Let's stop looking for the song of the summer

Some friends and I were discussing the term "song of the summer" the other day, trying to determine when the idea of naming a song the definitive warm-weather anthem of the year became a pop cultural phenomenon. We came to the conclusion that it’s newer than we realized. It certainly didn’t happen when we were teenagers around the turn of the millennium, at least not to the same obsessive extent. It’s an internet-era phenomenon.

I’d like to suggest that it’s a phenomenon that’s run its course. In fact, I’d like to suggest that we stop the search for 2014’s song of the summer right now and never discuss the subject again. Naming things "song of the summer" is terrible and needs to stop.

So we’re clear, I don’t hate the idea of declaring something the song of the summer because I hate catchy pop songs or fun or sitting on the subway and fondly remembering the time you called in sick and went to the beach when “California Girls” comes on your iPod. I think all of those things are great. My problem with declaring a tune the song of the summer is that it causes good songs to be played until you hate them, and bad songs to be played until you want to slug a stranger.

Right now, the two major contenders for song of the summer are Kiesza’s “Hideaway” and “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX. I am really, deeply hoping for “Fancy” to take the title, mostly because I don’t particularly like it as is. “Hideaway,” on the other hand, I like a lot. It makes me want to dance. It reminds me of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when house music crossed over into the mainstream. It has a great video. I don’t want it to get song-of-the-summer-style played into the ground. I don’t want to hear it from every storefront, out of every passing car, from every cellphone, until I want to scream. I don’t want it to turn into “Get Lucky.” That was last year’s undisputed song of the summer, and when I first heard it, I really liked it. In May, it was totally my jam. By the beginning of October, I couldn’t hear it without wanting to projectile vomit. Dubbing “Get Lucky” the song of the summer ruined it for me, and countless other people, possibly forever.

Let’s not let another great song suffer the fate of “Get Lucky.” We’re all doing different things this summer. We’re all having our own adventures. We don’t need a collective soundtrack. We don’t have a movie of the summer, or a TV show, or a book. We don’t need a song. Pick your own song of the summer. Make your own memories around it. Cherish those. Get stoked and nostalgic when it’s January and feels like summer is never coming again, and your song of the summer comes on your iPod. But don’t make it into some sort of shared phenomena. It’s boring.

by Chris Dart via Electronic RSS