SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Nearly midway by means of the summer season now, there is a query on everyone’s thoughts. What is the track of the summer season? Do we’ve one but?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MANCHILD”)
SABRINA CARPENTER: (Singing) You stated your cellphone was damaged, simply forgot to cost it.
SIMON: Possibly it is “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MANCHILD”)
CARPENTER: (Singing) I hope it is ironic. Did you simply say you are completed? Did not know we began. It is all simply so acquainted, child. What do you name it? Silly.
SIMON: Then once more, perhaps it isn’t. With streaming and social media, is there even a track of the summer season anymore? We have requested NPR Music’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento to determine that out for us. Isabella, thanks a lot for being with us.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ORDINARY”)
ALEX WARREN: (Singing) They are saying the holy water’s watered down.
SIMON: This can be a dialog about music and making recollections within the solar with individuals you like. So let’s start with the lifeless. What does that say?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That is precisely proper. And in the event you have a look at Billboard’s Sizzling 100 chart, the track of the summer season is certainly “Strange” by Alex Warren.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ORDINARY”)
WARREN: (Singing) Oh, my, my. Oh, my, my love. I take one have a look at you. You are taking me out of the peculiar.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That is been at No. 1 for six weeks and counting. It is a large hit from an artist that bought his begin as a TikTokker and crossed over into the mainstream.
SIMON: However – I believe you have got a however up your sleeve.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: I do, as a result of “Strange” is a large hit, but it surely could possibly be a success any time of the 12 months. You realize, it would not sound like a track that is explicit to summer season. And it actually speaks to how our metrics for determining the track of the summer season have modified fully. I believe the track of the summer season was, like, a communal expertise. It was a track that will be everywhere in the radio. It was blasting from vehicles. It was taking part in on TV. I personally additionally consider it as one thing that is actually enjoyable and exuberant and joyful – one thing that makes you wish to dance. However streaming and social media have completely fragmented audiences in how we take heed to music, so it simply makes it tougher for one track to grow to be this massive cultural pressure that everybody rallies round. Generally it does occur. You keep in mind Brat Summer season, proper, Scott?
(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLI XCX SONG, “APPLE”)
SIMON: Went proper by me, Isabella (laughter).
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So final 12 months, the album “Brat” by Charli XCX completely took over the pop panorama.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “APPLE”)
CHARLI XCX: (Singing) I suppose the apple do not fall removed from the tree.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: “Brat” wasn’t the bestselling album on the charts, but it surely permeated one thing greater culturally. It was a meme. It had a viral dance. It had a signature shade – Brat inexperienced. And it took Charli XCX from, like, a extra area of interest hyperpop artist to the middle of the dialog. Or, in 2022, for instance, Beyonce launched the dance album “Renaissance,” and abruptly, you could possibly hear the track “Break My Soul” in all places.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BREAK MY SOUL”)
BEYONCE: (Singing) You will not break my soul. You will not break my soul. You will not break my soul. You will not break my soul. I am telling everyone.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That track did not high the charts both, but it surely struck a nerve culturally. It was all about celebrating and coming collectively after a interval of isolation. And I believe at the moment, that was a sense that so many individuals may get behind.
SIMON: Nothing like that in 2025.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: I do not assume that we have seen a track this 12 months that has introduced audiences collectively in that very same means. I do not assume it is one thing we will see yearly. You realize, it is turning into increasingly more uncommon. However that does not imply that there aren’t a ton of actually enjoyable summer season anthems, so I do have a couple of picks from my private playlist. The primary is a techno merengue from Colombian famous person Karol G’s new album. That is “Papasito.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PAPASITO”)
KAROL G: (Singing) I noticed you there, wanting so good tonight. I swear to God, I am dying to kiss you. My coronary heart, bebe, it is beating so, so quick. I did not know the way a lot that I would like you. You are getting nearer and now my…
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: This entire album is an homage to Latin American showgirls from the twentieth century. Suppose the well-known Tropicana cabaret membership throughout Cuba’s Golden Age. She’s, like, taking part in up this unique Caribbean persona. And Karol G normally makes reggaeton and Latin pop, so, like, very polished manufacturing. However it is a rather more acoustic sound. You hear the guitar, you hear the percussion – that merengue rhythm.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PAPASITO”)
KAROL G: (Singing) Touching your physique is my want. Please, do not be mad.
