As the temperature outside heats up, so does the chatter around the “song of the summer” — the unofficial name for the track that becomes inescapable between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The song of the summer is the pesky earworm you hear blaring at the beach, the pool and the cookout. It’s the infectious hit endlessly remixed at the club and in videos all over TikTok.
It’s the anthem that instantly transports you back to those hot, hazy months when you first heard it. The designation isn’t purely objective or the result of a song’s chart position. Often, it’s based on vibes: What song just inexplicably feels like summer? What track simply seems to be everywhere? The answer isn’t always straightforward.
There are lots of “song of the summer” contenders each year, and the one that rises to the top might very well depend on your social circle and musical taste. So what exactly defines the song of the summer? Where did the idea of a singular track to rule the season even come from? And in an age where social media and streaming platforms have fragmented the cultural landscape, does the song of the summer even exist anymore? The concept of a summer anthem goes back further than you might think. David Hajdu, a music critic and author of “Love for Sale: Popular Music in America,” says the notion can be traced back to the sheet music industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Before the days of vinyl records and radio, people bought sheet music to .
