Today, Explained - The song of the summer is DEAD

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Long live the song of the summer. But wait! Switched on Pop’s Charlie Harding disagrees. And Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos says maybe it never existed at all. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I got a theory. I think the song of the summer is dead. Let's wind it back to 2003. This song was inescapable. Sometimes it still is. Few years later, another banger with Beyonce's husband, then Black Eyed Peas, Carly Rae, Blurred Lines, One Dance, Despacito, Beasts, all of them. And then in 2019, we get what I think was our last song of the summer, the series finale. The biggest songs on the charts in subsequent summers just haven't been as big, IMHO. Did you hear Rockstar everywhere you went? Or Morgan Wallen, that guy who loves the N-word? Please.

The song of the summer is dead. You're usually right, but I think you're wrong. We'll see about that on Today Explained. Stop. BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style,

there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk, an authorized gaming partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager.

Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Today Explained, Sean Ramos from here once again with NYU professor Charlie Harding, co-host of the Switched on Pop podcast. He's got some thoughts on why last year's supposed song of the summer and I just don't connect.

I'd say that there's three reasons for why you don't feel connected to Morgan Wallen's Last Night. The first reason is that you got old. The neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin has a study that shows that our musical tastes really peak ages 14 to 24. And so you're simply outside of that range. I'm sorry, Sean. Baby, baby, something's telling me this ain't over yet.

But there are other reasons why Morgan Wallen might not connect with you. I think part of it is that maybe country isn't your thing. And country is having a meteoric rise. Like, from 2017 to 2022, only 2% of the songs on the Hot 100 billboards made your chart were country. Last year, 25% of songs on the Hot 100 were country. Last summer, third reason why you might not have connected. Last summer, country also became political. In fact, I think the charts became political, like everything that is polarized in our country.

Not only did we have Morgan Wallen, who was making a comeback after saying the N-word publicly, but we also had songs like Try That in a Small Town by Jason Aldean. Got a gun that my granddad gave me They say one day they're gonna round up We had all of our Anthony music, Rich Men North of Richmond. to no end, cause the rich men know the rich men. These hyper-politicized songs, and so maybe you were just feeling like, I'm not

feeling the country right now. So these are why I think you might have not connected last year. Listen, Charlie, I like Bud Light and pickup trucks as much as the next guy. But I think these songs are popular. Yes. But they're not the song of the summer needs to be universal. Isn't that the thing?

I mean, Old Town Road was technically a country song. But the difference there was like kids were dancing to it. They were playing at clubs. And everyone heard it. There was a video that was hilarious. It was in commercials. That was a song of the summer. Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road.

I'm gonna ride till I can't no more. I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road. When I teach Old Town Road to my students at NYU, they're like, oh, that old song? Just saying, we may be outside of peak culture, Sean. Let's go back. Let's go back. I went back to 2003, but how old is the song of the summer charlie the song of the summer is an ancient institution every season needs a song in my digging i could

find newspapers from the 1800s where people were writing uh songs of summer poems lyrics and so on there's a really good vox explainer by our former colleague Phil Edwards from 2016. Love Phil. He found a New York Tribune story from 1910 asking about this time, look out for the Song of Summer. What will it be this season? Will it be humorous? Will it be sentimental?

Will it be unmitigated trash? They named the 1909 Song of Summer, My Wife's Gone to the Country. Hooray, hooray. Classic. But I feel like it really solidifies as a thing when Billboard launches its Hot 100 chart in 1958, and there is an official bean counter, and we can chart who is the biggest song of each season. What was the first song of the summer in 1958, once we had the beans counting?

It wasn't Elvis. It wasn't the Everly Brothers. It was Domenico Modugno's Volare. Ah, of course it was. Italian ballad with some R&B piano vibes. I don't know that I remember this from 1958, to tell you the truth. You're not that old, Sean. Pretty old, but not that old.

I mean, you could say in 1965, Sonny and Cher had I Got You, Babe. Oh, now we're talking. I got you, babe. How about 1977? Best of My Love by The Emotions? Oh, yeah. For sure. I feel like if you go to 1984,

you could fight between Prince's When Doves Cry. And Tina Turner's What's Love Got to Do With It. Oh, my gosh. What a year 1984 was. And then the 90s, you got to have like what? Like Spice Girls, Wannabe, maybe the Macarena in there. I mean, those are great hits, but I feel like 1997 was the year of Mbop by Hanson. Oh my gosh, yes it was.

