One of the most popular terms in pop for the past few years has been “The Song of the Summer”. It’s a designation made for whatever song had the most airplay and influence during that year’s summer. Generally, the music is very poppy and high energy but it doesn’t always have to be which brings me to my point. There has never been and will never be a Song of the Summer.

Right before, during, and after the summer there is a constant barrage of people saying that they either found, decided on, or even made the Song of the Summer. This is confusing to me because these people often speak about completely different songs and even different genres of music. There can’t be a Song of the Summer if people cannot come close to a consensus on what it would be.

Looking at last year’s Billboard Charts, the Song of the Summer for 2023 would be “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen because it led the weekly charts all 14 weeks of summer. For some people, this might have truly been the soundtrack to their summer but for many others, it just wasn’t. Especially now that it is so easy to listen to a variety of music, the most important Song of the Summer is different for different generations, different types of music listeners, and even more generally for different people as there is no one song that everyone can agree on as being important and worth listening to for 14 weeks straight, and even if there was that would make music listening less interesting.

The most exciting and fun parts of the enjoyment of music come from hearing something new and out of your comfort zone. If everyone listened to the same music, there would be no more of those moments of listening to something new and different. This whole Song of the Summer badge that people try to label music as only takes away from music in general.

In a poll conducted with 20 KHS students, the majority said that they thought the Song of The Summer was an actual label for certain songs that reached certain criteria. This statement was unsurprisingly muddled when there was an almost perfect split over whether the Song of the Summer had to be pop music specifically. If there is indecision over something important to defining the Song of the Summer,

then it only makes sense that there’s no such thing.

There have been no major hits that have gained the term yet in 2024 so hopefully, the term is starting to fade but I would not be surprised if tens if not hundreds of songs are given the title willy-nilly for no other reason than a strong chorus and a happy tone to the song. Instead of finding a Song of the Summer for everyone, music listeners should find that song for them. The song that will make the summer for them. Confining music to specific labels and titles will only lead to less interesting and less powerful music in the future so as America goes into summer let’s fight against that need to categorize and instead listen to what you like.