As usual, my Spidey Sense started to tingle when it was almost time for a new YouTube Music Recap to drop. I first started to get impatient in early March for my Winter Recap (now known as the “December-February Recap”). Based on previous years, however, I knew that it probably wouldn’t be released until the second week of April at the earliest. I pacified myself by making predictions about my listening habits on Threads, but I was still checking the recap section night and day like a maniac.
Right on time, the Winter Recap dropped the morning of April 8th. Let’s discuss the results.
Overview
The Winter Recap, as usual, is complicated to analyze. I’ll do my best to share what I know.
My total listening time for this season is 3,720 minutes, or 62 hours. That’s a 64-minute difference from the fall period’s total of 3,784 minutes (63 hours), which I calculated by subtracting the listening times from the other seasons from my year-end listening time. That’s just an hour, give or take. Not a big deal at first glance. Compared to my total listening time in 2024’s Winter Recap, however, that’s a 976-minute/16-hour drop. Year after year, my listening times continue to decrease. My current guess for why that is? I can’t listen to music for as long as I used to. After an hour or two, I get tired of it. It becomes noise and my nerves can’t take it. There are also days at a time when I’m just not in the mood for music. I’m getting old.
In other news, a new genre joined my Top Genres list: J-Pop, with 2%. Now, this isn’t the first time that J-Pop has appeared. The last time was in…2020, I think. Far too long ago. As to why it has resurfaced now, it’s primarily because of my interest in the J-Pop group &TEAM (more on them in a minute). It could also be due to the fact that a lot of my favorite artists, K-Pop and C-Pop alike, have released Japanese albums recently. Whatever’s the case, I like seeing J-Pop making a comeback. I’m returning to my roots.
Meanwhile, my Top Mood is Dramatic (28%). Nothing new there, though the actual percentage has dropped since it was 33% back in the summer and 30% for all of 2024. As to why this category continues to drop, I believe it’s because I’ve been making an effort to diversify what I listen to, which changes the moods.
Top Winter Artists
I’m impressed with my Top Artists this season. I have an artist to represent K-Pop, J-Pop, and C-Pop on the list. That’s never happened before! I’ve gone fully international, folks! I love that.
The artists are the basically same as always. NCT is well-represented, with NCT 127 and WayV in first and fifth place respectively. ATEEZ and Enhypen are in the mix as well, which is nice to see. The only new artist is &TEAM. I think of &TEAM as Enhypen’s brother group. The two are connected, like two sides of the same coin. Whereas Enhypen are seven vampires who sing in Korean, &TEAM are nine werewolves who sing in Japanese. I’m currently working through their respective stories in the comic book series Dark Moon, “The Blood Altar” and “The Grey City.”
I first came across &TEAM when I started exploring Enhypen’s lore, but I didn’t fall for them until I heard their song “Deer Hunter” (a total banger, and my #4 song this season). They’re incredibly polished, insanely talented, and uniformly gorgeous like Enhypen, but they have more of a raw, in-your-face vibe. They’re almost real werewolves. Every performance I’ve seen from them is top tier. They’ve successfully roped me in.
Top Winter Songs
As I mentioned before, I made some predictions about what my Top Songs might be before my recap came out. Here’s a screenshot of the post for reference:
Now, take a look at the actual results:
Wrong order, right songs. Can you believe how close I was?
Ultimately, “I’mma Be” from XLOV came out on top. XLOV is a very new group. This is literally their only song right now, and it just came out in January. At the same time, I recognize some of the members as contestants from the Boys Planet reality show that birthed the boy group ZEROBASEONE, so it’s more like a reunion than an introduction.
There were rumblings about this group and song on social media the second they debuted. Everyone was entranced with their seductive sound and gender-bending style. I resisted getting into it because I’m already up to my neck in groups. The last thing I wanted to do was add yet another group—and a nugu one at that—to my roster. But the rumblings eventually got so loud that I had to check things out for myself. My goodness! I was gone after the first listen.
The gist of “I’mma Be” is that the narrator is telling his love interest that he’s on the prowl and they’re his next target. The song has this eerie, pulsing beat, which the members accentuate with hushed, sultry vocals. The chorus is simple yet effective: “I’mma be your whoo-hoo-hoo/I’mma be your/I’mma be your” on repeat. I keep wanting to yell, “I’mma be your what?” I assume the missing word is some variation of “lover,” but the fact that they never say it makes my imagination run wild. Too many things can fit into that blank space.
The music video is interesting too. The members know how to serve D-I-V-A attitude, okay? Wumuti’s stylish finger waves and bejeweled face are instantly iconic. Rui shows off his insane flexibility and graceful movements. Hyun is tall and gorgeously tanned with strong vocals. Haru is a dangerous cutie who more than holds his own despite being the youngest. They are a formidable quartet. I can’t wait for their new single to come out next month. I hope they keep up the momentum.
Top Winter Albums
I wasn’t the least bit surprised by my Top Winter Album. As an Ahgase for several years now, There was really only one option: Winter Heptagon, the latest album from GOT7. Their group activities understandably took a backseat to solo releases and military enlistments for a minute, but they never forgot about the group. And they totally delivered! They managed to both satisfy long-time fans and impress a whole new generation of fans. It was a good time.
Winter Heptagon is a strong album. Everybody got a chance to put their stamp on a track or two. I like pretty much every track, especially “Darling” and “Remember.” “Python” is a beast of a lead single. The song’s about a guy who has everything going for himself professionally but he can’t get past his failed toxic relationship. It’s build around the metaphor of a snake—someone who is sneaky, untrustworthy, and disloyal; someone who has wrapped themself around him, keeping him from moving on while squeezing the life out of him. There are many betrayal references, such as the genius lines, “Shot through the chest/I was falling for the shooter.” It’s a very mature situation that shows how having success and money don’t matter if you don’t have someone by your side that you can trust with your heart.
Besides my runner-up album Alivio, which makes sense because Chung Ha is that chick and she never misses, most of the other albums on the list are much more surprising. I listened to (and enjoyed) ONE PACT’s fallin’ and EVNNE’s Ride or Die because I was watching Boys Planet at the time, but I doubt I listened to either album enough times for them to rank so high. The same goes for GOT7’s older release 7 for 7. I only remember playing one song from the album twice, tops. I wasn’t expecting those four albums at all. Oh well.
Conclusion
Musically, I’d say the winter period treated me very nicely. Lots of heavy hitters in the mix. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities if some of these same songs showed up again next season, that’s how much of a hold they’ve had over me the past few months. The albums could have been more representative of what I actually listened to, but it’s not like any of them were bad. We’ll see how things shake out next season.
Photo Credit: “Minimalist Workspace With Blue Headphones and Keyboard.” @ Noemi Jiménez from Pexels via Canva.com