A song of the summer is an unofficial designation of a song that is dominant both culturally and commercially between the end of May and the beginning of September in a given year, primarily in the United States. Although the idea of a song of the summer had been around as early as the 1910s, it became a common term in the 1990s. By the early 2000s, achieving the label of "song of the summer" became a competition urged on by media outlets. In the 21st century, the growing fragmentation of musical sources has made it more difficult for a single song to become overwhelmingly pervasive.

Description

The common characteristic of a song of the summer is that there is universal awareness: it is a song that people hear everywhere they go, and is a

viral phenomenon Viral phenomena or viral sensations are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the te ...

. The song of the summer can be so ubiquitous that many get sick of hearing it. It is the dominant song between

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

and

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

, the song that "defines the season on the charts and in listeners' memories". The determination of the song of summer is achieved by popular consensus, but is often the song that ranks longest at top of the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

between June and September. The song of the summer is a question open annually to public debate, not an objective description. In ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', Chris Richards describes the song of the summer as "that magical megahit capable of changing the nation's psychic temperature". In 1995, ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'' declared that a true song of the summer had to be released in the summer, be easily turned into a

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan or a political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group ...

, and be so catchy that people cannot get it out of their heads. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'''s designation of song of the summer is based primarily on audio streams between the weekend after the June

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...

and Labor Day. In ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', John Jurgensen proposed that the number of covers a song inspires can be an indicator of the song of the summer, pointing out more than 40,000 videos of

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...

's " Get Lucky" made by fans. The song of the summer is generally a high-energy song. Music journalist

Greg Kot Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...

describes the song of the summer as energetic, catchy songs that "rule their summer", such as 1989's "

Lambada Lambada () is a dance from the state of Pará in Brazil. The dance briefly became internationally popular in the 1980s, especially in the Philippines, Latin America and Caribbean, Caribbean countries. It has adopted aspects of dances such as Maxi ...

" by

Kaoma Kaoma was a French-Brazilian band formed around 1989 by French producers Jean Georgakarakos and Olivier Lorsac to promote the song "Lambada (song), Lambada". Loalwa Braz was hired to sing lead vocals, other musicians were Chyco Dru (bass), Jacky ...

, 1999's " Livin' la Vida Loca" by

Ricky Martin Enrique Martin Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography incorporati ...

, 2002's "

The Ketchup Song ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

" by

Las Ketchup Las Ketchup is a Spanish girl group founded by flamenco record producer Manuel "Queco" Ruiz. The group, which consists of sisters Lucía, Lola, and Pilar Muñoz (later to be joined by a fourth sister Rocío), is best known for the 2002 hit sing ...

, and 2012's "

Gangnam Style "Gangnam Style" () is a K-pop song by South Korean singer Psy, released on July 15, 2012, by YG Entertainment as the lead single of his sixth studio album, ''Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1'' (''Ssai Yukgap Part 1''). The term "Gangnam Style" is a n ...

" by

Psy Park Jae-sang (; born December 31, 1977), better known by his stage name Psy ( ; ), is a South Korean rapper and singer-songwriter, known domestically for his humorous music videos and stage performances and internationally for his hit singl ...

History

An examination of the history of the song of the summer in '' Vox'' notes that a 1910 article in the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...

'' says "About this time look out for the summer song", in the days when songs were primarily distributed as sheet music, and cites as an example the hit song of the summer of 1923, which was "

Yes, We Have No Bananas "Yes! We Have No Bananas" is an American novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn published March 23, 1923. It became a major hit that year (placing No. 1 for five weeks) when it was recorded by Billy Jones (singer), Billy Jones, Billy Murra ...

", selling a million copies in three months. In 1979, a Canadian newspaper described "

My Sharona "My Sharona" () is the debut single by American power pop band the Knack. The song was written by Berton Averre and Doug Fieger, and it was released in 1979 from their debut album, '' Get the Knack''. It reached number one on the ''Billboard ...

