What is Escape Room? A Deep Dive into Spotify Genres

Graphic by Mikayla Alpert

Genre is dead. That’s what most artists like to believe. With rap veering to country and pop stars releasing classic rock-infused albums, it seems as if artists are trying very hard not to be categorized. Yet, every year, Spotify Wrapped provides an in-depth summary of all the music its users have listened to and categorizes it, among other things, by genre. And they’re not the only ones to do it. Websites pop up every now and then, some judging your music taste, others just telling you what you’ve listened to the most. And the internet loves these! Whilst many of the genres that pop up on these analyses are pretty self-explanatory – indie rock, pop, or r&b, Spotify has also created new categories with almost nonsensical names, among them, pixie, anthem emo, or escape room.

 Escape Room is one of the genres that has caused the most buzz this year, as it popped up in many end of year wrap-ups. It’s described by Spotify’s data alchemist, Glenn McDonald as “more experimental indie-R'n'B-pop that spins off from the sonics of trap.” You can discover more about the genre on Glenn’s incredibly entertaining and distracting website Every Noise at Once which groups artists like Charli XCX, KAYTRANADA, Rina Sawayama, and Death Grips into the escape room category. Whilst sonically, these artists might share similarities, it seems wild to categorize them in the same breath. So why does Spotify do it?

Before Spotify appeared on the scene, genre wasn’t as vast or able to encompass these abstract feelings. Now, however, there are over 5162 genres on Spotify and the list grows daily. Glenn explains that initially, the categorization and creation of these genres was done to rate different attributes of a song, whether it be their danceability, the happiness the song exuded, or even how bouncy it felt. By creating set genres, it was easier to sort through the extensive catalog of music on the website. It also helped Spotify in another facet that completely helped to transform the music industry – playlists.

 Spotify has two distinct types of playlists that have shaped the way music is listened to and diffused around the world. The first is curated by actual humans who sort through artist submissions, communicate with labels and keep their ears out for songs that would fit the vibe or energy that certain playlists have. Playlists such as Rap Caviar, have been known to launch and further artists’ careers. It’s thanks to this very playlist that rappers such as Lil Uzi Vert or Roddy Ricch have gotten onto the Billboard Hot 100 and broken streaming records. Other playlists are more abstract, like Lorem or idk., that help pave the way for the variety of pop softbois and conventionally indie artists that are coming onto the scene. 

The second type of playlist that Spotify has is purely algorithmic, and this is where Glenn McDonald’s genre categorization comes in. These are the playlists that are tailored to you and your listening habits, from your Daily Mixes to your Release Radar that comes out every Friday. Both are influenced by the frequency you listen to certain artists, and as a result, impact the creation of certain genres and the way that artists are able to perform and succeed on the whole of Spotify’s platform. 

So, does this mean artists need to rely on genre? If you’re an avid Spotify user, you’ve probably realized that a lot of the same artists will appear on your algorithmic playlists, from your Daily Mixes to Song Radios, even if you’ve never actively chosen to listen to them. Spotify’s algorithm clearly has favorites, enabling these artists to get more streams and as a result, get more money. However, this also affects less popular artists. By creating their own genres, they’re creating their own bubbles that can exclude artists that might not tightly fit all of these categories. There’s no denying how important Spotify has been in shifting the music industry, but if you want to support artists, in particular independent ones, the algorithm might not be the way to go. Or, we might just have to wait until Glenn McDonald and the rest of the data alchemists find a way to tightly categorize every single song with a whimsical title until there’s none left to sort through.