What was your favorite song of 2016?
Was it Drake's "One Dance," the most successful Canadian dancehall song since "Informer"? Maybe it was Beyoncé's "Formation," which managed to enrage police officers, serve as a rallying cry for Hillary Clinton and give Red Lobster the greatest unpaid PR boost ever? Or was it Chance the Rapper's "No Problem," the song that introduced suburban mothers to 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne?
Of course, here in Portland, we fancy ourselves as having different taste than the rest of the country—and now, thanks to Spotify, we know just how different. According to their data, this is the song Portland streamed more than any other city this year. Get an earful of this hot fire:
Yep, Portland's favorite song of the year is 90 seconds of what sounds like audio from the center of a blizzard (or the beginning of a Ministry single). It's taken from an album called 50 Shades of Ambience, a collection of soothing background noise for spas, which also includes the jams "Large Industrial Air Conditioner" and "Old Oscillating Fan on High." That's also Portland's favorite album, btw.
Note that this isn't the most-streamed music overall, it's the music Portland streamed disproportionately to the rest of the country. Several other ambient, easy-listening and classical artists and releases top the various lists provided by Spotify (shout out to Unicoloniality Nation), with more familiar pop and rock names—such as Radiation City, Joseph and Elliott Smith—appearing further down. Apparently, we all need a lot of help getting to sleep. Hey, after this year, can you blame us?
Related: "Sorry, Oregon, Kurt Vile is Not Your Favorite Artist."
It's pretty interesting to skim through. Check out the list of the top 25 songs, albums and artists most distinctive to Portland below:
PORTLAND'S TOP DISTINCTIVE SONGS STREAMED ON SPOTIFY:
1. White Noise Therapy – White Noise Wahwah
2. Zen White Noise – Soothing Brown Waves with Beach Waves – Loopable with No Fade
3. Yosef Nero – In Too Deep
4. Soriano Francesco – Motetula de Passione No. 6: Filiae jerusalem
5. Classic Guys – All About That Bass – Acoustic
6. White Noise for Baby Sleep – Heavy Rapids
7. Classic Guys – Let It Go – Acoustic
8. Classic Guys – Animals – Acoustic
9. Classic Guys – Taylor Swift – Shake It Off
10. Sounds of Nature White Noise for Mindfulness Meditation and Relaxation – 11. Large Rushing Waterfall
12. Harlowe – Sleep Tape 432
13. Rain Sounds – Rain Noise, Ambient Sounds – 1
14. Brown Noise – Pouring Rain and Soothing Brown Noise
15. Calm Ocean Sounds – Waves Sleep
16. Sleep Baby Sleep – Pouring Rain – Loopable with No Fade
17. Classic Guys – Blank Space
18. Juan del Encina – Chorale No. 6: Pues que jamas olvidaros
19. Classic Guys – Blank Space (Sax Version)
20. Juan del Encina – Chorale No. 10: Soy contento y vos servida
21. Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Day
22. Marcia Chavez – Pues que Jamas Olvidaros
23. Johannes Brahms – Waltz No. 7 in C-sharp minor
24. Yosef Nero – Like Dat
25. Marcia Chavez – Soy Contento y vos Servida
PORTLAND'S TOP DISTINCTIVE ALBUMS STREAMED ON SPOTIFY:
1. White Noise Therapy – White Noise Spa Collection – 50 Shades of Ambience
2. Frédéric Chopin – Chopin: Piano Works
3. Joseph – Native Dreamer Kin
4. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down – A Man Alive
5. Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness
6. The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
7. Typhoon – White Lighter
8. Hurray For The Riff Raff – Small Town Heroes
9. Elliott Smith – XO
10. Angel Olsen – MY WOMAN
11. Joseph – I'm Alone, No You're Not
12. Ty Segall – Melted
13. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze
14. Elliott Smith – Figure 8
15. Khruangbin – The Universe Smiles Upon You
16. Elliott Smith – New Moon
17. Warpaint – Warpaint
18. Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas (Remastered)
19. Built To Spill – Keep It Like A Secret
20. Devendra Banhart – Mala
21. Allah-Las – Allah-Las
22. Kurt Vile – b'lieve i'm goin down…
23. Blind Pilot – We Are The Tide
24. The Knife – Deep Cuts
25. Charles Bradley – No Time For Dreaming (Re-issue)
PORTLAND'S TOP DISTINCTIVE ARTISTS STREAMED ON SPOTIFY:
1. Unicoloniality Nation
2. Classic Guys
3. Lucid Studios
4. Sakurako Shizuka
5. Wolfgang Mozart
6. Sated Sleepers
7. Yogi and Friends
8. Dylan Young
9. Sleepy Baby Productions
10. Byron Paul Walker
11. Eric Carter
12. Classical Engineers
13. Colin Maynard
14. Jia Wen Yu
15. Chillax Media
16. Chopin's Vanguard
17. Li Huang Zhang
18. The Ancient Ones
19. Bedtime Tunes
20. Salt Of The Sound
21. Johann Pachelbel
22. Climax Blues Band
23. Healing Yoga Meditation Music Consort
24. Radiation City
25. Ambient Rain