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The best soundtracks for your recuperation & recovery time
Life can often hit you with some real intensity, increased workload, burnt out and mental exhaustion, or hitting the gym too hard. It’s difficult to operate at such intensity, and not incredibly healthy to be putting in 110%, all year round, everyone needs time to R & R.
This can especially hold true for expatriates and digital nomads, who reside outside of their native country for whatever reason. There can be additional stresses, adjusting to a new climate, culture shock and homesickness, here music can help you reacclimate and centre yourself, perhaps even make you feel more at home.
Music can be a fantastic accompaniment to life, providing a soundtrack for everything from getting yourself pumped to relaxing and de-stressing. So, when you’ve identified that it’s time for some downtime, to get back to your best self, what can you listen to? Using Spotify, we at William Russell researched which songs are the most popular for different forms of recovery to help you to create the ultimate recovery playlist.
However, should you need medical assistance to recover from something more advanced, be sure to check out our international health insurance. That way you’re covered to receive the care you need, wherever you may be.
The most popular recovery songs
Coming in at the number one spot is “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten, which was her first single and peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, as well as topped charts in the UK. You can see a theme of recovery with tracks such as “Recovery” by James Arthur, “Warrior” by Demi Lovato, and “Fix You” by Coldplay.
Fight Song
Rachel Platten
72
playlists
Not Afraid
Eminem
57
playlists
Rise Up
Andra Day
56
playlists
Recovery
James Arthur
44
playlists
As It Was
Harry Styles
37
playlists
You Say
Lauren Daigle
35
playlists
Warrior
Demi Lovato
34
playlists
Unstoppable
Sia
33
playlists
Sober
Demi Lovato
32
playlists
Fix You
Coldplay
31
playlists
The most popular recovery songs
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The most popular artists on recovery playlists
Eminem takes the top spot for the most popular artists on recovery playlists, despite this particular list being dominated by a slew of pop artists. It makes sense really since he has a whole album called Recovery (2010), which won a Grammy for best rap album, plus many other awards. One of the songs from the album, “Not Afraid” also ranked second on the most popular recovery playlist songs.
Eminem
214
Appearances
@eminem
Rachel Platten
90
Appearances
@rachelplatten
Demi Lovato
83
Appearances
@ddlovato
The most popular artists on recovery playlists
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The most popular physical therapy songs
Coming out on top as the most popular physical therapy/recovery song is “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”, by Whitney Houston. An iconic artist and a total bop of a song, it topped the charts in 18 different countries, including the UK, Australia, and Germany.
I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
Whitney Houston
14
playlists
You Make My Dreams (Come True)
Daryl Hall & John Oates
11
playlists
Hurts So Good
John Mellencamp
10
playlists
Eye of the Tiger
Survivor
10
playlists
I Want It That Way
Backstreet Boys
10
playlists
The most popular physical therapy songs
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The most popular artists on physical therapy playlists
We have Michael Jackson up top, with “Beat It” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, to help you beat fatigue and not stop resting ‘til you’ve got enough, with these absolute bangers. Of course, Whitney is a close second with her iconic song, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”.
Michael Jackson
15
Appearances
@michaeljackson
Whitney Houston
14
Appearances
@whitneyhouston
Doja Cat
14
Appearances
@dojacat
The most popular artists on physical therapy playlists
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The most popular mental recovery songs
Coming in first place for the most popular songs for mental recovery is Logic, with “1-800-273-8255”, which peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and also received two Grammy nominations. And second, is Ariana Grande, with “Breathin”, because sometimes we all just need to take a breath.
1-800-273-8255
Logic
10
playlists
Breathin
Ariana Grande
8
playlists
Rise Up
Andra Day
8
playlists
Not Allowed
TV Girl
7
playlists
I Can't Handle Change
Roar
7
playlists
Scars To Your Beautiful
Alessia Cara
7
playlists
The most popular physical therapy songs
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The most popular artists on mental recovery playlists
The most popular artist for mental recovery playlists on Spotify is Kesha, with these four songs appearing; “Rainbow”, “Praying”, “Learn To Let Go” and “Woman (feat. The Dap-Kings Horns)”. However, Arctic Monkeys are a close second, with their laid-back indie tracks being quite a contrast from Kesha’s pop music.