But is there always a clear song of the summer? I mean, I showcased a couple of years where in my personal opinion there was, but I'm sure there's someone out there in the listening audience who's like, I don't remember Umbrella by Rihanna and Jay-Z. I guess that person probably exists. I tend to think of more songs of summer

than necessarily a song of summer. Especially to be representative of like, what people are listening to in Brooklyn is different than Miami, is different than Houston. And so whatever your people are listening to in Brooklyn is different than Miami is different than Houston. And so whatever your community is listening to, that's going to be your song of summer. And probably in the era of like mass media monoculture, we just weren't as talented at capturing people's collective listening. Sure, maybe they're being broadcast more the same stuff, but you didn't know what people were playing back to back on

their boombox. Now we can actually count exactly what people are listening to on streaming services. We have moved from the broadcast era of mass media to a fractured media landscape based on on-demand and algorithmic media. We're more fed our niche interests through playlists, which are disseminated to us. You can see the trend of people's listening fragment even by looking at things like album sales over the years. In 2003, the biggest album of the year was 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying, sold 6.5 million copies. Hell yeah.

Fast forward a decade, Justin Timberlake's 2020 experience, $2.4 million. Fast forward just the last year, Taylor Swift's Midnight's, $2.8 million. So album sales today actually do also reflect streaming. A certain number of streams actually is the equivalent of an album sale. So it's not just that people have moved from buying albums to streaming songs. It's also that I think our listening has fragmented into different communities and different genres. And this is why you see the occasional think piece, reflection, essay, you know, round table saying that the song of the summer is dead. I've seen one from our colleagues at

Vulture. I think Rolling Stone published one as well. When you see those, Charlie Harding, are you like, come on, guys, take it easy on Song of the Summer because it feels like this is not your opinion. I think that big cultural moments can still exist. Elections, insurrections, football's doing amazing. Super Bowl, depending on how you count, is at an all-time high in its viewership. Really, songs are doing better and lasting longer on the Hot 100 than they are at any other point in history. And so I think whether it's a Taylor Swift album that takes over the entire chart for a moment, viral tiktok song that can last for uh longer than you might expect it's definitely possible for a song to break through i'm glad you brought up the charts

charlie because i feel like the charts are part of the problem here because the charts now that they account for streaming are like no longer fully reflective of the moment like they used to be no no no no is that wrong you're totally wrong i totally object the charts right now reflect that we have a very diverse set of listening like if you go to the billboards hot 100 which counts radio airplay physical album sales and streaming streaming, it shows that, wow, we are listening to a broad array of things. The number one song in the country right now is a bar song by Shaboosie. This one I know, Tipsy, I'm not that old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Black man leading the country charts and the Hot 100. We also have legacy

Big 3 rapper Kendrick Lamar and his diss track, Not Like Us. We made a whole show about it. A great episode. You also made a great episode about pop princess Sabrina Carpenter and her song Espresso. Thanks for the plug.

It's a good episode. We've got alt-folk music by Hosier. We've got drag-dressing artist Chapel Rowan. Like, we've got so many different things happening in the top 10 i think it really actually represents all sorts of different communities of listening i think you shouldn't stress about what everyone is listening to i think you should pay attention to what your friends and community are connecting with we're gonna come back with charlie Harding and Brittany Spanos from Rolling Stone to talk about what songs your friends and community are singing this summer on Today Explained. Are they... when I'm at the house, yeah, I'm 3-6-5 party girl. Should we do a little kiss? Should we have a little moment?

I want to go real wild. Support for Today Explained comes from Aura. Aura believes that sharing pictures is a great way to keep up with family, and Aura says it's never been easier thanks to their digital picture frames. They were named the number one digital photo frame by Wirecutter. Aura frames make it easy to share unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. When you give an aura frame as a gift, you can personalize it.

You can preload it with a thoughtful message, maybe your favorite photos. Our colleague Andrew tried an aura frame for himself. So setup was super simple. In my case, we were celebrating my grandmother's birthday and she's very fortunate. She's got 10 grandkids. And so we wanted to surprise her with the AuraFrame. And because she's a little bit older, it was just easier for us to source all the images together and have them uploaded to the frame itself. And because we're all connected over text message, it was just so easy to send a link to everybody.

