So was there no song of the summer this year?
The concept of song of the summer is something I’ve only recently learned about but looking back I can definitely see how that concept influenced radio play when I was younger.
Even as the radio started declining songs were still being deemed “song of the summer.”
2024: Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter
2023: Flowers - Miley Cyrus
2022: As it Was - Harry Styles
2021: Butter - BTS
2020: Levitating - Dua Lipa
There’s for sure secondary songs you can choose (Good Luck Babe by Chappelle Roan for 2024 and Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles for 2020 as examples). But generally something broke out and became cultural moments.
It appears that Alex Warren’s Ordinary and three Morgan Wallen’s songs topped the charts this summer. Not the pop infused dance music “song of the summer” is usually referring to. It did seem like people were looking at Just Keep Watching by Tate McRae or Fame is a Gun by Addison Rae but they never really took off. It seems like Manchild by Sabrina Carpenter was the highest charting pop song but did not reach the heights of Espresso last year.
Looking at music subreddits people seem in agreement that the charts this year have been a mess, muted, with new music not breaking through. Also appears that Americans are leaning into country and/or Christian music.
My first reaction to the title was "people are still using that concept?" I haven't heard anyone use "song of the summer" in a long time. And when I looked at your list I recognized only two of those songs by title and I could only think of how one of those sounded. Granted, I do have limited talk with others about music because of my peculiar tastes.
I think that as a society we aren't in the kind of space needed to make this kind of thing happen anymore. People are listening to whatever they want on music streaming services and so there's very limited effect from curation like you get when listening to radio, and society seems to keep bubbling up into different partitioned spaces more and more every year.
I would agree with that. However, even though I do not use TikTok, I could see how a song could become the song of the summer through TikTok popularity.
I was under the impression that while it was a late summer hit, the sound track from K-Pop Demon Hunters is this year's breakout album with Golden as its number 1 hit. I could absolutely be wrong though.
Edit: I'd love to piggyback off this and see what people's personal "Pop Songs of Summer" from 2020-2025 would be.
Personally, mine are:
2020: Doja Cat - Say So
2021: Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar
2022: Ariana Grande/Lady Gaga - Rain on Me
2023: Dua Lipa/Elton John - Cold Heart
2024: Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please or Sophie Ellis-Baxter - Murder on the Dance Floor
2025: Diplo and bbno$ - Pogo
I recognize almost none of those are from the year they were released, I'm slow to adopt pop music :)
I can confirm that kpop demon hunters soundtrack (and particularly Golden) is what I've been listening to all summer
Golden gets my vote as well. I'm very grateful for the post here on tildes that convinced me to watch the movie. The music and animation are top notch.
bbno$ scratches an itch in my brain, there are a few of his songs I just dig. "edamame" was the intro, but "help herself" and "i remember" were very pleasant surprises.
It's less that I have been listening to it and more that everyone else in my family has been listening to it all summer. In fact, everyone sans yours truly is going to a sing-along showing of KPDM at the movie theater. But yeah, I can't name a song of the summer that would not be off the KPDM soundtrack.
I'm too old, I think. The last song of the summer that I can kind-of recall was either Teenage Dream or California Gurls by Katy Perry. Streaming and the slow death of radio in the US as all the stations are being bought up by some Christian conglomerate have basically killed the idea of a singular song of the summer.
The last time I chose to listen to a radio station was three or four years ago after talking to my kids about "the one station" that does 24/7 Christmas music. For me personally, radio was basically dead when I got my first iPod.
Am just too old, no other excuse.
Radio died for me in the mid 90s when I could plug my discman into a tape adapter and listen to whatever I wanted. Perhaps also fueled by being able to rip CDs and burn my own mixes.
You got me beat. While I had a few discmans, I still relied on radio to hear "the new stuff." I was more online and could finally rip and burn CDs by the time I got my first iPod.
Someone genuinely said it's the "Nothing beats a jet2 Holiday" sound making fun of bad travel experiences. And it has been common enough for me to count it
Compilation
I was coming to this thread to say precisely this. Hold My Hand by Jess Glynne (a song from about 10 years ago).
Actually, I can't think of anything more 2025 than a song from a decade ago, before the current administration, being used as a marketing tool, being ironically used to point out misfortune, being unironically recognized as still being a total bop.
Clowning so hard right now but I hope it means we're getting Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version) & a country album as TS13 in 2026 :')
</offtopic>1983 - Puttin' on the Ritz
2002 - Everybody to the Limit
2012 - Gangnam Style
2013 - Get Lucky
That really took me back to my childhood, though not for that performance in particular. When I was a kid we had this stupid rodent toy with gross rubbery flesh and a tophat that would dance and sing a snippet of that song. Somehow youtube has video of that inane toy whose foot I must have pushed 8 million times.
Many people are saying it is Disco Snails.
.
.
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But I am probably living in a bubble.
I actually came to this thread looking for Disco Snails. Thank you.
But, we’re likely in the same bubble.
I'm not really in touch with popular music lately but I've had this Collab by Lewky and Sad Alex playing on loop pretty regularly this summer.
"Mystical Magical" by Benson Boone is my nomination.
I heard this for the first time the other day via MusicLeague and Spotify says he's #40 in the world?? I had never heard of him lol. I'm not very plugged into the pop scene but that still surprised me.
Song of the summer! I immediately thought about childhood summer days at the seaside in the 90s listening to Coco Jumbo by Mr. President. That was MY song of the summer back then. I was never too much into pop music, but there are a bunch of 90s songs that I still like. Probably nostalgia more than them being actually good music.
I will admit tho, that I have recently seen K-Pop Demon Hunters and those songs are kind of stuck in my head. Doesn’t help that my wife keeps playing them. She fell in love with that movie. I vote for one of those songs to be 2025 song of the summer. I work at an airport and walking around I hear these songs out of people’s mobile devices almost daily.
According to TikTok, 2025 has almost certainly got to be ‘like JENNIE’:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=HMQlkbXjSTM
Just going by my teenage daughters, this was definitely the summer of EPIC: the musical . That was on in the background all summer long. When it wasn't on, they were singing it!
Also, thanks for the fun low-stakes thread! This thread reminds me of this silly video.