I am just as confused as everyone else about how the hell it’s already May 2015, but here we are. Just a few weeks away from Memorial Day, and then festival season, it’s time to start preparing for summer. Summertime is the best time for a lot of reasons, and one of those reasons is that it has developed its own genre of music. No one can remember what was on their “Autumn 2014 Boner James” playlist from last year, but we all remember not being able to escape the Iggy Azalea heatwave of last June/July.
Summer jams are an art. They’re the songs with the most crossover appeal that reach new levels when you finally get to hear them with the windows down or mixed with the background noise of an air conditioner. It’s the only time of the year I can bring myself to listen to mainstream EDM because I can’t even imagine trying to hear Calvin Harris without a sunburn on my face.
Summer jams are also annoying. They’re the same 12 songs you know you are going to hear every day for the foreseeable future if you listen to the radio or check the Spotify charts. They’re the songs that can attract people from all walks of life who only have “trying to have fun” in common. And every year, by the time September rolls around, we have one that stands above the rest.
In 2014, it was the aforementioned Iggy Azalea. She actually had the public on her side when “Fancy” dropped, but we all got so burned out by August that we turned on her and let Taylor Swift slide back into our lives when she blessed us with “Shake It Off.”
2013 was maybe my favorite Summer Jam Battle ever, as Daft Punk unleashed “Get Lucky” just a few weeks after Robin Thicke became a household name with “Blurred Lines.” This caused people to take sides and write tons of think-pieces, but we all know that Pharrell was the real winner.
2012 was terrible because Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” wasn’t even the most annoying thing that we couldn’t run away from; that honor belonged to Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Who would have guessed that of those two, Gotye would be the artist destined to become a one-hit-wonder.
Billboard has a handy guide that lists the top 10 songs of every summer going back to 1985 if you want to dive even deeper, but I want to get back to 2015. I have 10 candidates in mind for what could end up being the ultimate Song of the Summer, but I also want to shoutout a few honorable mentions.
These are five songs that were either released too early or blew up too quickly. They’re certainly going to have a huge summer, even though I have dubbed them the “Songs of Spring.”
Honorable Mention:
This song is literally everywhere. It was playing when I went to pick up my suit from the dry cleaners last week. It was playing at my grandmother’s Easter party. I’ve heard it playing at Whole Foods. It’s playing as I write this article. It took over a year, but the country has finally caught Fetty fever. “Trap Queen” is currently hanging out in the top five of the Hot 100, but, unfortunately, it already peaked at New York Fashion Week with Kanye. And then it officially jumped the shark when Fall Out Boy played it at the MTV Movie Awards. And then the Gucci Mane remix took it out to the woodshed. And then the Azealia Banks remix pulled the trigger.
Walk the Moon – “Shut Up and Dance”
You can call this “pop rock” or “dance rock” or “indie pop” or “uncreative,” but no matter which way you look at it, Walk the Moon and Hozier are the closest things to rock bands that have had huge hits this year. “Shut Up and Dance” has been the slowest of slow burns, as this song actually came out last summer but is just now getting buzz. It’s catchy, but there’s not enough staying power for it to last a whole year.
Ellie Goulding – “Love Me Like You Do”
This song is so great, but it’s another old gem that’s just starting to get hot. It came out in January, but if it had been released in April instead, it would be a top contender for Song of the Summer. You can catch this song live every Friday evening at Cookie’s as I karaoke it into obscurity.
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – “See You Again”
Who fucked up and gave Wiz the number one song in the country? This is the song that plays over the Paul Walker montage in Furious 7 and there’s a good chance that once June rolls around you will never hear it again.
Anything from Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
At one point, every goddamn song from this album was charting. But with so much new music coming out over the next few months, the album title is as appropriate as ever.
Now that those are out of the way, let’s look at the actual most promising Song of the Summer candidates …
