{"id":1174,"date":"2025-09-04T11:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1174\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:52:11","slug":"what-do-we-make-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1174\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do We Make of It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLabor Day weekend has come and gone, which must mean that the final word is in on the Songs of the Summer<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tBillboard\u2018s official Song of the Summer listing closed with the chart dated Sept. 6, and unsurprisingly, tops<\/a> is the song that topped the chart every week of the season: Alex Warren<\/a>\u2018s 10-week Billboard Hot 100 <\/a>No. 1 megaballad \u201cOrdinary.\u201d Behind it comes three straight Morgan Wallen<\/a>-led smashes\u00a0\u2014 \u201cWhat I Want\u201d (feat. Tate McRae, No. 2), \u201cJust in Case\u201d (No. 3) and \u201cI\u2019m the Problem\u201d (No. 4)\u00a0\u2014 with Kendrick Lamar and SZA\u2019s \u201cLuther\u201d rounding out the top five. A little lower on the chart, this week\u2019s Hot 100 No. 1 \u2014 HUNTR\/X\u2019s \u201cGolden\u201d \u2014 finishes at No. 7.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat does Billboard\u2018s chart-determined Song of the Summer tell us about the state of Songs of the Summer? And which of the top 10 best defined our own summer? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below. <\/p>\n

\n\t1. Alex Warren\u2019s \u201cOrdinary\u201d is officially our Song of the Summer. What do you think the song\u2019s summertime success tells us, if anything, about what listeners want from a summer song in 2025?<\/p>\n

\n\tKatie Atkinson:\u00a0To my mind, this one has little to nothing to do with summer. I really love when a Song of the Summer sounds like summer feels (upbeat, sunshiny lyrics), but I think \u201cOrdinary\u201d just reached its peak at the exact right moment, first topping the Hot 100 on the chart dated June 7, and filled a spot at radio that\u2019s been filled over the past year-plus with mellow hits by Benson Boone, Teddy Swims or Hozier and rode that wave (ooh, surfing reference \u2014 that feels summery!) to the top spot.<\/p>\n

\n\tChristopher Claxton: Alex Warren\u2019s \u201cOrdinary\u201d being Song of the Summer shows that people in 2025 want more than just a party anthem for the season. The track is vulnerable, emotional and relatable, it\u2019s not about chasing the typical \u201cturn-up\u201d movement, but about tapping into feelings that a lot of people connect with right now. I think it proves that a summer hit doesn\u2019t always have to be high-energy; sometimes listeners just want something real, something that mirrors what they\u2019re going through while still being catchy enough to sing along to all season.<\/p>\n

\n\tKyle Denis: I don\u2019t think \u201cOrdinary\u201d tells us anything markedly new or different about what listeners want from a summer song, specifically. I think it peaked at the right time of the year (which also happened to be relatively quiet), but its sound only fortifies what we\u2019ve learned from last year\u2019s hits like \u201cBeautiful Things,\u201d \u201cLose Control\u201d and \u201cToo Sweet.\u201d If anything, I think that the conversation \u201cOrdinary\u201d-as-song-of-the-summer has sparked is a bit more interesting. Clearly the numbers are there, but the passion is lacking. It feels like this year\u2019s summer songs were best felt on a\u00a0regional level with smaller hits like \u201cBoots on the Ground,\u201d \u201cShake It to the Max\u201d and \u201cWhim Whamiee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJason Lipshutz: Instead of serving as a beach-party soundtrack, the song of the summer has become a signifier of contemporary pop trends over the past decade; it\u2019s why we\u2019ve had a Spanish-language SOTS (Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee\u2019s \u201cDespacito\u201d in 2017), a K-pop champ (BTS\u2019s \u201cButter\u201d in 2021) and a couple of country victors (Morgan Wallen\u2019s \u201cLast Night\u201d in 2023, and Wallen and Post Malone\u2019s \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d last year). Alex Warren represents the current spate of big-voiced male singer-songwriters scoring inescapable anthems, riding the 2024 wave of Teddy Swims\u2019 \u201cLose Control,\u201d Benson Boone\u2019s \u201cBeautiful Things\u201d and Hozier\u2019s \u201cToo Sweet\u201d to dominate 2025. In this way, the summer timing of \u201cOrdinary\u201d is incidental \u2014 it\u2019s not what listeners want from a summer song, but it\u2019s what listeners want right now, period.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Unterberger: I think the main thing \u201cOrdinary\u201d tells us about Songs of the Summer is that they really need a Spring runway first. With more and more songs hanging around the top of the Hot 100 for durations that would\u2019ve been unthinkable a decade ago \u2014 and taking time to get their streaming and radio peaks synched up \u2014 it\u2019s going to be very hard for a song to debut in summer (or even shortly before) and actually become our official Song of the Summer as long as those trends persist. <\/p>\n