" by

the Knack The Knack was an American power pop band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by Doug Fieger (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Berton Averre (lead guitar, backing vocals), Prescott Niles (bass) and Bruce Gary (drums). Spearheaded by the succes ...

as "the runaway song of the summer". Hits such as " Summer in the City" by

the Lovin' Spoonful The Lovin' Spoonful is a Canadian-American folk-rock band formed in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1964. The band were among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influ ...

(1966), had dominated their summers, but public attention to naming a song of the summer began in the 1990s. Music critic

Ann Powers Ann K. Powers (born February 4, 1964) is an American writer and popular music critic. She is a music critic for NPR and a contributor at the ''Los Angeles Times'', where she was previously chief pop critic. She has also written for other publicat ...

introduced a bracket-style competition for song of the summer of 1999 in ''The New York Times''. The bracket-style tournament was later used by

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's Video Music Awards for its "Song of the Summer" category. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' started its Songs of the Summer chart in 2010, and published retroactive charts back to 1985. The ''Billboard'' Songs of the Summer chart was originally based on sales and radio play; streaming data was added to its calculations in 2012, and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

streams in 2013. The first song of the summer on ''Billboards chart was "

California Gurls "California Gurls" is a song by American singer Katy Perry from her third studio album, '' Teenage Dream'' (2010). It was released as the album's lead single on May 7, 2010, through Capitol Records. The song features rap verses from Snoop Dog ...

" by

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

and

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

. Achieving song of the summer became competitive in 2013 and 2014. Publications began publishing articles in June to label contenders and offer predictions. In 2013,

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...

satirized the song of the summer competition on ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...

''.

Shared musical experience

Summer lends itself to a shared musical experience: people are outside more often, exposed to communal music and open-air listening. Before the 21st century, the song of the summer was widely heard throughout common spaces. People would hear the same songs on car radios blasting in traffic, in stores and malls, at clubs and parties. The monoculture of

Top 40 radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

became fragmented as radio formats expanded and multiple avenues of music streaming became available, leading to wider musical choices but also making it more difficult for a single song to permeate popular culture. Ontario music writer Joel Rubinoff says, "If a song can break through the din and clamour of our fragmented selfie universe to connect on a universal level, we can, for an instant, feel like we're part of something bigger." ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine noted the difficulty of identifying a song of the summer in 2020, when the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the isolation

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

reduced the opportunities of a shared musical experience. It also observed the impact of

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

on popular music. Fragmented music experiences produce multiple contenders for song of the summer.

