The song of the summer is a bummer

CNN

4 days ago

The summer of 2025 is severely lacking in 'Espresso.'
Gone are the sweaty days when 'Not Like Us' lit up parties nationwide, uniting Drake dissers everywhere. There are manchildren and daisies and animated anthems from 'KPop Demon Hunters,' but nothing that's made as big of a cultural dent as 'Birds of a Feather' or anything from 'Brat.'
There is no song of the summer this year. And if there is, it's probably a bummer.
The top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 are occupied largely by downers. At No. 1, Alex Warren's vaguely Christian ballad 'Ordinary' is best suited for a quiet study session, not a raucous party. Morgan Wallen, fresh from God's country, can't feign enthusiasm on his recent half-baked singles. Even pop prince Justin Bieber is keeping it low-key on his new album, which relies on sparse, downbeat guitars. (This, coming from one of the men behind 2017's song of the summer, 'Despacito.')
And if the most popular songs in the country aren't somewhat dour or mellow to a fault, they're holdovers from 2024 (or older). This year, it seems we left pop bombast in 2024.
'We're coming off a huge wave of amazing stuff,' said Mike Errico, a songwriter and instructor at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. 'A lot of what 2025 has come out with — they're kind of down, kind of low energy. It's good, but it's not going to light up a room.'
The state of the song of the summer is in crisis. There's still time to find a definitive song that unites both snobs and casual listeners — Sabrina Carpenter's new album arrives at the end of August, after all — but so far, the song of summer 2025 is one long sigh.
Last summer, we met exciting new pop stars like Chappell Roan. Underdogs like Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter, who worked steadily for years as cult favorites, finally broke out. And maybe you heard that two of the most famous women in the world — Taylor Swift, Beyoncé — released projects last year?
'2024 was exceptional,' Errico said. 'I don't think you see that a lot — really humongous hits, with insanely long lives on the charts.'
This year's popular new music has been decidedly downbeat, with ballads and ponderous country songs topping the charts, Errico said. Even Bieber's 'Daisies,' charting high in the weeks after its release, is relatively pared back for the one-time collaborator of fiery artists like Skrillex and Quavo.
'A lot of stuff was low energy,' Errico said of this year's new music. 'It's good for dim rooms, but I don't think that's associated with the 'song of the summer.''
Ideally, a song of the summer is 'bright, poppy, upbeat,' Errico said — a celebration in miniature that's easy to dance along to. It's a song that won't grate even when you hear it one million times over one summer. This year 'did not deliver that,' he said.
'Maybe we shot our bullets in 2024 all at once,' he said.
'Do we need a song of the summer to be brand spankin' new?' Errico pondered. 'Can it be something from, oh, 10 months ago?'
Release dates haven't held back some of the year's most popular songs from continuing to soar. Four of the top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were released in 2024, including Shaboozey's 'A Bar Song (Tipsy),' a scrappy, easily singable country song that's been charting for over a year, and 'Luther,' Kendrick Lamar's laid-back jam with SZA.
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' 2024 dulcet duet 'Die with a Smile' has survived for nearly a year in the top 10 — meanwhile, the spiky, danceable cuts from Gaga's new album 'Mayhem' have disappeared. (There's also Teddy Swims' inexplicably popular 'Lose Control,' which is now over two years old.)
'I think it speaks to the power of 2024, that they're still on the charts in 2025,' Errico said. 'Maybe 2024 isn't over yet.'
There is a type of song that makes less of a dent upon arrival but winds up defining the summer, like '360,' 'Guess' and 'Apple' from Charli XCX's 'Brat.'
This year, that slot appears to be filled by PinkPantheress' 'Illegal,' which has soundtracked over a million TikToks and counting. It slid off the charts fairly quickly after its May release, but it fills the earworm quotient, and it's the rare viral hit that hasn't yet worn out its welcome. Also in contention are songs from burgeoning pop star and original TikTok idol Addison Rae and Ravyn Lenae, whose 'Love Me Not' is a rare bouncy gem in the top 10.
'You're not seeing (these songs) en masse, but maybe that's better,' Errico said of the cult hits. 'Maybe not everyone should be invited to a single party. Maybe we should have different parties with different playlists that reflect a smaller but more dedicated group of people.'
It's possible that when we look back at this summer a year from now, older songs will spring to mind, Errico offered. The CEO kiss-cam meltdown at a Coldplay concert in July became one of the summer's biggest stories, and fans may remember the moment set to 'The Scientist' or 'Fix You.' Ozzy Osbourne's death has already prompted fans to revisit his greatest hits, like the karaoke barn-burner 'Crazy Train.'
Or maybe, Errico suggested, the song of the summer is one that best exemplifies the quickening encroachment of AI into creative fields, like AI band Velvet Sundown's AI song, 'Dust on the Wind.' Even the title sounds like a Fleetwood Mac-inspired ChatGPT prompt.
This fruitless search for the song of the summer has made Errico wonder, do we even need one this year? The songs of 2024 are already tiding us over.
'Maybe music needed this minute to chill,' he said. 'Let's let everybody digest it and come back strong next summer.'
Maybe we'll get back to the good stuff in summer 2026. Or maybe late entries like Carpenter; Tyler, The Creator and Chappell Roan (whose new song is a ballad) could run away with the season — or the year.
After all, Errico said: 'A good song is good for longer than the summer.'