Why Is There No “Song of the Summer” This Year?
I’ve never been party to this whole mania of declaring a track to be the “song of summer” until now–and that’s because for 2015, there isn’t one.
To qualify, a SotS has to (a) be ubiquitous to the point of annoying; (b) be known by millions of people to the point where they can at least sing a couple of the lyrics; (c) be the cause of headache-inducing earworms; and (d) (and this is the nebulous part) somehow encapsulate the feeling and zeitgeist of a Northern Hemisphere summer.
As far as anyone can tell–and I track all the radio and music blogs–no song meets that criteria this year. There’s no “Blurred Lines,” no “Call Me Maybe,” no “Fancy,” no “Somebody I Used to Know.” Nothing that anyone can call a true anthem for those months between May and September. Nothing that, when we hear it years from now, we’ll say “I remember that year! It’s when [fill in the blank].” Nothing that will instantly get aunts and uncles to dance awkwardly at that wedding in two years.
This isn’t to say that there weren’t any hit songs. “Trap Queen” by Fetty Wap was big as was “Cheerleader” by OMI. “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa was huge, but it’s too slow. The closest we might have come to a SotS for 2015 is from Taylor Swift. “Shake It Off?” Peaked too soon. “Bad Blood?” Maybe, but the video turned off a lot of people. If The Weeknd had released “Can’t Feel My Face” earlier, it might have had a shot, but it’s only peaking now.
If we come to the consensus that 2015 will be song-less, it will be the first time in decades. Why? A couple of reasons.
- The big stars (except for Ms Swift) have mostly been absent through these summer months. Sure, Rihanna had “Bitch Better Have My Money,” but not exactly a feel-good hit. Lady Gaga has been AWOL as has Pink, Katy Perry and Beyonce. We can probably throw Bieber on that pile, too. Meanwhile, One Direction may be setting all sorts of streaming records, but they’re still viewed as a band for little girls.
- The continuing fragmentation of music consumption. Radio is still huge, but there’s also YouTube and all the streaming services. It’s possible that there might have been something close to a SotS on terrestrial radio, another on YouTube, another on Spotify, another on Rdio and so on. If that’s the case, there hasn’t been a single track to link it all together in a musical Theory of Everything.
- No one wrote any good summer songs this year.
Me, I really don’t care about the whole SotS thing in is current media incarnation. But I do feel kinda sad that we seem to have broken the streak. Anyone else have any theories?
I am probably around your age Alan and I have never gotten into this whole “song of summer” thing. There are songs that remind me of summer sure, Dreams – FleetwoodMac; Night Moves- Bob Seger; Black Metallic – The Catherine Wheel (more of a feeling than anything). For the first time in a long long time a “summer song” happened to me this year.
Sedona by Houndmouth!!
If you have not heard it, please check it out. To me it has a summer feel all over it.
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Well I can tell you after being through a few weddings this summer, Shake It Off is the song that gets the Uncles and Aunts dancing awkwardly. I’ve watched the dance floor go from empty to full in the first few bars, and 55 year old men requesting it!
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