Facebook Breakup Songs: Data Team Reveals Top Spotify Songs For Breakups, New Relationships

Those pie-eyed romantics at the Facebook analytics team have been combing through some Spotify data in advance of Valentine's Day 2012. The team has published what it says are the top songs that people listen to when entering a relationship, as well as the top songs people listen to after a breakup.

Facebook Data Team member Jonathan Chang introduced the lists in an official post on the team's Facebook page:

Every day, people are breaking up and entering into relationships on Facebook. When they do, they play songs that personify their mood. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we looked at the songs most played by people in the U.S. on Spotify as they make their relationships and breakups "Facebook official".

Below are the two lists that, according to Facebook, represent the top coupling and de-coupling songs played by users via the Spotify app.

Songs listened to when entering into a relationship:

1. "Don't Wanna Go Home" by Jason Derulo
2. "Love On Top" by Beyoncé
3. "How to Love" by Lil Wayne
4. "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars
5. "Good Feeling" by Flo Rida
6. "It Girl" by Jason Derulo
7. "Stereo Hearts" by Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine
8. "Criminal" by Britney Spears
9. "No Sleep" by Wiz Khalifa
10. "Free Fallin'" by John Mayer

Songs listened to after ending a relationship:

1. "The Cave" by Mumford and Sons
2. "Crew Love" by Drake
3. "All of the Lights" by Kanye West
4. "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele
5. "Take Care" by Drake
6. "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars
7. "We Found Love" by Rihanna & Calvin Harris
8. "Call It What You Want" by Foster the People
9. "Love You Like a Love Song" by Selena Gomez and the Scene
10. "Without You" by David Guetta featuring Usher

Both lists have been published as playlists on Spotify: Here's the "love mix," and here's the "breakup mix."

Facebook has all of this data, of course, thanks to Facebook's introduction of a new class of "frictionless" app, which allows for a service like Spotify to share and store every time one of its users listens to a song on Spotify. These new apps -- and the special relationship between Facebook and Spotify -- was announced at the Facebook F8 Developer's Conference in September; just four days after the conference, Spotify had already gained one million new members, all of them logging in using their Facebook accounts. The number of Facebook users signing up for Spotify continued to rocket upwards after that.

There was a lot of data for the Facebook Data team to comb through, in other words. Congratulations to all of the bands and artists who made either list, and a special kudos to Bruno Mars, who apparently appeals to both lovebirds and sad sacks. We are, however, a bit disappointed that our favorite breakup song, the all-time classic "She Hates Me" by Puddle of Mudd, didn't make the breakup list, but we aren't going to judge recent visitors to Splitsville nor their tender emotional states; if they want to rock out to "We Found Love," then so be it! Forget guys/girls tonight, let's just dance!

And a final side note, as we near Valentine's Day: Don't worry if you just got dumped, ladies and gents. You know what they say: There are plenty of fish in the sea, and what's more, 'tis better to have loved and lost than to never have etc. etc. etc...

Or, whatever. I need a drink. Bartender!

Comments

[Barry David Davis]

06:24 PM on 02/15/2012

Oh, cept rolling in the deep, even though its been overplayed, its still a good song.

[Barry David Davis]

06:23 PM on 02/15/2012

The people that made this list popular need to listen to other forms of music instead of just mainstream pop, R&b and hiphop. This is some weak sauce right here. I woudn't consider any of them to even be in my top 50.

[yahooserious]

09:19 PM on 02/16/2012

Ok.... so you're saying 'Bubba Shot The Jukebox' would be your love song?

[Barry David Davis]

10:02 PM on 02/16/2012

haha, no... I m saying stop being lazy and using the top 40 charts to make up your mind on what good love or break up songs are. Theres alot of modern indie, folk and hiphop songs that don't get as much radio time, that are a dozen times better than nearly all of these songs. Hei, but if you want to stick with britney, don't let me get in your way.

[Harold Saxon]

12:08 PM on 02/14/2012

And here I was expecting at least one angsty Linkin Park song on the breakup list.

[ladywing]

11:01 PM on 02/13/2012

Breaking up with FACEBOOK "you don't pay taxes?. I don't use your service"
Say it again

[mmmmikkimac]

10:10 PM on 02/13/2012

Should also add "Someone Like You" by Adele for after a breakup!

And Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years" for the start of a wedding.

[PresidentBarackObama2012]

09:17 PM on 02/13/2012

What?! No guns & Roses "I used to love her"?

[missyinSoCal]

07:38 PM on 02/13/2012

Judging from the 'artists', I'm guessing those couples entering and departing relationships are in the 13-21 yr old range....

[Seeker1014]

12:44 AM on 02/14/2012

Absolutely!!!!!!

[Popopnano]

05:56 PM on 02/13/2012

Sick Of You by GWAR is the perfect break up song

[DSevere]

05:55 PM on 02/13/2012

I still think Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughta Know" is the best break-up song.

And while I like Britney's "Criminal," I dunno about that as a new romance song, it's kind of admitting you're making a giant lapse in judgment... ;) I'd think the David Guetta/Kelly Rowland "When Love Takes Over" would be a good one.

As for the breakup ones, um, what, no Bruno Mars' "Grenade"?

[tonyprovri]

05:48 PM on 02/13/2012

Polled with 13-16 yr olds obviously because I don't even know those songs.

[akrazyrunner]

03:48 PM on 02/13/2012

I've never heard any of these songs.
I guess that is part of the price in being in a successful relationship.

What about the The Break-up song by Greg Khin?
Uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh uh

[risingsongs]

10:19 PM on 02/13/2012

Nah. They just don't write 'em like that anymore.

[Hamid Lorette]

02:59 PM on 02/13/2012

I'm still listening to the Stones and Cream, can not stand the new stuff, I don't even consider it music.

[DSevere]

05:57 PM on 02/13/2012

Back when I was a young punk rocker, I once opined that, the day you listen to some music coming out of a kid's boom box (okay, it was the 80s... ;) ) and think, 'what is that terrible noise', that is the day you are old.

47 now, and I still believe that. I don't think blanketly condemning an entire generation of music is anything to be proud of...

[Danny Wier]

02:59 PM on 02/13/2012

I didn't see "Love Stinks" on the breakup list. I must be old.

[Kris Bissell]

02:32 PM on 02/13/2012

Music advances, get over it people. Don't like it then don't listen to it.

THAT

SIMPLE.

[SickHippie]

02:58 PM on 02/13/2012

That's the problem - it hasn't advanced in over a decade. Music has not made any real positive evolutions. I have not heard anything 'new' stylistically in the last ten years that has not been done better before by other bands. Even bands which used to be good stagnated, churning out rehash after rehash.

[Kris Bissell]

03:09 PM on 02/13/2012

That's how long it takes is over 10 years. You know the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc...Give it a few more years. Pop bands end it like what 01-02? Just because you can compare songs and artists to others doesn't mean it's doesn't change.

[Seeker1014]

12:50 AM on 02/14/2012

Actually, music is being copied. On any given day you can find either the same version or a new version of music from the 70's and 80's. Even some from the 60's. That should tell you what generation of music is priceless.............................and still stands the test of time. And that is the key. In 20 or 30 years if any of the new music is being copied or even played then you can say they made it.

[tommythesaint]

02:27 PM on 02/13/2012

Both of those lists strike me as completely arbitrary. Looks more like songs that HAPPENED to be playing at the time, and not ones played to suit the mood. This story should have been saved for FOX News.