I’m a bit old school and still listen to regular radio while driving or in the shower. These days, I’m in a phase in which I no longer listen to music and mostly listen to sports radio. However, I have my kids for the summer and they prefer to listen to music. Anyway, it seemed like there were 3 songs that were constantly on the radio that I think could qualify as the pop song of the summer (for the US at least). There were others, but IMHO these 3 had that catchiness and summer feel.
So which of these wins the title? If none of these, please feel free to tell us your choice.
And it seems like youtube has thousands (I may be exaggerating) of amateur videos imitating the dance moves in the official video or with original choreography.
“Lean On” has not gotten as much radio play as the others listed. I went with “Shut Up and Dance With Me”, lots of airplay for months now. “Cheerleader” makes sense though. A song has to pretty ubiquitous on radio.
“Lean On” is pretty catchy and good. We can come up with a good list.
I’m neutral toward Can’t Feel My Face, while I dislike the other two. I like Lean On much better than the three choices, so I’m voting for. “You forgot…”
I do not listen to the radio and had never heard of any of these songs until I opened this thread. I watched the video for Lean On linked above and loved it because I am a sucker for India. The song, tho is IMO terrible and the singer only seems to know one dance move: arms in the air with a crotch thrust. Take her out of it, remove the vocals from the song and I could believe this was a bland Thievery Corporation tune or something.
I Can’t Feel My Face has an execrable intro, but the funky part of the song was kinda fun. The bridges were boring as hell, but they were mercifully short.
Cheerleader was horrible in every way. Seriously, this was so bad I couldn’t even listen to the last minute or so. Lyrically and musically horrible, IMO.
Shut Up And Dance was high tempo, high energy and had a guitar. It was boring and repetitive, aye, but at least it was about getting off your ass and moving and the music was made to serve at end as well.
My vote goes to Shut Up And Dance.
Also, I am constantly amazed that with exception of the addition of autotune, pop music essentially has not changed since the very early 1980s.
Thanks to JJ and AD for introducing me to new music!
My 15yo daughter would say Walk the Moon, Shut up and Dance. She sings that one loudest when it comes on.
Overall - not a great year. No Hey Ya! or Get Lucky.
Mileage varies. I think the choreography in the video for “Lean On” is cool as hell.
A good summer pop song has to be upbeat, danceable, and radio-friendly. You’re not going to find a lot of variation within that category, even going back to 60s.
For everyone but the lead singer, I agree. She pretty much just does the crotch thrust thing.
I disagree. A pop song from the '60s sounds like it was made in the 60s. Pop songs from the '70s sound different too (that’s why Guardians of the Galaxy used 70s pop songs, after all: they sound distinct from other eras). But starting about 1982 or so, most pop songs become indistinguishable, with the exception of the recent addition of autotuning.