By Sadie Sawatzky

As the warmer weather comes to an end and patios start to empty out, some Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students still have one topic from last season on their minds: the song of the summer.

In today’s shifting music landscape, the idea of a distinct song representing the summer means different things to different people, with the concept changing over time.

Salman Rana, assistant professor in creative industries and professional music at TMU, explained that the song of the summer “was always a song that was ubiquitous, that you heard everywhere.”

With the rise of the internet, the phrase has been increasingly pushed on audiences through marketing campaigns and social media. Smaller artists now pitch their tracks on TikTok, hoping to claim the title.

Megan Martin, a second-year professional music student at TMU, said, “I feel like determining it through TikTok…is kind of stupid.”

Rana recalled radio stations used to hold that power. He said just five or 10 years ago, labels leaned on radio networks to boost the success of their songs, which “comes out of that tradition to create some sort of marketable commodity.”

A study for Information Development found that social media has shifted power to audiences, making it harder for labels to control which song becomes popular—and tougher to predict an official “song of the summer.”

Rana said labels now “look for a song that’s trending and becoming viral at a particular moment that they can then frame as that song.”

According to Billboard Music, the top-streamed song this summer was “Ordinary” by Alex Warren. So is that all it takes—being the most listened-to song between June .20 and Sept. 21?

Ayla Baldwin, second-year professional music student at TMU, said Billboard Music’s label holds little value. “People don’t want to be told that this is the song of the summer and that’s why you should be listening to it,” she said.

For her, it’s “a song that you could blast in your car with the windows down.”
Martin also disagreed with Billboard’s pick. She said it “wasn’t even released at the right time to be the song of the summer.”

She added that viral success isn’t a reliable indicator of a song’s value. “The song of the summer could be considered a clip on TikTok of a 20 second song. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Martin said this has hurt the craft of songwriting. “A lot of the time [people] go on Spotify… and realize that the song isn’t actually that good,” she said. “The artist focused on making that one part viral, which is…not great for artistry right now.”
“I don’t want to listen to 20 seconds of a song that’s good,” she added. “I want to listen to a full song that is well-written and sounds great.”

Baldwin, who worked in a restaurant said, “Benson Boone was definitely the most played artist at my restaurant and by the end of the summer, I knew all the lyrics to at least a few of his songs.”

Yet, Boone didn’t appear in the top 10 on Billboard Music’s songs of the summer chart.

Edison Wilmot, second-year media production student, said “I literally heard more Benson Boone songs than [“Ordinary”].”

He added, “It’s not so much what’s streamed, but what’s being talked about and [has] the most influence on people and society.”

This phenomenon is also unique to the summer season only, said Rana, because “people are off school and they want bright happy songs that get you in a good mood.”

“It just has to do with that type of cultural mythology built around summer, seasonal change and new beginnings,” he added. 

Rana has two children, aged 13 and 15, who both find music through social media. He said that sometimes, while playing an old song, his daughter will say, “this song went viral this summer.” So, there are endless possibilities to what becomes popular over the season. 

Baldwin’s summer anthem this year was “Cross Your Mind” by Shelly. She said it felt “very relatable to me at the time when it came out.”

For Martin, it was “Everything is Embarrassing” by Sky Ferreira at the start of the summer, while “Vodka Cranberry” by Conan Gray defined the end of the season. 

Wilmot said his pick was “​​Telephones and Traffic” by Francis Anderson. “It just was very much the energy of my summer,” he said.

Rana’s was “Birds Don’t Sing” by The Clipse with John Legend, Voices of Fire, Pusha T and Malice. 

“Summer means a lot of different things to people and they definitely use music to define that experience,” said Rana.