With winter sports in full swing, tests ramping back up after a long break, and performances on the rise, it’s often hard for St. Stephen’s students to find a way to unwind and relax. However, when stress gets high and the moment gets tense upper schoolers can always throw on some headphones for instant relief! This begs the question, when those shiny airpods are thrown into their ears, what are they actually listening to? Well I ran the polls, crunched the numbers, and wrote down the data and the results are quite shocking!
Throughout the month of January I spent time asking students, ranging from Freshman to Senior year who their top artist was on Spotify during 2025. While most high schoolers, apart from Gen Z, get a reputation for solely listening to radio “pop and rap hits,” Spartans have a much more diverse music taste demographic. For example, Junior Lawson Fass’s top artist was Salt Lake City indie rock band, “The Backseat Lovers.” The Backseat Lovers recently played at ACL festival 2025, and despite being huge in the indie community, they aren’t quite mainstream. Lawson said “ I love the pace change and build up in every song, their lead singer is very talented, and every song is consistently amazing.” However, Lawson isn’t alone in the love for smaller indie rock bands on the rise, judging 9 of the 30 students polled also had a top artists in the genre, the most out of any genre!!
Despite indie music being on the rise, the artist picked most at the top of students spotify wrapped came from the country genre; Zach Bryan! In fact, Zach Bryan was the only country artist at the top of students spotify wrapped, but he was 5 students top artist, accounting for 16.7% of the total votes. Zach Bryan is a powerhouse for the Spartans, but why? Well to find out, I caught up with Sophomore Brynn Sparrow. She said: “I like Zach Bryan’s music because I can listen to it at any time and I really like his voice, I have been a fan for a while.”
Accessibility and an amazing voice are one of many reasons to love country music star Zach Bryan, but another popular genre is the chilled out, lowkey R&B. Senior Krishna Yeada’s top artist was Daniel Ceaser. He said Daniel Ceaser has “chill vibes, and my favorite song is super powers.” R&B may not be the most mainstream genre as a whole but Krishna isn’t alone on this take, judging that Ceaser has amassed over 41 Million monthly listeners!!
Spartans music taste is diverse, unique, and cultured. This 30 person survey only paints a small picture though. To learn about new artists and discover more taste, ask a fellow spartan around the school what they are listening to!! This article will now be wrapped up… until next year, fellow music fans!!.