\n\t2. Songs No. 2 through 4 on the chart \u2014 \u201cWhat I Want,\u201d \u201cJust in Case,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m the Problem\u201d \u2014 all belong to Morgan Wallen, who also appeared on the Song of the Summer last year with the Post Malone-led \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d and owned it solo in 2023 with \u201cLast Night.\u201d Is Morgan Wallen now the 2020s\u2019 unquestioned summertime king?<\/p>\n

\n\tKatie Atkinson:\u00a0Kind of hard to deny when you look at the last three years like that. I also think there\u2019s something inherently summery about country music, even the ballads. The genre just feels warm and breezy, and fits like a hand in an oven mitt at summer staples like barbecues, baseball games and pool parties. But I will say that 2024\u2019s \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d \u2013 with its firework-filled music video and Post Malone in his best summer jorts \u2013 felt like a better match for the sunny season than this year\u2019s mid-tempo trio.<\/p>\n

\n\tChristopher Claxton: One time might be an accident, two times a coincidence, but three times? That\u2019s a pattern. Morgan Wallen hasn\u2019t just shown up on the list three summers in a row, this year, he\u2019s got three songs on it. At this point, it\u2019s safe to call him the summertime king. But every king can be dethroned, and it\u2019ll be interesting to see who\u2019s ready to challenge him next.<\/p>\n

\n\tKyle Denis: Sure? A three-summer run of this magnitude is certainly impressive. Nonetheless, I can\u2019t help but feel like it shouldn\u2019t be this easy to avoid songs that are ruling entire seasons. Songs like \u201cA Bar Song\u201d and \u201cNot Like Us\u201d and \u201cEspresso\u201d felt like they penetrated every silo of the contemporary pop scene. I\u2019d say \u201cLast Night\u201d and \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d err on that side a lot more than these I\u2019m The Problem tracks, at least from what I experienced day-to-day this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJason Lipshutz: Absolutely. No artist this decade has been a more consistent presence on the Song of the Summer chart, and after releasing back-to-back champs in 2023 and 2024, Wallen got darn close to a three-peat \u2014 but had to settle from three songs in the top five of the 2025 chart. Wallen is doing what Drake accomplished during some of his more dominant chart runs \u2014 scoring big hits in bunches, and making his presence on the charts unavoidable.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Unterberger: Certainly seems undeniable. And while the Drake comparison is a good one, it\u2019s also worth noting that since Drake went frosty in this discussion, no other rapper has really stepped up to fill that void; Kendrick is the closest, but he can\u2019t really expected to prioritize this every year like Drizzy once did. <\/p>\n

\n\t3. Landing at No. 7 on the chart is HUNTR\/X\u2019s (EJAE, Rei Ami & Audrey Nuna) \u201cGolden\u201d from\u00a0KPop Demon Hunters,\u00a0which has proven the single to beat on the Hot 100 at summer\u2019s end. Which do you think will ultimately define the summer of 2025 more, \u201cGolden\u201d or \u201cOrdinary\u201d?<\/p>\n

\n\tKatie Atkinson:\u00a0\u201cGolden.\u201d The way\u00a0KPop Demon Hunters\u00a0burst onto the scene just before the Fourth of July and kept building and building (and still seems to have ground to gain, somehow) means that its life cycle thus far has all been contained in the summer. I can tell you that this movie and these songs are the most-talked-about pop-culture phenomenon as kids return to school, with this mom spotting no less than four HUNTR\/X shirts on elementary-age kids at my kindergartener\u2019s first-day assembly. There\u2019s an entire generation that will remember the Summer of 2025 as the Summer of\u00a0KPop Demon Hunters.<\/p>\n

\n\tChris Claxton: \u201cOrdinary\u201d might be losing momentum on the charts, but that actually works in its favor when it comes to defining Summer 2025. People have lived with it longer, it dropped back in February, didn\u2019t hit the Hot 100 until April, and still managed to stick around through TV appearances, a No. 1 in the U.K., and months of heavy rotation. \u201cGolden\u201d is fresh and definitely a force, but if you take away the recency bias, \u201cOrdinary\u201d is the track that truly soundtracked this summer. Nearly a year later, people are still pressing play.<\/p>\n

\n\tKyle Denis: Probably \u201cGolden\u201d when it\u2019s all said and done. It\u2019s a more memorable song, the narrative is far more interesting, and it\u2019ll get an extended shelf life through film awards season later this year (and top of next), as well as a rumored sequel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJason Lipshutz: \u201cOrdinary\u201d as a smash hit, KPop Demon Hunters as a phenomenon. I don\u2019t want to undersell the ubiquity of a 10-week No. 1 hit like \u201cOrdinary,\u201d which may very well end the year as its biggest song. Yet the entirety of the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack \u2014 which includes an astonishing four top 10 Hot 100 hits \u2014 will define the season as the most interesting and unexpected pop culture takeover. And while \u201cGolden\u201d is the biggest hit from that soundtrack, the entirety of the KPDH experience needs to be factored in when considering the music from this summer that will endure.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Unterberger: It\u2019s \u201cGolden,\u201d which goes back to the original point about Songs of the Summer \u2014\u00a0ones actually released within the summer months will always feel more intuitively like proper SotS contenders, but they\u2019re already behind the 8-ball when it comes to the official chart race. <\/p>\n

