Every November/December, the music world experiences its own global festival: the Spotify and Apple Music Wrapped Season.

This is a time when fans proudly reveal their listening habits or quietly hide them like confidential information if it doesn’t go their way. Wrapped exposes everything about your playlist, and the reactions are pure comedy gold every year. Here are the main categories of fans you’ll meet each year.

The “I Already Knew That” Scholars

These fans walk into the Wrapped season with the confidence of a CEO who memorized the annual report. They know their playlist by heart and the number of times they streamed some particular song.  “Of course EXO is my top group. I’ve been streaming their albums since January 1st, 12:01 a.m.”

They post graphs, highlight notes, and sometimes write a thesis explaining each ranking. We cannot but applaud their academic and musical discipline.

The Shocked and Shaken Ones

These fans open their Wrapped expecting BTS… but find a random OST they looped while getting drowned in the drama. “Why is a sad historical drama ballad my top song?”

Their identity collapses, and their playlists betray them. Sometimes, they even feel like they are a bad fan for not putting their faves on top, but don’t worry, they usually recover after snacks and scrolling through their friends’ pages to see that they are not alone.

The Closet Listeners Who Got Exposed

These are the fans who pretend they barely listen to a particular K-pop group, yet their Wrapped screams, “You spent 52,000 minutes with Seventeen.” “You are in the top 0.001% of Seventeen listeners.”

They put on their lawyer wig, giving so many explanations to refute glaring evidence, but everyone tells them, “Just admit you’re a CARAT at this point.”

The Multi-Stan Chaos Coordinators

Their Wrapped looks like a K-pop buffet. Top Artist is TXT, Top Song is BLACKPINK, and Top Genre is K-Pop, Dance-Pop, Instrumental OST, and music they just threw in because it sounded nice. They proudly say, “I support everyone’s effort, and they are all my babies.” It’s about time they ran a children's daycare.

The Competitive Streamers

They treat Wrapped like the Olympics. Their stats say they are a top 0.5% fan, but they are never satisfied because a neighbor is a 0.03% listener. Next year, they are aiming to hit 0.01% by vowing to stream in their sleep. They are truly inspirational; give them a medal. Even though we have no idea what the medal looks like and when they will ever get it.

The Soft Sentimental Fans

Their Wrapped is full of comforting songs, healing tracks, and emotional OSTs. They wipe tears while posting, “Thank you, IU, for carrying me through life. It was a challenging year.” We send them hugs and hope things will be brighter in the next year.

Next year, it is expected that some fans will stress-stream their faves to fix their Wrapped, especially if they weren’t satisfied with the current result. Some might even create 12-month spreadsheets so they can keep track by themselves. Some will compete with strangers online for fun and will blame their studying playlist again. Then we have the categories of those who will make big promises they won’t keep.

Wrapped season reminds us why K-pop fandom, especially, is elite. It’s a combination of loud, chaotic, emotional, fun, and absolutely hilarious. So whether you’re in the top 1% or barely made it, congratulations, you survived another year of exciting musical identity exposure.

Next year? Even more streaming, surprises, and definitely more memes to laugh about. Happy Streaming!