Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Debate over song of summer 2015

Much has been written about the lack of a definitive song of summer for 2015.
Let me add a few more words on the topic.
Music critics and pop culture pundits have opined that this summer didn’t have a dominating song that everyone was humming. The nice thing about having such a song of summer is that it leads the soundtrack for that particular season. Years later, the song will spark memories of summer vacations, parties, road trips and other activities.
Billboard on Tuesday awarded the No. 1 song of the summer 2015 to OMI’s “Cheerleader.” It beat out the melancholy track “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, which was leading for most of the summer, but landed in second place. Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” came in third.
Billboard awards the honor based on cumulative performance on its weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Personally I can’t stand “Cheerleader.” I switch radio stations whenever it’s on. It is a contender for most annoying song of summer this year, along with “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon and “Honey I’m Good” by Andy Grammer. Let’s call it a three-way tie.
Among the top 20 songs of summer 2015, I prefer “Lean On” by Major Lazer and DJ Snake, “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, and “Hey Mama” by David Guetta featuring Nicki Minaj.
Other songs I liked this summer included “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt Like a Motherf---er” by Maroon 5, “Deja vu” by Giorgio Moroder featuring Sia, and “Cool for the Summer” by Demi Lovato.
Billboard isn’t the only entity crowning the song of summer.
“Worth It” by Fifth Harmony featuring Kid Ink won the award for “Choice Summer Song” at the Teen Choice Awards 2015, beating out “Cheerleader.”
At MTV’s 2015 Video Music Awards, “She’s Kinda Hot” by 5 Seconds of Summer took home the award for Song of the Summer.
Some critics taking a subjective approach to the song of summer said 2015 didn’t have a clear winner.
The Daily Beast posted an article headlined “There’s No Song of the Summer This Year. What Went Wrong?
Vulture said, “In the year 2015, there is no true Song of Summer.”

Related reading:

The surprising history of the “song of the summer” (Vox; June 17, 2015)

How Having the Song of the Summer Can Ruin Your Career (Bloomberg Businessweek; July 29, 2015)

The definitive song of summer ranking, from TLC to Iggy Azalea (Entertainment Weekly; May 29, 2015)

Wiz Khalifa, Fetty Wap And OMI Had The Internet’s Most-Streamed Songs Of The Summer (Huffington Post; Sept. 8, 2015)

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