Company News · August 26, 2008

A Tight Race, But We Declare A Summer Song Winner

By sross

The competition for Summer Song of 2008 was easy to handicap, but hard to call at summer’s end.
From the week before Memorial Day, a battle was shaping up between Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long,” genetically engineered to be a summer song and laying in wait for nearly a year until the time was right, and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” which was missing the lyrical tie-in, but had the undeniable crunch and energy of a summer anthem.
As is increasingly the case each year, there were other songs positioned as “summer songs.” But New Kids on the Block’s “Summertime” mid-charted (except in Boston, where it remains a hometown hit at summer’s end). Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocketful Of Sunshine” pushed through to be a real hit–but not the summer song. Boys Like Girls’ “Thunder” — more a summer memories song — was still forging ahead at the end of the summer, and besides, it was a ballad. (So was Jesse McCartney’s not-summer-themed but chart-topping “Leavin’.”)
There were lots of great sounding uptempo records that were great summer songs, but not the summer song either: Metro Station’s “Shake It” (which nevertheless put on an extra burst of speed when warm weather kicked in, after hovering outside the top 10); Chris Brown’s “Forever” (lost some of its luster when it was revealed to be a commercial jingle but went to No. 1 anyway); Flo Rida’s “In The Ayer” (just really kicking in now).
Compared to previous years, there were a surprising number of uptempo summer hits that weren’t released (or whose magnitude wasn’t quite apparent) by Memorial Day: Pussycat Dolls’ “When I Grow Up,” Rihanna’s “Disturbia,” Estelle and Kanye West’s “American Boy,” the Jonas Brothers’ “Burnin’ Up” and even Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.” If you use pop culture and not radio ubiquity as a guideline, you could make a case for either of the latter as a major summer song contender.
There was the most unavoidable song of the summer at R&B/Hip-Hop radio, “A Milli” by Lil Wayne, but that one never cracked No. 40 at CHR. Compared to last summer, which turned out to be a battle between “Beautiful Girls” and “Umbrella,” there wasn’t any undeniable record that spanned both Pop and Urban radio – which is a column unto itself.
At the end of the summer, it was still Kid vs. Katy. And it was a close one. So we threw it open to readers of The Infinite Dial (www.infinitedial.com) last week and most chimed in for Kid. “Over 1600 spins later, it’s no contest,” wrote WIOG Saginaw, Mich., PD Jerry Noble, one of the song’s earliest supporters. Asked CMT’s Jay Frank, “Is this even a debate? Nearly everyone in the country has heard [Kid Rock]. Meanwhile, with Katy, while it’s been big in urban centers and pop worlds . . . try seeing if rural America, older adults and country fans have heard it.”
There was also a certain amount of antipathy from the beginning toward “I Kissed A Girl.” One comment after our May column handicapping the contenders declared that “the message is muddy – it’s not innocent, revolutionary, progressive, or innocuous. I can’t see it being all over the radio.” A more recent comment proclaimed that Kid Rock’s “timeless imagery of youthful abandon is far more universal in its appeal than a song about sexual experimentation with a high creep factor to many listeners even as it tittilates others.”
But it’s a little hard to position a song about teenage sex, drinking and “smoking funny things” as the wholesome alternative. And, besides, that’s not a requirement. (Remember “Semi-Charmed Life”?) Nor is being universally loved. “Promiscuous” and “SexyBack,” the unavoidable songs of two summers ago, both managed to polarize in their own ways.
Still, by any criteria, it was a tough decision:
Was it format reach that mattered? Kid Rock had Top 40, Hot AC, Country, AC and Active Rock. But Perry had Top 40, Hot AC, Rhythmic Top 40 and Alternative.
Was it currency? Phil Wilson argued that “I Kissed A Girl” was more of the moment than samplng two mid-’70s Classic Rock hits. But Gary Glitter’s “Rock & Roll Part 2,” which “I Kissed A Girl” evoked, was two years older than “Sweet Home Alabama.” And the title itself prompted anybody of a certain age, hearing about it for the first time, to ask “did someone remake that [1995] Jill Sobule song”?
Likelihood to endure? That one probably goes to “All Summer Long,” which I expect to be hearing played by wedding bands and on Memorial Day weekend kickoffs for years to come. If Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” is any indication, “I Kissed A Girl” won’t be in many gold libraries in 18 months – more for musical than lyrical reasons.
Ultimately, though, the Summer Song has to be the one that was most unavoidable during the summer. “SexyBack” outlasted “Promiscuous,” but on Labor Day two years ago, it was easy to tell which one I had heard more, up to that date. And as recently as five days ago, I found myself hopscotching from one station on the Internet to another and hearing “I Kissed A Girl” three times by 11 a.m. So I’m going to have to declare it the winner in an Olympic swimmer’s photo finish. Which should in no way diminish a second incredible comeback when most artists are lucky to get one.
So for the years that we’ve been handicapping the summer song and declaring a winner (and we skipped one), the honor roll is:
2003 – Beyonce, “Crazy In Love” (declared retroactively when we wrote our first column a year later)
2004 – Kevin Lyttle, “Turn Me On”
2006 – Nelly Furtado, “Promiscuous”
2007 – Sean Kingston, “Beautiful Girls”
2008 – Katy Perry, “I Kissed A Girl”
Okay, it’s clear from the previous comments that readers will have a lot to say about this. So please leave your comment now.

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