To understand how music can be used as a component of the social credit score, we have to first look at how music is a useful tool of the government. Let’s begin with something common and relatable: the national anthem. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll recall hearing the national anthem at school, before professional sports events, and at special memorial services. Our television sets are filled with football and basketball players, and elite politicians swelling with pride as the familiar notes float through our home speakers. It’s ceremonial. The greater the display of emotion, then the greater one can rank you on the patriotic scale.

But it goes beyond the typical anthem. The government can use music to control its citizens in a variety of ways. They can use it to spread propaganda, to encourage patriotism, to promote specific values and ideologies, to discourage certain behaviors, and to create a sense of unity among citizens. Music can also be used to create a sense of fear or to instill loyalty to the state. It can be used to promote certain political agendas, such as in the case of North Korea where the government uses music to promote its own ideology and to discourage citizens from listening to foreign music.

When you combine these tactics with modern technology, the results get more dramatic. We’re all familiar with the enticing drop of the personalized Spotify playlist list. From its official word, Spotify analyzes the listening behaviors of its millions of users including listening, skips, like patterns. However, it has become common knowledge how much data apps like Spotify can leverage when you sign in with your Facebook, Google, or Apple account. Essentially your entire browsing history can be used to determine your musical preferences and how to drive them forward to keep you engaged in the app.

Governments undoubtedly have their own agenda, and they aim to shape the collective consciousness to meet it. Your digital profile compiled among the mega tech giants feeding your log-in to music apps like Spotify will tell Spotify where you stand relative to the government’s cause of the day/month/year. Essentially Spotify may already be serving up tracks which alter your psychological attitudes towards certain causes. We live in unprecedented times in terms of how the Jungian collective consciousness can be molded by technology and drive your behavior.