You can save on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com to get $35 off Aura's best-selling Carvermat frames with promo code EXPLAINED at checkout. That's A-U-R-A-FRAMES.COM, promo code EXPLAINED. This deal is exclusive to listeners and available just in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions do apply. Support for today Explained comes from Ramp.

If you're a finance manager, you're probably used to having to toggle between multiple disjointed tools just to keep track of everything. And sometimes that means there's limited visibility on business spend. I don't know what any of that means But Ramp might be able to help Ramp is a corporate card and spend management software Designed to help you save time And put money back in your back pocket Ramp's accounting software automatically collects Receipts, categorizes your expenses in real time You can say goodbye

To manual expense reports You will never have to chase down a receipt again You can customize spending limits And restrictions so your employees Are empowered to purchase what your business needs. And you can have peace of mind. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. You go to ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com slash explained.

Cards are issued by Sutton Bank, a member of the FDIC, and terms and conditions do apply. Today Explained is back with Charlie HCX and hashtag Britney Spanos from Rolling Stone. Friends, community, when you guys look at the songs of the summer, do the songs tell a story? I think there are a couple of really great narratives going on right now in especially the top 10 of the charts in a way that I feel like has been more entertaining than the past few summers. I think we're seeing a lot of artists who have really strong fandoms who have existed for a really long time. You know, Shaboozy's been making music for years now. Sabrina Carpenter, this is like about to be her sixth album.

Chapel Roan was signed to a major label, dropped from a major label, re-signed to a new one, and, you know, released her debut album. Hozier has his first number one, and we all remember Take Me to Church. That song is from over a decade ago. It's a lot of really great sort of narratives happening of artists who have been hustling for a really long time, who, you know, either had peaks before and are coming back. I mean, we're seeing this with Charli XCX and Tinashe as well,

who aren't necessarily in the top 10 because charts aren't the only metric, but are having really great sort of viral successes and moments. We're seeing a lot of artists who just kind of have curated a great fandom and have cultivated that over years, toured, hustled, released music, and just happen to have these like incredible breaks simultaneously at once. Yeah, I feel like we have moved past the moment where every biggest song is a sudden breakout on TikTok overnight success. The reality is, if you want to have a big pop career, you need a community which is backing you. I think Brittany's totally right on. This is the summer where we are seeing and realizing the gains of a lot of hard work. That wee espresso.

I feel like the industry has adjusted poorly to the streaming age. I mean, we all know that. Like every artist knows that. And I feel like there's been a big lack of artist development in a lot of ways. You know, we've seen a lot of artists who have a viral hit, who have that one moment, and then the industry

and labels don't really know how to keep that going or how to process that sort of like, we found this artist on TikTok, on YouTube, on Instagram, on, you know, whatever. And like, we turn this into this big moment. Where does the album go from there? Where does the next song go from there? So I feel like marketing or kind of promotion or support from the major label system that other kind of flash in the pan artists have had over the last decade and they've created those fandoms from scratch they built them from the ground up just by touring a lot and from releasing music that made sense to them there is something else going on this summer that i want to talk about. Britney mentioned it briefly.

It's lime green. It's slightly out of focus. It's Brat. I feel like the popularity of the new Charli XCX album only backs up my theory that Song of the Summer is a thing of the past. Because if you're terminally online, this is Brat Summer. And if you're in Los Angeles, the summer belongs to Kendrick. If you're into country, maybe it's Shabuzy. If you're into Disney, maybe it's Sabrina Carpenter or something.

Sean, I think you've completely passed over Post Malone. Like, I feel like this is actually the summer of Post Malone. This is the season of Post Malone. Not only has he had a number one hit with Morgan Wallen, the song, I Had Some Help. He's also had hits as a featured artist with Beyonce on Levi's Jeans. And Taylor Swift on Fortnite. He is inescapable.

I'm glad y'all brought up Post Malone. in doing so also brought up Beyonce and Taylor Swift because Beyonce, Taylor, and even like Dua Lipa, some of the biggest artists on streaming, some of the biggest artists touring right now, performing right now, releasing music right now. They've all released albums, but their names haven't really come up much. Is there something going on with like the old faves where they're just not charting the same way as the Youngblood? I think these albums all did phenomenally well and were simply released earlier in the year. Beyonce's album Cowboy Carter dominated the conversation for weeks. It broke Billboard Hot 100 records. It was definitely the album of the spring. The song Texas Hold'em was number one for two weeks and was on the charts for 20 weeks.

