I Used Spotify's Blend Feature to Test My Relationship Compatibility

My boyfriend and I have lots of things in common, but music is not one of them. My Spotify Wrapped is basically a Taylor Swift shrine, while his taste is a little all over the place; he likes a little bit of country, some Latin music hits here and there, and definitely all the head-banging EDM, too. In other words, he appreciates a good beat, while I prioritize poetic lyricism.

Fortunately, for the health of our relationship, our varying music taste has never been an issue. But when I saw that Spotify's Blend feature claimed to gauge not just our musical compatibility, but our relationship compatibility, I knew we had to try it out. He had passed the orange peel theory test, but could he pass this one?

If you're not familiar with the feature, Blend is under the "Made For You" hub in the Spotify app. As the name implies, it "blends" one person's listening preferences with another's, creating a joint Spotify playlist filled with songs the app thinks both of you will enjoy. Most people probably use it with their friends, but I think using it with your partner is the move.

When I asked my boyfriend if he wanted to blend with me, which was literally just sending him an invite from my Spotify account, he accepted. "This should be interesting," he said over dinner. "I'm not sure how they're going to combine Venezuelan hits with whatever that new Taylor Swift album is called, but let's see."

When my boyfriend accepted the Blend invite, Spotify immediately started curating our playlist. Within a minute, it sent us to the Spotify app to see the results. Similarly to how Spotify Wrapped works, the app took us through a few slides first, revealing our "taste match" and the song that brings us together.

As it turned out, our taste match is 85 percent, which, according to the app, is "something to brag about." I interpreted that percentage as we would both be able to successfully listen to this playlist without wanting to rip our ears off — 85 percent of the time, at least.

When the Blend feature revealed that "Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift was the song that brought us together, meaning it's a song both of us listen to on the reg, my boyfriend immediately knew the results were slightly off. His Spotify is connected to his truck, which means, as a passenger princess, I control what we listen to a large majority of the time. And if I have control over what we listen to, you know that means lots of Taylor Swift. "You need to clarify in your article that I don't listen to 'Cruel Summer' myself," he said in response. (This is me clarifying, bb . . . but you don't have to pretend you don't like it!)

Upon first glance, the nearly three-hour playlist looked tolerable. There were songs from artists I knew I liked (Taylor Swift) and songs I knew I didn't (Lainey Wilson). But again, I knew I could tolerate it. My boyfriend was more impressed that we were able to get Taylor Swift, Jelly Roll, and Carlos Vives all into one playlist together. "In what other world would a playlist like that exist?" he said, and I totally agreed.

When it was time to work our way through the playlist, it went just as I expected. I sang loudly to all the songs I knew, and listened quietly to the ones I didn't (or resisted the urge to scroll on Instagram).

When we finally finished the playlist over the span of a few days, not much changed in our relationship. Did I think the experience brought us together? Maybe a little. Did I discover a new song or genre I love? Not really. Will I continue to listen to the playlist? Probably not. But was the Spotify Blend test a good way to gauge compatibility? Yes, but not in the way you think.

I've always known that music was not going to be something that ended my relationship with my boyfriend. The fact that we have varying music tastes just really isn't a big deal to us. But the respect you show while listening to something your partner enjoys is important. And if there's one golden rule of relationships I've learned, it's that it's OK to not like something, as long as you don't yuck the other person's yum, so to speak.

So while my boyfriend may not like Taylor Swift himself, he loves that I love her as much as I do. And even though I don't like a lot of EDM, I'll go to a music festival with him because I know that will make him happy. Our musical compatibility may just be 85 percent, but I'd like to think the respect we have for each other's individual interests equals more like 100-percent compatibility. Isn't that what really matters?

Taylor Andrews is a balance editor at POPSUGAR who specializes in topics relating to sex, relationships, dating, sexual health, mental health, and more. In her six years working in editorial, she's written about how semen is digested, why sex aftercare is the move, and how the overturn of Roe killed situationships.