![]() ![]() ![]() In lockdown, when Johnson began experiencing more bouts of insomnia than usual, she started listening to water-centric nature sounds to help clear her mind and quell her longing for a getaway. ![]() "Anything pertaining to water sends me to a place of nostalgia and comfort," says Canadian writer Hannah Johnson, who grew up listening to her grandmother's whale sounds cassette tape and spending summers at the beach in Nova Scotia. Who didn't need extra help falling and staying asleep this year? Once several other people I followed revealed that rain sounds dominated their most-played tracks too, I suspected it was more than just a fluke. Earlier this month on her Instagram Stories, she shared that her top song of the year was Lluvia PQ's "Rain All Night," a three and half minute track of rain-soaked ambient sounds that has racked up nearly 25 million listens. It was art-pop musician Grimes who first made me aware of this possibility. Some takeaways, according to my observations? While you can always rely on the feel-good merits of an Ariana Grande bop or the addictive escapism of true crime podcasts, it seems that rain sounds may have been the sleeper hit of 2020 (pun very much intended). But in 2020, a year defined by unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety, it was all the more intriguing to get a peek into the audio offerings that helped get people through it all. Spotify's year-end Wrapped lists are always something to behold a unique and deeply fascinating form of social anthropology. ![]()
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