Kesha
20
Appearances
@iiswhoiis
Arctic Monkeys
19
Appearances
@arcticmonkeys
Demi Lovato
18
Appearances
@ddlovato
The most popular artists on mental recovery playlists
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The most popular hangover songs
There is a lot of club music when it comes to hangover songs, with a lot of bass, which makes you think that perhaps this is pre-hangover music. However, Flo Rida’s “Low (feat. T-Pain)” comes out top, and the title is synonymous with how many of us with hangovers feel. Low, low, low.
Low (feat. T-Pain)
Flo Rida
15
playlists
Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer)
Pitbull
13
playlists
Yeah! (feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris)
Usher
12
playlists
Redbone
Childish Gambino
11
playlists
Club Can't Handle Me (feat. David Guetta
Flo Rida
11
playlists
Sunday Morning
Maroon 5
11
playlists
Hips Don't Lie (feat. Wyclef Jean
Shakira
11
playlists
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
11
playlists
Lady May
Tyler Childers
11
playlists
The most popular hangover songs
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The most popular artists on hangover playlists
Flo Rida takes the top spot, seemingly, his track “Low” being the hangover anthem as well as peaking at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Grammy and Brit award-winning neo-soul artist, Frank Ocean comes in second, with “White Ferrari”, “Lost” and others.
Flo Rida
43
Appearances
@official_flo
Frank Ocean
29
Appearances
@oceanfrank
Coldplay
28
Appearances
@coldplay
The most popular artists on hangover playlists
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The most popular jet lag songs
No surprise here that for the most popular jet lag songs, the top four songs are all titled “Jet Lag”. A$AP Ferg’s song wins by a bit of a margin, however, appearing on around 20 more playlists than Simple Plan in second place. The former is a rap song and the latter a rock song, with Future’s song adding another to rap and Mesita’s song being an indie track.
Jet Lag
A$AP Ferg
79
playlists
Jet Lag (feat. Natasha Bedingfield)
Simple Plan
53
playlists
Jet Lag (feat. Young Scooter)
Future
43
playlists
Jet Lag
Mesita
17
playlists
Floor Seats
A$AP Ferg
14
playlists
The most popular jet lag songs
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The most popular artists on jet lag playlists
A$AP Ferg reigns supreme here, with seven of his songs featuring across a total of 120 playlists, it would appear that rap is the go-to for jet lag. However, coming in second is Simple Plan, despite only having two songs featured, they made it into 61 playlists, with their rock/punk/pop/emo music style.
A$AP Ferg
120
Appearances
@asapferg
Simple Plan
61
Appearances
@simpleplan
Future
48
Appearances
@future
The most popular artists on jet lag playlists
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The most popular burn out songs
Roar is a funk rock band from Croatia, and they come in first for the most popular burn out song, with “I Can’t Handle Change”. Second is “Brutal”, by Olivia Rodrigo, a grunge/alternative rock song that reached number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
I Can't Handle Change
Roar
213
playlists
Brutal
Olivia Rodrigo
190
playlists
Top of My School
Katherine Lynn-Rose
184
playlists
Are You Satisfied?
MARINA
182
playlists
Look Who’s Inside Again
Bo Burnham
171
playlists
The most popular burn out songs
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The most popular artists on burn out playlists
Mitski is a Japanese-American singer and songwriter, who was self-publishing albums whilst studying at Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music. Widely regarded as one of the best young songwriters in America, her music is mostly indie and folk-rock and she has ten songs that feature across 643 burn out playlists on Spotify.
Mitski
643
Appearances
@mitskileaks
MARINA
479
Appearances
@marinadiamandis
Mother Mother
471
Appearances
@mothermothermusic
The most popular artists on burn out playlists
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Methodology
We wanted to show which songs, artists and genres are considered most popular for various types of recovery: physical recovery, mental recovery, hangovers, jet lag and burn out.
Using this Spotify tool, The Playlist Miner, we input each of the recovery terms above - switching physical recovery for physical therapy as physical recovery yielded scarce results - to put together the top 100 songs for each term.
We then calculated how many times artists appeared in each playlist to form a second ranking for each term.