Taylor Swift's album, The Tortured Poets Department, also broke many records. All the songs were on the chart at the exact same moment. Dua Lipa might be the one example where her album Radical Optimism has not been as radically optimistic as she might have three really solid singles still on Radio Airplay, Illusion, Houdini, and Dance the Night from the Barbie soundtrack. I think she's one song away from being the most dominant artist again. She just needs the next big single to hit. Yeah, and Dance the Night was such a big hit last summer, too. You know,

they definitely all cycled the Song of the Summer conversations repeatedly for the last several years or decades, depending on which artist. But, you know, I think that people were kind of hungry for something new in a lot of ways, too. Like, I feel like we had sort of had a rough few years of new artists breaking through because of the pandemic because of touring and it's been such a big touring boom over the last couple of years where a lot of these artists have gotten boosted by being aligned with someone like Beyonce with Shibuzy being on the Beyonce album and then now having his first number one hit with Sabrina Carpenter going on the Arrows tour with Taylor with Chapel going on the Olivia tour, you know, all these artists kind of,

it's almost like they are the ones now creating a new algorithm. They are the ones boosting these artists and are as much a reason for these songs of the summer that we're seeing while kind of having their own albums that came out a little bit earlier. Is it a bummer to you too

that none of these songs that you're clearly deeply invested in will be the song of the summer? I think we established with Charlie that we are in the era of songs of the summer. Do you wish it could be just one, one song to rule them all? I mean, we are our own little fiefdoms. We all have our own song of summer, so who cares? I mean, for me, it's definitely Charlie XCX, Fawn Dutch, no doubt. No one can stop that from happening. Wow. The remix or the original Charli?

I'm an original. Okay. Respect, Brittany. I mean, I'm going to argue that we've never been just a one song of the summer nation, you know? I think like when you look back on the years, like it's going to be whatever defined your summer, no matter what. I mean, we could go by the chart metrics, we can go by the conversation. But I think it's the beauty of like all of it is like, yeah, there is sometimes those defining metrics that we can use. But no matter what, I think everyone kind of has their own song of the summer. And I think that's always what's kind of beautiful about it.

Like, I always look back at my summers with like, okay, this song just happened to be playing at every party I was at. Or this is a song that I was like depressed listening to on the beach. You know, like it's like. You can't be depressed at the beach, Brittany. It's the beach. Sometimes. Listen, I'm a Lana Del Rey girl through and through. And sometimes you are.

So what's your song this year? I don't think Lana's gotten any new bops, but I might have missed them. Sometimes, listen, I'm a Lana Del Rey girl through and through. And sometimes you are. So what's your song this year? I don't think Lana's gotten any new bops, but I might have missed them. She does have a new bop. I'm not sure if it's my song of the summer yet. But I think my song of the summer is probably, oh God, it's actually like really difficult. I think it's probably 365. Wow. Wow.

Because Brad has really taken over my life in a crazy way, in a way that is kind of sick. Oh, I can relate. Charlie HCX, hashtag Britney Spanos. It's been an honor. Thank you for joining us. I wish you both a safe and happy Brat Summer. Thank you, Sean. Thank you.

Britney Spanos writes about music for Rolling Stone. Her latest is titled Welcome to the Hannah Montana Generation of Pop Music. You can and should read it at RollingStone.com. Professor Charlie Harding makes Switched on Pop. You should be listening wherever you listen. Shadow Brat, Amanda Llewellyn, made our program today. We were fact-checked by Laura Bullard, who recently asked, Wait, what is Brat? We were edited by Amina Alsadi, mixed by Patrick Boyd

and Andrea Christen's daughter and hosted by Brat. Before we go, have you noticed that this election is the nuttiest one we've ever had? Like, no exaggeration, ever. Felon versus oldest president ever who's constantly having to make the case for an even older presidency. We know you have questions about conventions, about delegates, about donors, about the legality of X or the probability of Y. And we want to know what those questions are and we want to help you answer them in this wild and unpredictable moment. Give us a call. Give us an email. Tweet at us 844-453-4448, 844-453-4448, todayexplained at vox.com, today underscore explained.

Thank you. Open up.