So after consulting with music aficionados, Spotify playlists, the blogs, and various other expert sources, we’ve devised the following formula. The charts matter, but in this age of streams, memes, and classic-or-trash instant reviews, the Hot 100 doesn’t tell the whole story. 1 song from Memorial Day to Labor Day is not automatically the Song of Summer there is a complex (if previously arbitrary) alchemy at play, based on cultural reach and engagement, and it has changed along with the way in which we consume and measure music. Put another way, the Song of Summer is a measurement of ubiquity as well as plain chart performance. It’s the song you’ll hear decades from now and instantly flash back to what you were doing in 2017.
It will be drunkenly belted out in sweaty karaoke rooms the nation over it will be all over your Facebook News Feed. But the Song of Summer, regardless of personal preference, is a relentless earworm and a shared guilty pleasure. You may never want to hear it again after September rolls around (here’s to you, "Fancy") - or it may make you drop everything and dance a decade later (respect to "Crazy in Love"). It is important to establish this now: The Song of Summer is not necessarily your favorite song to listen in any given summer. To account for that, we’re presenting The Ringer’s Official, Mathematical Guide to the 2017 Song of Summer.
We at The Ringer still believe in the power of a unifying summer anthem, but the methodology of arriving there is desperately in need of a modern update. Measuring cultural consensus has become next to impossible in the last few years achieving it has proved even more elusive. The chart is widely considered imperfect, unable to keep up with the shifts of the "stream, steal, or buy" music economy. It traditionally has been decided by the Billboard Hot 100, a sentient Brontosaurus skeleton that declares the 100 most popular songs in America on a weekly basis.
By its purest definition, the Song of Summer is America’s on-repeat anthem for the period from Memorial Day until Labor Day. The Song of Summer - yes, it’s just one, capital Song, capital Summer - is one of those lucky few. In the era of Peak Everything, some cultural institutions still manage to rise above the cacophony. Similarly, a majority of Americans - LeBron James included - found themselves swaying along to Drake’s "One Dance" at some point during the sweaty doldrums of 2016. The monoculture is mostly over, but cultural pervasiveness persists: Studios have doubled-down on the summer blockbuster, Bachelor contestants are now bona fide Us Weekly celebrities, and Game of Thrones still promises to dominate watercooler conversation during its 10-week run. Rumors of the Song of Summer’s demise have, as they say, been greatly exaggerated.
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