(Singing in Spanish).
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And talking of a extra stripped-down sound, one other track of the summer season contender is “Daisies” by Justin Bieber.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DAISIES”)
JUSTIN BIEBER: (Singing) Throwing petals, like, do you like me or not? Head is spinning and it do not know when to cease. ‘Trigger you stated endlessly, babe, did you imply it or not?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: What I actually like about “Daisies” is that it lets Justin Bieber’s voice shine. And we’ve him in, like, heartthrob mode, which we have not heard from him in a very long time. So despite the fact that it is a quieter pop track, I believe it has quite a lot of summer season anthem potential.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DAISIES”)
BIEBER: (Singing) I am counting the times. What number of days ’til I can see you once more? Blowing kisses, like, will you catch them or not?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: My final track of the summer season choose is definitely a throwback. It is a track from 2008. Do you assume that counts?
(SOUNDBITE OF LADY GAGA SONG, “SUMMERBOY”)
SIMON: Oh, my gosh. Effectively, let me ask – the judges say sure, Isabella. Go forward.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: (Laughter) OK, so that is “Summerboy” from Woman Gaga’s debut album “The Fame.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SUMMERBOY”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) Nowhere. Yeah, we’re going nowhere quick. Possibly this time I will be yours, you will be mine. C-c-c-crazy.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So that is type of a Woman Gaga deep minimize. It is a track a few summer season fling, which makes it, like, an apparent track of the summer season contender. It is bought these actually gnarly guitars. And final week, Woman Gaga performed it reside for the primary time since 2007. She’s on tour together with her new album, and she or he shocked followers with this track. So I believe, despite the fact that it is an older track, TikTok and social media loves reviving older pop songs and placing them again on the pop charts. So my prediction is we will see “Summerboy” making a comeback this 12 months.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SUMMERBOY”)
LADY GAGA: (Singing) Oh, oh, oh. We’ll nonetheless have the summer season in any case.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Earlier than we go, Scott, what’s your track of the summer season?
SIMON: (Laughter) My track of the summer season will at all times be one I grew up with…
(SOUNDBITE OF GRATEFUL DEAD SONG, “DANCING IN THE STREET”)
SIMON: …”Dancing In The Road.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DANCING IN THE STREET”)
GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) Dancing within the streets.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: (Laughter) I can get behind this.
SIMON: Wait. Maintain on. That is not Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. What are you doing to me?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: You are proper. You are proper. I am sorry. That is the model by the Grateful Lifeless, which I do know and love and requested.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DANCING IN THE STREET”)
GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) Summer season’s right here.
SIMON: Can I inform you my private story about “Dancing In The Road”?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Please.
SIMON: So my mom is within the hospital – alas, as we all know now, dying. It is, like, 3:00 a.m. I am going right down to the Starbucks within the hospital. There is a line of individuals – all of us there with somebody in dangerous well being. And the muzak overhead begins taking part in “Dancing In The Road.” Now, thoughts you, that is in Chicago. And we get to that line early within the track. All people’s wanting dour and unhappy. Abruptly, everyone seems to be up without delay, begins jamming their palms and going…
(Singing) They’re dancing in Chicago.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DANCING IN THE STREET”)
GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) They’re dancing in Chicago.
SIMON: (Laughter).
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That is wonderful. See, that is what the track of the summer season is meant to do. It is, like, presupposed to convey everybody collectively to rally behind one thing. That is lovely.
SIMON: NPR Music’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, thanks a lot.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Thanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DANCING IN THE STREET”)
GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) There will be music in all places. There will be laughing and singing, and music swinging, and dancing within the streets. It would not matter what you put on, simply so long as you’re there.
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