Spotify Corecore

Lacole Yang

When Spotify announced the release of Niche Mixes, they were described as “tens of thousands of Mixes unique to [each listener] based on, well, almost anything they can think of . . . no matter what you’re doing or what you enjoy, if you can think of it, there may very well be a Mix of it.” There are also plenty of Mixes that exist even without listeners thinking of them.

Take, for example, Pirate Metal Shanty, which is for when you want to explore the seas but also crave to hear eardrum-bursting guitar riffs. One of the songs on my mix is “Diggy Diggy Hole,” about dwarfs digging a diggy hole. This is essentially the opposite of pirates, but it is metal, so I’ll give the mix a 50 percent accuracy rating. The mix Extreme Pirate is similar but even less pirate-y.

My personalized Spooky Valentine’s Day playlist mostly consists of supernatural-themed songs from Will Wood and Jhariah. Alternatively, Chill Spooky is made of Hozier and a lot of synthesizers. The Strange mix centers on Mitski and other indie rock artists, though I was expecting it to sound more like Witchcore, with its alluring vocals and slow rhythm. For some reason, there is a separate Witchy playlist with different songs. The latter mix is almost identical to Goblincore and Vampiric. I find Princesscore to be one of the most enjoyable playlists; peaceful lyrics blend into delicate harp melodies, supported by the occasional Barbie song.

There are also playlists that blur the line between Niche Mixes and normal Genre Mixes. Egg Punk is a subgenre characterized by its ironic attitude, light mixing and use of synths. Most songs in the mix are punk, but it’s very loose about what qualifies as “egg.” Additionally, Farm Emo is a blend of angsty pop-punk tunes.

One of the most confusing playlists is Whale Song. There are no whale sounds. At first, I thought there was a consistent theme due to the songs “White Whale” by Shadow Academy and “Whales” by flipturn. This theory was torn apart by the Taylor Swift songs scattered throughout the mix. Perhaps there is a secret pattern that remains unknown to me. In contrast, Angry Whistling is much more straightforward—the songs are aggressive and do contain whistling. The other playlists made of simple feelings—Escapism, Cathartic, Pensive, Introspective—consist of almost the same few songs. They seem to be a collection of the artists users play the most, with no strong theme.

Moving on to the happier side of these songs, Lit Shower recommends pop songs that are topping the charts. Feel Good Cooking sounds casual and content, but it’s not as upbeat as Feel Good Happy. Island Vibes Tropical includes both “Squidward’s Tiki Land” and “Honolulu March.” I am disappointed that “California Gurls” isn’t in Beach Music, but the mix is still cheerful enough to feel like sunbathing at the beach, if a little disjointed.

I’m sure there are plenty of bizarre mixes that I was unable to discover, so I hope you use this list as inspiration to discover more esoteric genres.