MINIPROMPT! 2018’s Song of the Summer

The Song of the summer (SOTS) seems like a straightforward title: it’s the moniker we give to the song, usually released sometime in the spring, that is somehow still stuck in our heads come fall, because it’s both catchy and inescapable. It’s the song that shows up on everyone’s summer BBQ playlist, is playing at every bar, and on every radio station. Think of last year’s “Despacito,” 2016’s “One Dance,” and so on, ad summfinitum. Rumor has it, “Minuet in G” was the “Call Me Maybe” of 1725.

Here in 2018, we run down the hits. But there can be only one official SOTS. Which do you choose?

Erin Vail

For my song of the summer, I invite everyone to “take a seat,” invoking the opening line of Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey’s pop number “The Middle.” The song has all the makings of an earworm—it’s catchy, it’s easy to remember, it’s upbeat but bittersweet, it boasts an infectious chorus, and it has almost infinite sing-alongability.

“The Middle” is a jam that not only makes an appearance on my ever expanding run playlist, but also on my “2018” playlist and any number of party playlists. “The Middle” is almost definitely popular with teens, and has probably been overplayed at every public pool around the country, as any song of the summer should be. It’s also completely of the moment—Zedd and Maren Morris? Only in 2018 would such a collaboration be possible.

If you’re interested in the construction of this banger—the New York Times has a neat video about how the song came together. I’ll be listening to this for the rest of the summer and probably the rest of time.

Kelaine Conochan

Sorry, everyone, because the SOTS is Drake.

Everything he touches is the song of the summer. If you’re awake and like any semblance of pop or hip-hop, you think it’s “In My Feelings” or “Nice for What.” Because it is. But it’s also every track from his latest release, Scorpion. Specifically, it’s “Ratchet Happy Birthday,” which maybe you haven’t heard yet, but you will on October 23rd, when I scream from the rafters “Petty bullshit shouldn’t excite you / On your birthday / It’s your brrrrrrrrrrrt!”

Meg Kearns

**apologies to Kelaine for the below**

This year, a handful of strong contenders have all come from one artist. Drake, a perennial summer favorite, has everyone doing the “In My Feelings” challenge, while the Instagram-feminist-friendly “Nice for What” and quintessentially Drake “God’s Plan” are still absolutely inescapable.

But try as he might, nothing Drake does–none of these catchy songs, not even this extremely charming Degrassi reunion video–can get one simple line out of my head: “you are hiding a child.” With just five words, Pusha-T dismantled Drake’s entire image, and changed the way we perceive him probably forever. That’s why “The Story of Adidon” is the song of the summer. It doesn’t matter that it’s not catchy, that it’s not inspiring any sing-alongs. It’s an instantly iconic, perfectly executed diss track that changed an entire pop culture conversation, and it’s the perfect emblem for the “fuck you, I’m burning everything down” spirit of 2018.

Josh Bard

Its kinda hard to deny that it’s been the summer of Drake, but The Prompt didn’t become a creative crime syndicate because we pick the obviously correct answer. My Song of the Summer is the bluntly summer jam, “Summertime Magic” by Childish Gambino. A song that that says summer as much as it can to remind you that if you aren’t currently sweating you should. To me, the song is an homage to summertime romance, whether its with a real live human or an imaginary one of the Canadian, the overnight camp, or the met them on vacation variety. Get it any way you can!

Put “Summertime Magic” on at a BBQ  or a party and you won’t be that guy who is accused of playing only the radio hits. Plus having Gambino on, allows you to talk about how cultured you are because you LOOOOOOVE Atlanta because its unlike anything else on television these days. Now you are a double threat, just like Donald Glover!

https://giphy.com/gifs/atlanta-fx-3oz8xtblgoqkFDnhcY

Jillian Conochan

This summer, I don’t know that I can pinpoint any one preeminent song that’s taken over the airwaves, but a few candidates have emerged.

In the spirit of collaboration, how about “Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line? Like “The Middle,” it’s been engineered for consumption by a Venn diagram’s worth of pop, country, and pop-country party people.

“Girls Like You” is another contender, with 2018’s It Girl Cardi B guest-spangling this extremely singable Maroon 5 ditty. Cardi’s got another SOTS pick with “I Like It,” which takes salsa into trap territory, including guest appearances by fellow Latinx artists Bad Bunny and J Balvin. The song also contains a sample of the 1967 boogaloo joint “I Like It Like That,” reprised some 30 years later in 1996.

If it’s 90s R&B that’s more your jam, slow it down with 2018’s Best Song to Rollerskate To, Boo’d Up.

Sorry, Khaled, another go at the SOTS with Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, and Quavo was a “No Brainer,” but you guys got here too late to be included. Better luck next year.

Maybe not the Song of the Summer, but the Song of a Summer… or at least a song

Jessica Lulka

Asking me to pick one song is like asking me to pick my favorite book. Still, I’d have to say my song of the summer is a twist on a throwback summer jam. Plus, Jamie Cullum is my all-time fave and I think everyone should hear his covers.

So here’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” as covered by Jamie Cullum. Because I’m not going to stop at any chance to jazz things up a little bit.

John Papageorgiou

I know that, based upon my looks, you’d guess I spent my high school years as either the varsity quarterback or the prom king (possibly both), so this might come as a shock… but the majority of those 48 months consisted of me doing drugs and blasting metal with a group of friends that were decidedly less than cool. While my musical tastes have broadened in scope considerably over the years, I still have a soft spot for anything that sounds like, come Armageddon, the armies of Satan might march to it. Behemoth’s “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel,” a 2014 release, wound up in my library circa May, and that means it’s a summer song, much like Columbus made America exist in 1492 by discovering it. I’m not saying it’s something to blast while driving to the beach, but if you’re about to wrestle a bear, punch through a car engine or otherwise need a testosterone boost, give it a spin.

(If I have to pick a normal song for normal people to normal to, that was actually released this summer, Cardi B’s “Be Careful” has meant more to me than any man should admit.)

Ryan Fay

I have a lot of catching up to do on pop culture, but I managed to find two groovy songs that I believe the kids today would call bangers… whatever that means. Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” is somehow more relevant today than it was back in 1963. David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans” is lit af and the music video is a must-watch for all you politically active young folks. Get woke, sheeple!

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