Where Is 2025's Song of the Summer?

Remember 12 months ago? On TikTok, 2024 was Brat summer. Other songs, like Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso," Shaboozey's "Bar Song (Tipsy)," and  Post Malone's "I Had Some Help" were on repeat seemingly everywhere else. 

2025 has yet to have a clear winner for song of the summer, and professor Joe Bennett has some ideas on why. He spoke to the Boston Globe about the trend—or lack thereof—this year.

Songs of the summer as a trend started in the ’90s, first with New York's "Summer Fun" issue in 1995, and New York Times music critic Ann Powers' bracket competition in 1999. Billboard launched its summer music chart in 2010. 

Bennett told the Globe that songs of the summer often have a "certain feel-good quality to them. They tend to be up-tempo, often major key, very crowd-pleasing, [with] big hooky choruses, and a relatable lyric theme with the title prominently sung in the chorus, preferably more than once.” Examples like "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen and Katy Perry's "California Girls" fit the bill. 

According to music industry data and trend analysis company Luminate, "recession pop"—music that was released around the 2008 economic recession—is on the rise in streams for its "sense of nostalgia and potentially bigger themes of escapism," the company said in a statement.

While some people think this year's political climate is contributing to a lack of song of the summer, Bennett disagrees. “Danceable songs and hedonistic feel-good pop music feels good to anyone, regardless of their politics.”

The more likely culprit is how we get our music these days. “With streaming, the way we select music is different,” Bennett said. “People can simply pick the music that they like on a song-by-song basis.”

That doesn't mean he's ringing the song of the summer's death knell. Personally, his pick is Carpenter's "Manchild," currently eighth on Billboard's summer chart.

“The jury’s still out for 2025," he said.