Some might say that certain sounds define the season of warmer temps and staying outside. Let’s face it—summer is only as good as the songs that play through our speakers on the way to the beach or ...

Crumpton is a music, pop culture, and politics writer from Dallas. Photo-Illustration by Chloe Dowling for TIME (Source Images: Atstock Productions/Getty Images, Deagreez/Getty Images, Xavier ...

All right. We're a week into August, so maybe it's a good time to ask, what is this year's song of the summer? Well, according to NPR's Stephen Thompson, the answer is complicated. STEPHEN THOMPSON, ...

What makes a great song of the summer? Is it an up-tempo pop banger? Something with an earworm chorus? Does it need to feature the words “summer,” “sunshine,” or another synonym — “California” — in ...

What is 2025’s Song of the Summer? As Labor Day looms, we still don’t have an answer—but there’s a solid pool of candidates. But what makes up a Song of the Summer? We’ve boiled it down to five ...

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 ...