Summertime: when the weather, activities, emotions and music coalesce to make memories, for better or worse.
I, for example, am still triggered by Heat of the Moment by Asia, which was big during the summer of 1982, during which I suffered a very bad breakup. Even today, a few notes are enough to bring back that university-era hurt. Anything from Green Day’s Dookie immediately transports me to the summer of 1994. You’re probably thinking of your own personal songs of summers gone by.
There’s another level to this. Each year, there are one or two songs released in May or June that rise to the level of universal ubiquity by midsummer. It’s the earworm with the contagiousness of the measles. It’s an inescapable hit that no one is capable of avoiding. If you’re not listening, you’re at least hearing it enough that it becomes indelibly imprinted on your brain. You may not like the song, but it’s everywhere. Resistance is futile, and before long, its existence is connected to a specific few months on the calendar.
It wasn’t all that long ago that we were aware of most of the popular songs of the moment, including the ones we hated, even to the point of knowing most of the words. Summer songs were that powerful.
There’s a portion of the music industry (and thus the general public) that remains obsessed with declaring who has the official Song of the Summer (yes, they capitalize it). It’s all marketing bumf, of course, a chance to goose streams of priority acts so they blast up the charts, creating even more hype. Last year, for example, it was all about Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso battling it out with Beautiful Things by Benson Boone. In 2023, we were pointed at Olivia Rodrigo’s Vampire. A year earlier, it was As It Was by Harry Styles.
I could be wrong, but I don’t remember the music industry’s Song of the Summer obsession existing before 2010. This seems to be a product of the streaming age, an effect to take us back to an era when there was a universal consensus about what songs were hits, what songs we all needed to know about, and what songs defined a period of time.
Today, though, things are different. We no longer live in a monoculture where everyone is constantly exposed to the same thing. Our attention to, well, all entertainment has been segmented, stratified, separated, and personalized down to the second. We listen to what we want, when we want, wherever we are, and on whatever device we happen to have.
MIDiA, a music business analytics company, suggests that we are extremely close to what they call “peak fragmentation.” The concept of anxiously waiting for a radio station to play your favourite hit song at the same time as thousands of other listeners is a thing of the past.
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The reason I bring this up is that here we are in the middle of July, and there doesn’t seem to be a strong Song of the Summer candidate for 2025. Oh, sure, Billboard has its Songs of the Summer chart (the number one position is currently held by Alex Warren’s Ordinary), but I have no idea if I’ve ever heard it — and I work in radio and the music industry! Nor can I hum any of the top five: What I Want from Morgan Wallen and Tate McRae, Morgan Wallen and Just in Case, Luther from Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and *sigh* more Morgan Wallen with I’m the Problem.
True, maybe I’m the problem. But if we dig deeper, it may be a fault of the music. According to Chartmetric, another music business data analytics company, there are substantially fewer breakout hits this year (23 vs. 49), with less than half the number of hit songs that we saw at this point in 2024. Plenty of 2025’s top-charting songs — think Die with a Smile from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars — were released last year.
What’s more, there are no 2025 albums that have the cultural impact that Brat by Charli XCX had last year. For this summer, the smart money had been on Something Beautiful, the Miley Cyrus concept album, but so far, crickets. Lorde’s Virgin doesn’t seem to have much momentum, either — at least not yet. Rock? The highest-charting album in the country, according to Billboard Canada, as I write this is — wait for it — Rumours (1977) by Fleetwood Mac at number 18. The Tragically Hip’s greatest hits collection, Yer Favourites (2005), is next at 24.
What this comes down to is what constitutes a “hit” in this day and age. A song may do well on the Spotify Top 50 but flounder on radio. It could show up on an important playlist but not translate to use on Instagram and TikTok. A big movie will come with one or two halo songs that don’t travel beyond the closing credits. Cross-media pollination just isn’t very strong in 2025.
But here’s the biggest issue. The streaming music services have access to more than 200 million songs in their libraries, all available to users with just a couple of pokes at their phone. Contemporary artists aren’t just competing with their peers for attention; they’re competing against the greatest songs of all time. These songs may not be new, but they’re certainly new to young people in the midst of their musical coming-of-age years.
And the price? Free, or something very close to it.
There’s still time for a 2025 Song of the Summer, of course. Hearken back to 2022 when Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill reached the peak of its virality that August. There might be something gestating on TikTok right now that will explode in the next four weeks. But just because something goes crazy on TikTok doesn’t mean it will land on the radar of those who don’t use the platform. Nor does reaching number one on the Spotify Top 50. A true Song of the Summer has to transcend all platforms simultaneously — and that just hasn’t happened so far in 2025.
Music has always been a cyclical thing, so maybe this is just one of those occasional droughts. Or maybe we’re entering an era when not enough people latch onto the same song at the same time. Do people care about the “hits” the way they used to? Could it be that the new stuff that’s out there is unable to create strong emotional connections? Does too much of today’s pop music sound the same? Are artist images as strong and relatable as they used to be? With so much music available, is it possible for music consumers to create connections with individual artists?
Strange times, indeed. Meanwhile, enjoy your summer, no matter how you want to soundtrack it.
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