References

{{reflist , refs= {{cite magazine , magazine=Time , last1=Bruner , first1=Raisa , last2=Lang , first2=Cady , last3=Chow , first3=Andrew R. , last4=Berman , first4=Judy , date=September 1, 2020 , title=What's 2020's Song of the Summer—If There Even Is One? , url=https://time.com/5882152/song-of-the-summer-2020/ {{cite news , newspaper=Edmonton Journal (Alberta, Canada) , page=27 , date=July 30, 2014 , last=Dekel , first=Jon , title=And song of the summer is... , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98324026/summer-song-2014/ {{cite news , newspaper=Asbury Park Press (New Jersey) , date=July 27, 2020 , page=C3 , last=Dinges , first=Gary , title=Is it worth having the top summer song? , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98323941/summer-song-2020/ {{cite web , website=Vulture , last=Dobbins , first=Amanda , date=July 8, 2014 , title=We Deserve a Better Song of Summer , url=https://www.vulture.com/2014/07/we-deserve-a-better-song-of-summer.html , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite web , website=Vox , last=Edwards , first=Phil , date=June 15, 2016 , title=The surprising history of the "song of the summer" , url=https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8796289/summer-song-history , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite web , website=InsideRadio , date=July 16, 2021 , title=Song Of The Summer: Pop Radio's Bread and 'Butter' , url=https://www.insideradio.com/free/song-of-the-summer-pop-radios-bread-and-butter/article_3ad2b1b0-e603-11eb-b041-b78a3ad187cc.html , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite news , newspaper=New York Times , page=SR.9 , date=August 17, 2014 , last=Johnston , first=Maura , author-link=Maura Johnston , title=The Real Song of the Summer , id={{ProQuest, 1553596716 {{cite news , newspaper=The Wall Street Journal , last=Jurgensen , first=John , date=July 25, 2013 , title=Song of the Summer? , url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323610704578627662620785922 , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite web , website=BBC , last=Kot , first=Greg , date=June 19, 2014 , title=What makes the 'song of summer'?, url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140620-what-makes-the-song-of-summer , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite web , website=Variety , last=Mayfield , first=Geoff , date=September 9, 2021 , title=The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber's 'Stay' Is 2021's Song of the Summer , url=https://variety.com/2021/music/news/song-of-the-summer-2021-kid-laroi-justin-bieber-stay-1235059697/ , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite news , newspaper=Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon) , date=June 23, 2017 , last=McDermott , first=Maeve , title=Summer Jam: Ranking Every 'Song of the Summer' From the Past 20 Years , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98323820/summer-song-2017/ {{cite web , website=Slate , url=https://slate.com/culture/2013/08/the-song-of-the-summer-meme-how-handicapping-the-song-of-the-summer-became-a-national-pastime.html , last=Molanphy , first=Chris , date=August 9, 2013 , title=When Did the 'Song of the Summer' Become a Thing? , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite news , newspaper=Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas) , page=D1 , date=June 20, 1999 , last=Philpot , first=Robert , title=Trying to figure out what makes a hit radio song in the summer? , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98324782/summer-song-1999/ {{cite web , website=Pitchfork , title=What Will the 2021 Song of the Summer Be? , date=June 28, 2021 , url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/what-will-the-2021-song-of-the-summer-be/ , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite web , website=CNN Entertainment , last=Hare , first=Breeanna , date=June 4, 2010 , title=What will be the song of the summer?, url=https://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/04/summer.song.2010/index.html * {{cite web , website=Nylon , title=These are the songs that'll rule this summer , url=https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/whats-2021s-song-of-the-summer , last=Wang , first=Steffanee * {{cite magazine , magazine=Time , title=What's the Song of the Summer for 2021? Here Are Our Predictions , url=https://time.com/6075081/song-of-summer-2021/ * {{cite web , website=HuffPost , last=Moraski , first=Lauren , date=June 20, 2017 , title=The Best Summer Songs of 2017 , url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ultimate-guide-to-the-2017-song-of-the-summer_n_5947e694e4b0f15cd5bcfb00 {{cite news , newspaper=The Washington Post , date=August 1, 2016 , page=4-3 , title=2016 has no song of the summer , last=Richards , first=Chris , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98324308/2016-no-summer-song/ {{cite news , newspaper=The Washington Post , last=Richards , first=Chris , date=June 15, 2015 , title=Why the Song of the Summer still matters , id={{ProQuest, 1688363571 {{cite news , newspaper=Waterloo Region Record (Kitchener, Ontario), page=D1 , date=June 25, 2016 , last=Rubinoff , first=Joel , title=Is Justin Timberlake's single going to be everywhere? Or is "Song of the Summer" a thing of the past? , id={{ProQuest, 1799323497 {{cite magazine , magazine=New York Magazine , date=June 26, 1995 , last=Udovitch , first=Mim , title=That summer song , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k-MCAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22the%20summer%20song%22&pg=PA68 , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite web , website=Variety , date=August 13, 2018 , title=MTV Reveals VMA Song of the Summer Nominees , url=https://variety.com/2018/music/news/mtv-reveals-vma-song-of-the-summer-nominees-drake-cardi-b-exclusive-1202903113/ , access-date=March 25, 2022 {{cite news , newspaper=The Los Angeles Times , page=E3 , date=September 22, 2016 , last=Wood , first=Mikael , title=Out of tunes , url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98324026/summer-song-2016/

External links

Every song of the summer from the past 46 years
Summer Popular music Popular culture Musical terminology Song forms Recorded music

Description

History

Shared musical experience

See also

References

External links