For the third year in a row, Bad Bunny was named the most streamed artist on Spotify. However, people are quick to comment on how that would even be possible. Some people have never heard a single song from him, even accidentally according to others (Including me). Others have also talked about how they don’t even know a single dedicated fan of his.
Most streamed artists on Spotify in 2022:
#1 @sanbenito 20.4B
#2 @taylorswift13 13.97B
#3 @Drake 10.65B
#4 @theweeknd 10.57B
#5 @BTS_twt 8.22B
#6 @edsheeran 7.19B
#7 @Harry_Styles 6.76B
#8 @kanyewest 6.51B
#9 @eminem 6.42B
#10 @rauwalejandro 5.86B— Spotify Daily Data (@spotify_data) January 3, 2023
A lot of Twitter users are quick to respond with comments usually relating to how people in the United States (and by extension, Canada) think only music made in North America is the only music that gets popular, despite music history happening all over the world. I would like to believe that North America isn’t stuck in their own bubble when it comes to music, but as of right now, I don’t think that would be possible. It doesn’t help that the three behind him (Taylor Swift, Drake, and The Weeknd) are all from North America.
When it comes to my childhood, most of my music exposure was to Canadian artists (granted, it’s mostly because of the CRTC) but also songs from America and the United Kingdom (mostly England). It was every once in a while that you would hear an artist from a different country out of those three on the radio. If other countries play music from here a lot, then how come we get significantly less music from around the world? It can probably contribute to how English is the most spoken language in the world right now and is also considered a universal language. I don’t blame North America for doing that since English is most of its people’s first language. However, if people around the world listen to music in English, then there shouldn’t be any excuse as to why people do not listen to music from other countries.