It’s time to explore the music I listened to in 2018. As usual, I looked at my Top Played playlist in iTunes to see which songs had the highest play counts. Here are the results:
I’m going to break down the results by genre. Then I’ll talk about what happened in my streaming music accounts and how those results compared to my iTunes play counts.
2018’s Top Song
The song I played the most this year is…”Take Off” by 2PM. “Take Off” is the first ending theme for the Blue Exorcist anime. I was thrilled to find it on the Freegal music service in June.
“Take Off” is such a fun song. The music is always subtly changing in the background. It ebbs and flows, slowly building during the verses and literally “taking off” during the chorus. I have to listen to at least three times before I can move on. Even then, I’ll sing it all day.
There are similarities between “Take Off” and my top song from last year, Dreams Come True’s “Eternity.” Both songs are from the J-Pop genre. Both songs are from the soundtrack of an animated show/movie. This time, however, the song’s artist is a K-Pop band singing in Japanese rather than a J-Pop band singing in English.
If you’re confused about how both songs qualify as J-Pop in my library, check out my post about how I organize my J-Pop and K-Pop music.
J-Pop Songs
There are two other J-Pop songs on the list besides “Take Off,” bringing the grand total to three.
My second most-played J-Pop song is “Chikai” by Utada Hikaru. Of all the singles from Utada’s incredible Hatsukoi album, I didn’t expect the latest Kingdom Hearts theme to have the most plays. The song’s irregular, almost dragging beat didn’t grow on me for a long time. But once it grabbed me, it grabbed me hard. I later got the English version “Don’t Think Twice” too.
“Possibility,” BoA’s R&B-esque duet with Daichi Miura, is the third J-Pop entry on the list. Even though it wasn’t available in the iTunes Store until recently, I’ve been wearing out the music video on YouTube for years. It’s so smooth.
K-Pop Songs
K-Pop dominates my list this year, growing from six songs to eleven.
The top K-Pop song (and the number two song overall) is Sunmi’s “Gashina.” I’ve been listening to this catchy song nonstop since it came out. I never get tired of it. It just makes me want to dance.
There is a tie for the most songs this year between Lee Hi and BTS. Both artists have two songs on the list.
Lee Hi continues the streak of solo female singers having the most songs on my list. I’ve liked her soulful voice and retro music style—which vaguely reminds me of Meghan Trainor—since I discovered her songs on Pandora.
I didn’t think she could ever top her fabulous song “Special.” Then came the one-two punch of “Missing You” and “Blues” from her Seoulite album. Those songs gut me every time I play them. I always tear up. Lee Hi is definitely underappreciated.
Then there’s the boy band BTS. They’re a repeat offender from 2017, though they only had one song on the list then. Frankly, I’m surprised they’re not on the list more. This year alone, I got 26 songs from them on Freegal, most of which from their various Love Yourself albums.
The oldie “House of Cards” is a favorite of mine. The music, especially the heavy cello use, has a gothic vibe that I dig. Plus, I always enjoy when BTS expands an Intro or Outro song.
And “Idol”…Man, what an awesome song! It is crazy energetic. I prefer the version with Nicki Minaj over the original. It means a lot that they chose to work with a female rapper, though I was admittedly afraid that Nicki would be out of place. I should have known better. I look forward to her rap break. I think it adds something special to the song. Yay for culture mashups!
English Songs
This year’s list is poor on English-language songs. There’s only one: Kehlani’s “Gangsta,” my third most-played song.
I first heard “Gangsta” when I watched Suicide Squad in May. While I don’t personally desire a gangsta, I was entranced by it the second it played in the movie. I consider it to be the official Harley Quinn/Joker theme song.
I love this song. Kehlani’s voice is hypnotic, and the beat is amazing. My favorite part is when the bass kicks in extra hard during the second verse as she sings “You got me hooked up on the feeling/You got me hanging from the ceiling.”
I’m gonna have to check out Kehlani’s discography. Maybe she has more good songs. I already bought (and loved) “Let Me Live” from the A Wrinkle in Time soundtrack in October.
Other Play Counts
Most of the streaming music services keep track of play counts now. I have some data to share on that front.
Let’s start with Google Play Music (GPM). At the beginning of the year, I enjoyed a three-month trial of the service. Of course, I mostly listened to K-Pop the whole time. When my trial ended, I took a screenshot of my play counts. Here are the results:
I later bought nine of the 13 songs on that playlist. All nine songs are on my iTunes Top Played list too. Interestingly, GPM says my top song is Lee Hi’s “Blues,” which only ranks eighth on my iTunes list. The actual play counts for the song aren’t that different, though–63 in iTunes, 50 in GPM. Go figure.
My Top Played list in Spotify is also surprising. Here are those results:
Somehow, my top song was BLACKPINK’s “Playing With Fire.” I like the song, but I don’t know how it’s number one. Even after Spotify started letting free users select tracks, I didn’t play that song or any of the others on the list enough for them to be my top songs. I assume they popped up the most in the shuffle when I played my usual K-Pop playlist. I wish I could see the actual play counts.
There is no overlap between my most-played songs in Spotify and the other services. I expected that. I didn’t upload my library to Spotify, and I always delete songs from my playlists there after I buy them.
Conclusion
So, that was my musical life in 2018.
There was an additional J-Pop song on this year’s list. That’s exciting. But I think it’s too early to say that J-Pop is making a comeback in my library. Most of the new additions are old songs, and all of the new songs are from one artist.
I’m not sure how to interpret the surge in K-Pop songs. Since I started listening to the genre in 2010, the number has fluctuated from year to year. For example, my 2011 list had only three K-Pop songs, while the 2012 list had 10. I don’t know what causes that. Yet.
Meanwhile, it’s hilarious that I barely listened to any English-language music. I generally expect K-Pop and J-Pop to have the edge, but only one English song in the top? Ha. I guess the other genres were on fire in 2018.
For the record, there were more English songs lower on the list. Here are the honorable mentions:
- “…Ready For It” (Taylor Swift)
- “Alone in Love” (Mariah Carey)
- “Accelerate” (Christina Aguilera)
- “Never Be The Same” (Camila Cabello & Kane Brown)
- “Crush” (Jennifer Page)
- “Cranes in the Sky” (Solange)
Until next year!
Photo Credit: “6117314.jpg” @ tiburi from pixabay via Canva.com