
Spotify's 'Genius Annotations' Are Painfully Obvious And People Are Cracking Up
By Mustafa GatollariOct. 31 2018, Updated 7:59 a.m. ET
Back before the days of YouTube, people would have to watch music videos on TV, believe it or not.
Now if you wanted to request a video, you'd have to pay a service called TheBox, call it in, and they'd charge your credit car $2 for three music videos or a dollar for one. Otherwise, you'd just watch MTV, BET, or VH1.
VH1 would play older songs a lot of the time, which didn't make it too popular with the younger crowd, but I personally loved it because of one program: pop-up video.
The show wasn't anything special: they'd play popular music videos and little infographics with factoids about the artist, the video shoot, or the song, would appear on-screen. It made watching the videos a little more interesting, and helped to get more mileage out of played-out tracks.
So when I first saw the "Genius" annotations on Spotify, I was immediately brought back to my pop-up video days and a smile crept up on my face. Pretty soon though, I was smiling for a different reason. Because a lot of the annotations were unintentionally hilarious.
Thanks for clarifying lads👍🏻 @Genius @Spotify @50cent pic.twitter.com/lNs7vro82m
— Нarry🐝 (@HHman94) February 11, 2018
Like, thanks for the memo, Spotify.
Dream job:
— Collin Gionz (@FreeCollin) February 28, 2018
The guy who writes the footnotes for @Genius on Spotify. pic.twitter.com/gKAJKZ98uO
People can't believe that there are teams of people out there who are writing copy for these song annotations.
This is one of the dumbest lyric genius things I’ve seen on Spotify. 😂 pic.twitter.com/YSVbWnUAL5
— 😈 (@PaidPistol) February 6, 2018
Because aside from being blatantly obvious, many of them are so unnecessary.
Genius is cranky on Spotify because @50cent didn’t use acronyms right #50CENT pic.twitter.com/7bzo9uGBi9
— Kate Hennessy (@smallestroom) February 8, 2018
And you can tell when you've got a different writer. Clearly this person has a much higher standard when it comes to being being a granular, grammar nerd.
Like this religious-themed, deep read into some of Drake's lyrics in "Passionfruit."
The footnotes that show up with Genius lyrics on Spotify are so unintentionally hilarious. pic.twitter.com/fqxpFBXV19
— Old Hoss Radbourn (@realcaptainmorg) April 8, 2018




Other writers don't care that much for the Toronto-born rapper.
😂😂😂@Spotify @Genius what’s with the attacks on Drake😂 pic.twitter.com/bhoiQ6gdOF
— Kimori (@AlexKimori) January 4, 2018
Some of the annotations get "deep emo" out of nowhere - and people are delightfully confused.
what are these Genius annotations???? I’m screaming pic.twitter.com/IwwrmbLpk4
— julia reinstein (@juliareinstein) April 4, 2018



There are just little comic gems wherever you look.
Thanks for the info 😂💀 @Genius @Spotify @taylorswift13 pic.twitter.com/51rGyt211p
— thenewclassic (@getawayswift89) December 22, 2017
People can't get over how savage they are too.
Seems kinda cruel and unnecessary @Genius @Spotify pic.twitter.com/iHqBzAZl1b
— The Levittator (@levittator31) January 2, 2018
Some of the factoids are just there to blow up artist's spot.
Why is Spotify/Genius telling everyone this? Lmaooo pic.twitter.com/E0a4Gp6Yax
— Brandon (@EverydayKayton) January 26, 2018
Looks like the P-I-M-P 50 Cent critic is back at it again.
de Genius annotations for Fleetwood Mac- Dreaming i CRYYYY😭 pic.twitter.com/sDFj595a6l
— koning der ballonnen en oneven cijfers (@BitchOfKitsch) March 5, 2018




There's even anime-meme reference facts. What won't the genius annotations randomly talk about?
Spotify Genius didn’t wanna let this DBZ lyric go pic.twitter.com/xPRiH2bDpv
— 🌸Jenny Lee🌸 (@JennyLeeMo) March 10, 2018
There's never a dull moment.
i actually live for the genius annotations on spotify pic.twitter.com/wFlM5vRozP
— såsha (@spookycamiseta) March 31, 2018
Genius’ Fact Track on Spotify is a point-blank kween pic.twitter.com/LHvylmUAW1
— j (@turquatta) March 20, 2018
Hats off to Spotify and Genius. When they provide lyrics, they are thorough. pic.twitter.com/wthPPZko1o
— Oscar Tollast (@OscarTollast) March 11, 2018
Thank god for Genius annotations on Spotify, I would’ve had no idea what that song was about pic.twitter.com/qXgGtpoEHx
— Christian Tierney (@_CTierney) March 26, 2018
Ahh, just like the good old days of "pop-up video," but somehow, even more amusing.