effect of music between emotion and cognitive processes. When people listen to songs that they enjoy and derive pleasure from, they are able to perform better in creative thinking, memorization, and simple mental problem-solving.8
Since people favor different genres and artists, they would also have varied reactions to different types of music. Personally, I find that listening to classical music helps me write essays with better substance in a shorter amount of time. For example, Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” once helped me write a reflection paper because the shift of the concertos from summer to winter mirrored my entrance into a state of absolute focus and precision. On the other hand, I enjoy listening to Filipino hip-hop songs whenever I work on creative projects such as posters and presentation decks because the genre embodies the easygoing and cool energy that I want to portray in my output.
From the 60s folk songs of Peter, Paul, and Mary to Tyla’s amapiano dance hits, different types of music have helped me flourish in various aspects of my life. The “Rhythm of the Rain” has accompanied me through emotional downpours and the succeeding sunny skies. I’ve made many memories “In My Life”, each with a distinctive backing track to help me recall what I’ve felt in every moment, and I took the “Pressure Off” of schoolwork by typing to the beat of snare drums and bass lines. With these, I can say “Thank You for the Music” because it’s given me a piece of art that I can carry around and inexplicably tie to my lessons and experiences.
According to my Spotify account, I’ve listened to 9,297 unique songs since opening it in 2017. Over the past three years, I’ve also amassed a collection of vinyl records and CDs that take up more space than I’m capable of cleaning. However, I know that there are so many more songs, albums, and performances that I’ve yet to immerse myself in. There’s an entire globe of musical culture and decades’ worth of recordings that I have yet to explore. Similarly, there are so many more triumphs, challenges, sights, and feelings that await me as I progress through the stages of my life. I am fulfilled by my experience with music thus far, and my excitement echoes for the sounds and sentiments to come.
Click here to listen to the songs found in the article.
Gilson, Etienne. 1966. Forms and Substances in the Arts. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Zhang, Jing, Linghe Li, Lijuan Wei, and Hanlin Wang. 2025. “Moderating effects of chord progressions on the emotional experience of major and minor chords.” Acta Psychologica 253:104690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.104690.
Rudder, Michelle. 2019. How the Harmonic Elements of Music Convey Emotion: A Brief Summary of Research and Application. https://www.academia.edu/39479900/How_the_Harmonic_Elements_of_Music_Convey_Emotion_A_Brief_Summary_of_Research_and_Application.
Starcke, Katrin, Johanna Mayr, and Richard v. Georgi. 2021. “Emotion Modulation through Music after Sadness Induction—The Iso Principle in a Controlled Experimental Study.” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18 (23): 12486. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312486.
Gilson, Forms and Substances in the Arts, 168
Varon, Sophie. 2026. “How Elgar’s ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ Marched Its Way into Graduation Season | WQXR Features.” WQXR. https://www.wqxr.org/story/how-pomp-and-circumstance-marched-its-way-graduation-season/.
Dacillo, Faithful Grace, Kyla Denise Dimaculangan, Ellaine Malibiran, Grace Pauig, Mary Rose Cañas, Shirley Nicole Silva, Abegail Dagdag, et al. 2025. “The Impact of Classical Music and Pop Music on Memory Retention among College Students.” Psychology and Education: A Multidisciplinary Journal 33 (4): 430-441. 10.70838/pemi.330402.
Zhuang, Jingzhi. 2021. “The Arousal-Mood Theory: Current Research and Limitations.” Scholarly Review Journal Fall 2021 (2). https://doi.org/10.70121/001c.121648.
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