This year’s song of the summer is a ballad, not a banger. Here's what
that says about us
[September 06, 2025]
By BRIDGET BROWN
NEW YORK (AP) — Every year, summer arrives with a buzzing energy.
School’s out, the sun is shining, music is blaring out of car windows
and speakers are blasting on the beach.
But this summer, the beaches seem quieter. The playlists feel aimless.
The radio waves aren’t being dominated by the usual upbeat, sing-along
tune. Where is our song of the summer?
In this age of fractured listening habits, it’s hard to fully quantify a
yearly winner. However, Billboard’s weekly Song of the Summer chart
attempts to crown one each year by tracking streaming, airplay, and
sales between Memorial Day and Labor Day in the U.S. Often, the song is
effervescent, from Katy Perry's “California Gurls,” the inaugural pick
in 2010, to last year's “I Had Some Help,” by Post Malone and Morgan
Wallen.
But for the past 14 weeks and counting, the top spot has been held by a
love ballad: Alex Warren’s “Ordinary.” As Berklee College of Music
professor and forensic musicologist Joe Bennett notes, the February
release is “a fair bit slower than the mean average for the Hot 100, or
for a historical song of the summer.”
So how has Warren's romantic slow jam rested comfortably in the top spot
for virtually the entire summer?
Listeners are turning back to familiar hits
One reason why “Ordinary” has maintained its top spot might be that the
competition is scarce this year. The song of the summer is typically
released far before the solstice, but even so, interest in the latest
offerings from our favorite pop stars is also waning, leaving little
competition for Warren. For instance, the likes of Justin Bieber and
Sabrina Carpenter have given us new music this summer season — but
nothing has taken off like “Ordinary.”
According to a mid-year report from Luminate, the company that produces
data for the Billboard charts, listeners are clinging to the past and
choosing older tunes.
Streaming on new tracks declined by 3.3% in the first half of 2025,
compared to 2024. Only three of the report's 10 top songs — based on
on-demand audio streams in the U.S. — were released in 2025. Most of the
songs on Billboard's charts have been there for dozens of weeks, like
Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” which currently sits at No. 8 on the
summer chart, and has been on the Hot 100 for 63 weeks.
Jaime Marconette, Luminate's vice president of music insights and
industry relations, says the disinterest in new music, combined with our
wistful listening habits, is also leading to the resurgence of
“recession pop.”
“Recession pop” refers to music that was originally released leading up
to and following the 2008 financial crisis. “We’re actually seeing pop
music from those years outpace the growth of the industry at large. It
highlights a sense of nostalgia and potentially bigger themes of
escapism,” Marconette explained.
In addition to the pop hits of the late aughts, the shelf life of last
year’s songs has proved long, crowding the space and leaving little room
for new music to break through. Last summer was “an absolute tsunami,
surplus, exuberance of pop,” says Paula Harper, a musicologist and
assistant professor at the University of Chicago.
[to top of second column]
|
Alex Warren performs at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, Calif., on
Aug. 9, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP, File)
“When I’ve talked to folks about the 2025 song of the summer, it’s not
uncommon for them to cite a song from one of the 2024 releases — and
then they sometimes get jumpscared when they realize how long ago those
songs actually originally came out,” Harper said, pointing to TikTok as
one engine that kept their popularity going.
What does the popularity of ‘Ordinary’ say about listeners?
It's not unusual for the song of the summer to be a ballad — think
Olivia Rodrigo's “Driver's License.” But they're not designed to rule
the season.
“It’s not going to keep the mood of the barbecue lively, it’s not going
to pep up the pool party,” Harper says of “Ordinary.” “Ultimately, it’s
engineered for something other than song of the summer status.”
Ethan Hein, an adjunct professor of music at New York University and the
New School, says listeners' gravitation toward a song like “Ordinary”
reveals something about their well-being.
“When I teach songwriting, I always assign a fun pop banger as one of
the projects, and this year no one felt much enthusiasm for it, or
turned in somber tracks like ‘Ordinary,'” he said. Hein thinks the
disinterest in typical upbeat pop signals a contempt for both the
present and the future.
“Usually, pop music is aimed at young people. I remember being a kid in
the ’80s and ’90s and thinking how futuristic all the synth pop, hip-hop
and techno sounded,” Hein said. “But now, I don’t know a lot of young
people who are excited about the future.”
Music psychologist Ray Leone, who studies the intersectionality of music
and health, says people may be favoring “Ordinary” because it is the
antithesis of a seemingly extraordinary state of the world.
“There seems to be chaos every day, no matter where you look,” Leone
said. “I think to counter that, people are looking more inward. Looking
for something personal to connect to. It’s almost as if a song like this
speaks to us on a personal level as opposed to a collective level.”
Warren's love song, written about his wife, seems to be acting as a
beacon of light in dark times.
“Songs of love and devotion are a constant in our world,” said Bennett.
“Whatever else is happening in our lives, someone somewhere will always
be singing a timeless love song.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
