The Bush School Wrapped: Most Listened to Music in 2025

In a year that raised everyone’s blood pressure at least a little, many people turned to different outlets for escape. People took to doomscrolling, journaling, or getting into a niche hobby like pickle tasting. Yet, an outlet that was quickly accessible was listening to music. While people didn’t enjoy tunes just to escape, I’m certain it contributed to the many hours of music we have consumed.

After surveying Upper School Students at Bush, I’ve found clear trends in our music consumption. This year, students of Bush have cumulatively listened to over 28,622,419 minutes of music, which translates into 477,045 hours of listening time. That number is huge, yet the average student listened to around 36,783 minutes in 2025. The audiophile who racked up the most time spent listening to music listened to 210,000 minutes of music. On the other hand, one student only listened to 181 minutes of music this year. 

All that time listening to music was not homogeneous; many different musicians were represented. In 76 responses, there were only four artists who were multiple people's number one. Tate McRae and Taylor Swift tied for the number of mentions, with three people listing them as their top artists. Kendrick and Drake followed, both having two people sporting them as their most listened to artists. Most artists in this category were relatively well known, such as Lil Uzi Vert and Laufey, but some smaller, more niche artists appeared as well, for example, Geordie Greep, who was the lead guitarist of Black Midi, and Isadora, a Latin pop singer.

When reviewing people's top songs, I was happy to find cool songs that I had never heard of. “Dom” is a song by Polish band Enej and is something I never knew I needed in my life. Only one song was listed twice in the category of people's most listened to song: “Wildflower” by Billie Eilish. Some notable entries include “Kick, Push” by Lupe Fiasco and anything by Adrianne Lenker. 

There were multiple top albums this year that have been mentioned two or three times. Hit Me Hard And Soft by Billie Eilish was mentioned three times, while Graduation, channel ORANGE, SOS Deluxe, Pure Heroine, and The Life Of A Showgirl were listed twice, respectively.