i have chosen what i believe are my top 5 songs this year, not necessarily by any measurable statistic, but based on:

1. how much this song influenced me and my listening habits all year
2. how frequently i visited my site to listen to it, and
3. how much i like it :p

my top songs of the year are...

these are the only 2 songs from 2025 to make it into my SOTW greatest hits playlist on my index! (maybe i should update that soon...) And rightfully so because they are awesome.

continuing:

one of my favorite things about SOTW is that it kind of serves as a journal. looking back, i can remember almost exactly what i was doing each week based on the song i chose and how it related to my everyday life. "When You Were Young" is an obvious pick for first because it was a new discovery for me from a book i was reading that week, and it is currently my new favorite song (and it's been 2nd on the index playlist for MONTHS). "Dive" was a comfort song in the midst of my Heartstopper obsession that i listened to non-stop. Julie & the Phantoms obviously took over my life a little this year (see: shrine). i bonded with my coworkers over loving Selena and will dance to "Chico del Appt. 512" alone in my room all the time. and "Tears Dry On Their Own" was specifically linked to a memory this year that i really cherish! i'm pretty sure my spotify wrapped does not agree with my listing, but these 5 songs were the most important to ME this year and this is MY wrapped, so there!

i tend to keep my song of the week choices pretty varied and actually rarely repeated artists this year, so this section feels a little empty. regardless, this year i only featured 2 artists multiple times, both with 2 songs each!

1. Sammy Rae & the Friends (Jackie Onassis & Kick It To Me)
2. Counting Crows (Palisades Park & Accidentally in Love)

i was curious about how this compared to last year. last year, i featured 1 artist 3 times (The Crane Wives) and 5 aritsts 2 times each (Hozier, Twin Temple, Meet Me @ the Altar, Will Wood, and Chappell Roan)! that's a lot more than this year!

also, if we're counting this "year" as any 12 month span instead of january-december 2025 (which we're not, but just for fun), i also would have featured Chappell Roan 3 times (july 2024, december 2024, & february 2025), Meet Me @ the Altar 3 times (june 2024 x2 and april 2025), Elton John twice (march 2024 & december 2024/january 2025), Green Day twice (october 2024 & march 2025), & Selena twice (august 2024 & june 2025). so, i have repeated plenty of artists, but my own calendar rules are working against me. oh well!

you wouldn't believe it, but sorting songs into specific genres is actually extremely difficult and completely subjective! it turns out that all music descends from common influences and sorting sounds into isolated categories is impossible because music doesn't exist in a box, but i've done a close approximation. please keep in mind that my sorting is super subjective and if you disagree with any of my choices, sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

using a combination of rateyourmusic.com, Wikipedia, and my own opinion i have assigned every song of the week from this year 1 or 2 genres.

without further ado, my top genres of the year are...

pop rock SWEPT this year!! i'm a little surprised at the discrepancy between pop rock and the runner-ups. you can see my full genre tally here, which shows that this years songs were very spread out across a lot of genres with only 1 or 2 songs each. so, my music was pretty diverse this year, which is pretty cool!

below is a venn diagram of all of the genres i listed for this year's songs

i have also sorted each of these specific genres into 6 umbrella categories, with fusion genres giving points to both categories they are a part of. looking at that, my umbrella genre rankings of 2025 are:

i didn't make a sotw wrapped last year but i was curious about how my statistics compared, so i also tallied up last year's genres so i can see how my tastes have changed.

my 2024 top genres were:

and my 2024 umbrella genre rankings were:

click here to see 2024's genre venn diagram & graph.

last year was a pretty big folk year for me (which i expected, since i know it's a genre i like), but this year was the year that i really discovered my love for R&B and soul music! i am pleasantly surprised by how much the R&B category grew this year, though i'm surprised that folk dropped so much.

pop rock remains the reigning genre champion, which i expected.

also, in 2025 49 songs were in English, 1 song was in Spanish, 1 song was in German, and 1 song didn't have words.

2024 in comparison featured 50 songs in English, 1 song in Spanish, and 1 song in Japanese.

this year, the top decades of release for my songs of the week are:

and the average year is 1998!

the oldest song this year was I Want to Be Evil by Eartha Kitt, released in December 1953.

and the most recent song this year was It's Over For Me by Meet Me @ the Altar, released on September 29, 2023.

similarly to above, i was curious about how this compared to last year. 2024's top decades were:

and the average year was 2004!

holy shit 2010s dominated last year!

this year the 2020s and 2010s remain popular, but i also favored the 90s and 2000s a lot more this year! i love 70s and 80s music so i am a bit surprised at how low those decades are on the list - they have swapped with the 90s and 2000s, it seems.

actually, this change from last year with more recent decades rising and older decades falling down relates to some mixed feelings i've been having about my listening statistics this year, both in song of the week and in general. this year my tastes really changed, and i started listening to a lot more new stuff. which, one the one hand, is awesome! expanding your taste profile is always good! but on the other hand, a lot of this new taste is very pop-y, and my statistics show that i barely listened to any of my favorite rock & oldies this year when they were my #1 listens previous years, which has made me feel a little less like... myself. to be honest, this year has treated me worse than the past few years and i think i leaned on this new upbeat pop flavor in moments where i was feeling down this year. but! i keep telling myself that music taste fluxuates and just because i haven't listened to old favorites doesn't mean they're not my favorites anymore: it just means that i have more favorites to choose from! and these songs will always be waiting for me when i'm ready to come back :)