Every summer, they say, has its song. (I want to know who they are) You know the one, the song so ubiquitous it ends up on every radio station, even NPR, unbelievably catchy. The song you hear at every 7-11 on the planet as you get your slurpee. That song. There's never any universal agreement, but there are songs that I'll equate with a particular summer, from the really good ("Every Breath You Take", summer of '83, getting you all primed for Orwell) to the ridiculously catchy (remember "Crazy in Love" a few years back?) to the, well, less good (remember "Drop it Like it's Hot", also one of the most annoying catch phrases in recent history?)
But this summer, I need help. I listen to the radio some, probably more than I should, and I haven't found a song that fits the bill- catchy and ubiquitous, will play on white and black radio, you hear kids singing it. (Maybe the fragmentation of radio is part of why I don't have one, but that's another topic.) It doesn't even have to be good, though that'd be nice.
For the record, my nominations:
Cat Empire- "Sly"
It's catchy, it's danceable, and that thing in the video looks like a bass trumpet, which wins it cool points. On the downside, it sounds an awful lot like Cake (the first several times I heard it I said "Oh, cool, Cake's finally gonna have a radio hit" Oops.) and it never really caught on on teen radio.
Plain White T's- Hey There Delilah
I know, it's unbelievably cliche, almost self-consciously so, and lyrically really clunky. But is there anything more summer, at least in our dreams, than unironic, fearless young love? And it's ubiquitous. (Remember, I didn't say I liked it, or you had to)
Please tell me there's been something else in the pop world this summer that I missed. Please?
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3 comments:
How could you not like "Drop It Like It's Hot"?
In England, at least, the song of the summer was Rihanna's "Umbrella."
As much as I like Pharell, and some of the production work he did earlier in his career, the stripped down blippy sound that he was using for "Drop It", varients of which are still in vogue, never did it for me. I don't feel any depth to the groove. And Snoop's been doing basically the same ten line cameo for what, five years now?
"Umbrella" was big here, but not huge. Not as good as "Pon de Replay", which blew my head wide open, but still happening in my book- thanks.
During my coast-to-coast drive/move with the family in tow it seemed like Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape" was, well... inescapable. The sampled "wee-woo's" trigger something bordering on seizures for me now. But it was probably the song I'll lump in with this past summer.
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