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It has become a custom to be hooked on the music scene during the summertime in hopes of finding a song that will dominate everyone’s playlists, radios, and social media pages. Summer has been renowned for being the time of year in which new hits are released. After all, people need a certain selection of songs to play at the beach or when hanging out with friends.
In years past, songs released during the summer have been, for the most part, extremely energetic, including lyrics that express different aspects of the season, such as love, friendship, heartbreak, and simply enjoying every day of one’s vacation. However, it appears that the general public has found there to be a decline in such songs being released, or even that the songs being released do not deserve to be crowned “summer worthy.” Has the music industry failed to release a song that screams “summer,” or has its priorities changed?
First, one should acknowledge that the summer of 2025 did have big shoes to fill. As opposed to its successor, the public regarded 2024 as having one of the best music cycles during the summer, especially in pop. The year featured songs like Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso, Chappell Roan’s Good Luck Babe, Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us, and Billie Eilish’s & Charli XCX’s Guess. All of these songs had elements that secured their popularity and arguable timelessness. This year has also been responsible for the rise to fame of many artists, allowing music fans to explore newer voices in genres. Unfortunately, this opportunity has arguably made artists focus on producing songs that can catapult them to fame, resulting in songs that are nothing more than catchy.
According to the Video Music Awards, Tate McRae’s Just Keep Watching was crowned the 2025 “Song of the Summer,” with the song featured in Formula One (F1) movie starring Brad Pitt. While Tate McRae has risen to fame over the span of the year, the song falls into the category of those whose popularity was not due to musical greatness, but coincidentally being implemented into an area of entertainment, such as movies, which trended at the time. The song is not the only deemed more “catchy” than great, with some arguing that Alex Warren’s Ordinary and Sombr’s Back to Friends could be failed hits, lacking a crucial element found in past summer songs: agelessness.
While both of these songs were praised and even spent weeks in the Top Ten on the Billboard Charts, the general public seems to have grown tired of these songs, and while they dominated music stations and social media, fewer people than first thought of included these songs in their summer playlist.
Taylan Abramson ‘29 stated, “Music from popular artists such as Benson Boone or Sombr appears to be simply made to get the most clicks as opposed to what the actual creator is feeling for themselves.”
A song’s fame or time on the charts never guarantees that it is truly well done. Even with these songs’ popularity increasing throughout the season, it might not necessarily mean that they are worthy to be called 2025’s “Song of the Summer.”
One of the most crucial aspects that has recently determined whether a song is viewed as successful is its increasing popularity on social media platforms.
Some music listeners consider popular songs nowadays to be songs that are merely “trending.” Radio stations have now been taken over by songs that are not necessarily new or by known artists, but rather songs that are only known for having thirty seconds of fame in a video posted on social media. Listeners have started to notice that many artists’ songs are only known to be used on trends which only last for a short period of time, such as Pink Pantheresses’s Illegal. When people spend time on social media, they encounter these songs as well as the trends, and the number of listens a song has on such apps is now how music is deemed popular.
Maya Sullivan ‘27 argued that “while the songs on TikTok are good,” there wasn’t one that was “good enough” to be crowned “Song of the Summer.”
What truly makes a song worthy of popularity nowadays is not necessarily the greatness of the music, lyrics, and song in general, but whether it has the factors to be involved in a trend. Songs typically trend for a reason, and the summer songs of 2025 can be considered “catchy”; however, the true “Song of Summer” should be renowned for its timelessness. Most contenders this year were short-lived, tied only to fleeting micro-trends.
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