\n\t4. Of the non-\u201cGolden\u201d or \u201cOrdinary\u201d songs in the top 10, which comes the closest to defining your own summer 2025?<\/p>\n

\n\tKatie Atkinson:\u00a0I have to go with \u201cManchild,\u201d which has all the touchstones of a song of the summer, with its bouncy beat and sing-along chorus. (This also marks back-to-back summers of Carpenter soundtracking my summers, as I\u00a0name-checked \u201cEspresso\u201d<\/a>\u00a0as my personal SoS last year too.) And even though I\u2019ve only had four days with\u00a0Man\u2019s Best Friend, it might be my album of the summer too \u2014 so perhaps I\u2019m biased.<\/p>\n

\n\tChristopher Claxton: For me, it\u2019s a mix of Ravyn Lenae\u2019s \u201cLove Me Not\u201d at No. 10 and Kendrick Lamar and SZA\u2019s \u201cLuther\u201d at No. 5. \u201cLove Me Not\u201d has been everywhere, on my own playlist, blasting from cars, playing in stores around NYC, even showing up in commercials. Meanwhile, \u201cLuther\u201d has been a steady favorite since its 2024 release. It\u2019s wild to see it still holding strong and making this year\u2019s Song of the Summer list. I\u2019ve been hearing it heavy in the streets and on my playlists too, just not quite as much as \u201cLove Me Not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKyle Denis: \u201cLove Me Not\u201d by Ravyn Lenae. There was seldom a day where I didn\u2019t hear that hook blasting through a car window or in a grocery store or through someone else\u2019s headphones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJason Lipshutz: \u201cManchild,\u201d a song that I\u2019ve grown to embrace as an oddball, goofily charming sing-along. Sabrina Carpenter waited until the end of the summer to reveal her latest collection of pop eccentricities and innuendos with Man\u2019s Best Friend, but its lead single was on repeat during the dog days, soundtracking the next step in her meteoric ascent over the past three years.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Unterberger: \u201cManchild\u201d is a real grower, as I\u2019ve discovered pretty much every time I\u2019ve heard it out this summer and wondered to myself why I wasn\u2019t more excited about the song initially. <\/p>\n

\n\t5. Make a way-way-way-too-early prediction about the Songs of the Summer chart for next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tKatie Atkinson:\u00a0Well, if Sabrina Carpenter keeps up this prolific album-a-year pace, she would very easily get my Song of the Summer vote three years\u2019 running \u2013 but let\u2019s say that 2026 is the year that she wins over everyone else and finally lands at No. 1 on the seasonal chart.<\/p>\n

\n\tChristopher Claxton: I think next year\u2019s list will be a mix of R&B, pop, and country. Taylor Swift feels like a lock,\u00a0The Life of a Showgirl\u00a0is already breaking Spotify records weeks before release, and with her fanbase, it\u2019s hard to imagine her not owning part of the summer conversation. On the R&B side, I\u2019d love to see Tinashe come back with another banger like \u201cNasty,\u201d which was my personal Song of the Summer in 2024. Country is going to stay strong too, Morgan Wallen has set the standard the past three years, so the question is whether he keeps his streak alive or someone else steps up to challenge him. Either way, 2026 feels like it could end up being one of the most competitive summers we\u2019ve had in a while.<\/p>\n

\n\tKyle Denis: Maybe something Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Act III or a late-era single from Taylor\u2019s Life of a Showgirl album? Or maybe Ariana has something up her sleeve ahead of next year\u2019s Eternal Sunshine Tour. What are the odds we get the Kpop Demon Hunters sequel soundtrack by then?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJason Lipshutz: Morgan Wallen will be heavily involved. That\u2019s not a sexy prediction, but after the past few summer, it\u2019s certainly a safe one! When he drops a 53-song album next June, the world will be helpless to resist, and Wallen will once again stick around the top of the Song of the Summer tally.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Unterberger: The No. 1 will belong to a country song \u2014 but this time, Morgan Wallen won\u2019t be involved. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s free Billboard charts month! Through Sept. 30, subscribers to Billboard\u2019s Chart Beat newsletter, emailed each Friday, can unlock access to Billboard\u2019s weekly and historical charts, artist chart histories and all Chart Beat stories simply by visiting the newly redesigned Billboard.com through any story link in the newsletter. Not a Chart Beat subscriber? Sign up for free here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labor Day weekend has come and gone, which must mean that the final word is in on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,1909,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-five-burning-questions","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}