At the end of each year, Spotify releases Wrapped, the report that shows the music habits of users. In 2025, a new indicator, “listening age” (calculated by the year of release of favorite songs), surprised those under 40-50 years old, who saw themselves “aged” by several decades by their own musical tastes.
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Susan Krauss Whitbourne, PhD, ABPP, writes in Psychology Today that people have a “peak of memories”, namely the period between adolescence and the beginning of adult life in which the memorable events (such as the first kiss) remain most strongly imprinted on the mind.
Adolescence sets our musical tastes
Musical tastes seem to follow the same pattern, she says. More specifically, a 1989 study by Morris Holbrook and Robert Schindler shows that people like music best from “peak period of memories”, that is, the songs they were listening to around the age of 23. But Whitbourne draws attention: how come 36 year olds have similar musical tastes to octogenarians?
She also cites a 2013 study by Carol Krumhansl and Justin Zupnick in which students and other participants (with average age: 20 years) rated hits from different decades, from the 1955s (“Rock Around the Clock“) until 2000 (“Poker Face“).
The results reveal that young people prefer music from the period when they were up to 18 years old, but some also had an inclination towards hits from the years 1960-1969 and 1980-1984, that is, before they were born. The authors concluded that “these participants showed preferences for a peak period of memories for music released before their birth.” Basically, the years 1980-1984 coincide with the period in which they were born, while the '60s with the peak period of their parents' memories, which, in Spotify's terms, would make them in the “musical age” of over 60 years.
“60s music may also have had a special quality that gave it longevity, or the influence of modern streaming services, which keep a song alive through remixes, covers, or its inclusion in contemporary films. Thus, old songs survive well past their original 'expiry date'”Whitbourne also notes, as a possible explanation.
Reddit and musical nostalgia
On Reddit, one user writes that: “The synthesizer and distortion pedal have been around in mainstream music for over half a century. No further major innovations have occurred, other than more advanced versions that are digital or live as computer software. Sure, we have genres like IDM, Dubstep, Brazilian Funk, or metal so low in key that you could replace strings with hangers over pickups. But they're all based on concepts from the '70s or even older”.
Someone else fills in: “I feel like music is much less coherent. Even the lyrics and their meaning are basically just whatever the AI decides rhymes with x, y, z these days. There's a reason why Queen, Fleetwood Mac, etc. sound good in any culture, even if people don't understand the lyrics: the timing and structure is nice.”
Another user says: “Personally, I think what my “listening age” says about me is just that I like music from certain periods. I doubt it's anything more than that.”
However, experiential psychotherapist Iolanda Badea explains for “Adevărul” that:
“Adolescence is a time when it is necessary to separate from the family of origin in order to be able to discover who we are outside of it – adolescence is about change. It is normal for a teenager to reject everything that comes from the family of origin at least for a while until the questions settle down, and the young adult finds more meaning in who he is now. So first the separation so that we can create a separate, autonomous and healthy identity, and then we can look at things differently. I look at it as a kind of maturation emotional, this natural return to parents and family of origin, and maybe then their music is more pleasant, or even evokes pleasant memories”.
Music, coping mechanism and emotional maturation
According to him, music has always been a coping mechanism that we use sometimes without realizing that it helps us, but from managing stress to improving the state we experience.
“In addition, adherence to a certain musical genre has the role of a social link with a certain category of people, teenagers trying to belong and identify with those around them, or even express what they feel with the help of created playlists. The role of regulating emotions, as well as that of managing the negative emotions we go through, make music a real help, when we don't choose to discuss with someone else about the problems we are going through. Even for those who interact with teenagers, these things are very important because I can use music as a tool in the relationship with teenagers, instead of judging, listening, instead of criticizing or stopping, be open to understand what need this genre of music fulfills or what exactly is found in the soul of my teenager here”she adds.
Of course, the specialist mentions that certain stages in our lives can be marked by certain genres, perhaps more melancholic or sadder, while others are more energetic or quieter.
“It depends on what we were living through at that time and yes, listening to those songs again can transport us directly to that time, directly remembering how we felt then. I think adolescence remains fixed in our minds with the help of songs because, music was a big part of who we were back then and we identified with certain songs that we were living then”says Iolanda Badea.
In his opinion, psychotherapists can use this tool to discover the client. “Either it will be a guide to his resilience, or it will be our way to the places where the client still has certain blockages. What is important is to find out how he is now, in what way music has helped him in the past and why not, to make him aware of the value and role that music has played throughout his evolution. We can grow with a musical genre and currently find ourselves in another musical genre, or we already know what music to turn to in depending on the situation we are in. It should reassure us that we have a help in our pocket, we can choose to use music to manage our stress, to help us be more productive or to lift our spirits after a hard day at work. On the contrary, it can help us feel understood when we are going through a breakup, or to give meaning to an experience that at the moment seems meaningless.”
concludes this.
We remind you that Spotify has launched the 2025 edition of its annual retrospectives, Wrapped, which gives users an overview of this year's musical habits.
To receive a custom Wrapped, a user must have listened to at least 30 songs for over 30 seconds each and a minimum of five different artists. It is available to both Free and Premium users in most markets where Spotify is present.
Wrapped 2025 brings some news: The age of listening allows comparison of musical tastes with others in the same age group. The Top Song Quiz tests the user's memory of the hit that defined the year. The top albums highlights the albums to which the user returned most often. Top Artist Sprint shows how the top five artists in the personal rankings have changed month-to-month. The Fan Ranking allows you to see how you rank among an artist's listeners globally.
Wrapped 2025 also includes Wrapped Partywhich allows users to share the experience with friends, and Spotify is organizing around 50 pop-up events in key cities around the world. The custom version is also available for artists, songwriters, podcasters, authors and advertisers, giving them relevant data about how their fans listened to their music this year. To access Wrapped 2025, users must have the Spotify mobile app updated to the latest version.
