John Dolan: There’s a song about Killeagh? And who in hell is Bad Bunny?

I’ve come to the conclusion that I really need to get out more.

No, literally. I really need to get out of the house more - and specifically, I need go out for more exercise walks with my earbuds in, and listen to music.

Not just any old music - the music from my youth that will always stay with me, and which is a permanent fixture on my Spotify list - but I need to listen to lots and lots of different types of music too.

In short, I need to expand my musical horizons beyond Stone Roses, REM, Oasis, James, The Pogues, and the handful of other acts I’ve been clinging to since my younger days.

And what has brought on this sudden onset of a feeling of cultural alienation?

The release this week to its 700 million-plus users of Spotify’s annual wrap for the year, that’s what.

This is the music app company’s guide to exactly what all of its customers listened to so far in 2025 - both individually and collectively. It provides a great insight into a person’s music habits and tastes - and then you get to compare it with what everyone else was listening to.

It’s fascinating stuff.

I have a daily half-hour exercise regime where I stick in my earbuds, tune my phone to Spotify, and play a random setting of all the songs I like as I walk in nature. It’s great for mind and body, and is the only time I use the app.

So when I was told that I listened to 8,112 minutes of music this year, which amounts to five and a half days, I knew that was exactly how long I had exercised.

The list of my favourite songs on Spotify was hardly a surprise to me, or anyone who knows me.

However, I was a little taken aback that my top five genres included one classed as ‘Oldies’. When all my other genres - Madchester, College Rock, Two-Tone, and Punk - go back 35-50 years, those must be really ancient at this stage.

I was initially delighted that Spotify estimated my age based on the music I hear at seven years younger than the reality... but soon realised, judging from people posting the same on social media, that the app was plámásing its audience, and taking years off us all.

There’s nothing as insulting, or as bad for business, as being told your musical tastes make you a dinosaur, after all.

As fascinating as all this is, it is only when you compare your own Spotify wrap to others that the eye-popping begins.

My eldest son scoffed at my five and a half days of tunes in 2025, and told me his was 38 days’ worth! He does like his rap, mind, and has eclectic tastes - he had even heard of my most-listened tune, Fools Gold by the Stone Roses.

He listens to Spotify in his car and in his room, so clearly has time on his hands for some extra housework...

Another son told me his No.1 artist for the year was Canadian rapper Drake, which came as news to me. I didn’t know he liked any music.

It’s a reminder of how the way that we consume music has changed so much.

Today, we listen to songs with apps and earbuds, cocooned from the world, and nobody else in the house has a clue whether we’re tuning into a crooning Frank Sinatra or a wailing (yes) Taylor Swift.

Back in the day, I recall my dad playing his old Bobby Vee singles on our record player in the living room for all the house to hear (groan), and mum had a penchant for Neil Diamond albums (still does).

My brother and I would chance our arm by playing an album that was new and ‘with it’, but we might have to retire to the record player in our bedroom if it was too noisy or sweary!

Nowadays, our music is a secret, only ever revealed to the world when Spotify releases its annual wrap.

I mean, I had no idea one of my sons liked Drake - and now that I do, I could buy him one of his CDs for Christmas... but when all the songs on Spotify are free (or cost maybe a tenner or so a month for subscribers), who needs CDs any more?

It was when I started looking up the most popular acts on Spotify on a national and global level that I really began to realise my musical tastes may need tweaking.

The most listened to song in Ireland this year is one about Cork - Killeagh, by the Limerick band, Kingfishr. I didn’t even know it existed!

I do now, and it’s a belting song alright. But doesn’t it demonstrate how fractured our culture has become, that perhaps half the country fall in love with a song, while the other half weren’t even aware of it?

Back in the day, when a song was at No.1, everyone, from granny to the toddler at playschool, was at least aware of it and had an opinion. Even if granny thought it was “modern, noisy rubbish”.

As an adopted son of Cork, I should hang my head in shame that this slice of local musical culture had passed me by.

This was partly because it went viral on TikTok on its release - an app I have never used - but the fact it spent 18 weeks in the Irish top ten really should have put it on my radar, you would think.

Maybe I should be stripped of my hard-won Irish citizenship... or at least have my Cork passport withheld.

I love the story of how Killeagh came about. Apparently, Kingfishr guitarist Eoin ‘Fitz’ Fitzgibbon was back in his home town of Killeagh when he was accosted by a former coach of the town’s hurling team.

“All the other teams round here have a song to sing in the changing rooms when they win,” Fitz, a former Killeagh hurler himself, was told, “We don’t.You’re in a band. Write a song for Killeagh.”

Fitz said he would write a song if the juniors got to an east Cork final in 2024 - they hadn’t been in the final since 2001.

When they did, he was backed into a corner! The result is a thumping hurling song that will now find a place on my Spotify list.

On a wider scale, the app’s wrap for 2025 also showed up my ignorance of global music.

The world’s most listened to artist on Spotify is apparently a guy called Bad Bunny? Me neither...

A Puerto Rican rapper, apparently, for those at the back.

Imagine your great-grandad never hearing of The Beatles, or your grandfather looking blank at the mention of Michael Jackson.

The days when we all consumed the same media sure ensured that culture was a universal thing, and not segregated by age and taste.

But that is the age we live in.

So, my resolution for 2026 is to get out more, and extend my music tastes. I heard that guy Bad Bunny was daycent...