The perfect summer song is a pop-music gem that sums up all the warm, fuzzy feelings we have about everyone’s favorite season: parties, vacations, beaches, clubs, young love ... the good life.
The best summer songs aren’t strictly about those subjects. They just capture the ineffable joy of the season. It’s a mood, a feeling — a hot single such as Beyonce’s and Jay-Z’s “Crazy in Love,” Gnarls Barkley’s crossover hit “Crazy,” even Katy Perry’s awful but unstoppable “I Kissed a Girl.” Those all indisputably were the songs of their respective summers.
But what’s the song of summer 2011?
A couple of weeks ago, I made an unconvincing argument on my radio show for Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass.” It’s a great track. But by the time I was done talking, I’d basically talked myself out of it. Nah, it’s not the song of this summer.
Stumped, I turned to a couple of Top 40 experts: Keke Luv, program director at 103.3 Kiss FM, and Rick Moorten, morning-show host at Wild 101 FM.
After picking their brains, I now confidently proclaim that the song of this summer is LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” or Bruno Mars’ “The Lazy Song.”
Based on sales, national hype and a poll Luv took for me on his Facebook page, LMFAO wins easily.
“The ‘Party Rock’ record, that attitude, that’s been the big, big song in the clubs and when you’re out,” Luv says.
Not only did it spend the entire summer near the top of the charts, it’s a bouncy piece of dance-floor candy hinged on the chorus, “Everybody just have a good time!”
That’s summer in a nutshell, right?
“The LMFAO, the Black Eyed Peas— that electronica, poppy, dance-party music — is where all of the hip-hop music is going,” Luv explains before adding: “If you want to know if hop-hop is dead? It’s pretty much done.”
(I suspect a few Idahoans won’t be too distraught about that.)
On the flip side, there’s Mars’ breezy, brainless, reggae-tinged “The Lazy Song,” which is Moorten’s pick. It wasn’t the summer’s biggest hit. It’s not his most-requested tune.
But “The Lazy Song” has been the track that 17- to 19-year-olds called in asking for when they were headed out to hit the beach or spend the day at Lucky Peak Reservoir, he says.
“You could play it in a convertible or you could play it in your cubicle,” he says. “It’s completely unchallenging, and the sole purpose of the song is not to convey any message other than, ‘It’s summer time, I don’t give a s---, I’m not going to try that hard.’ ”
With unemployment high and the threat of another recession looming, maybe that’s what we need from a summer song — a tune about sitting around in your underwear all day doing nada AND feeling good about it.
“I don’t feel like doing anything today, and so I’m not gonna,” Moorten continues. “It’s that song that tends to take you away from whatever’s at hand, and summer’s kind of that vibe, I always think.”
And so it boils down to this: Do you want to be clubbing and partying? That’s LMFAO. Or do you want to be “lounging on the couch just chilling in my Snuggie”? That’s Mars.
College football season is starting. I plan to balance a huge plate of wings on my stomach while sprawling in front of the tube Saturday.
I’m going with “The Lazy Song.”
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
• Halfway through the most fun I’ve had in a long, long time, Boise police put the kabosh Saturday on Hyde Park ’Til Dark, a new concert series held in the parking lot behind 13th Street Pub & Grill.
An angry North Ender had complained about noise from local band Equaleyes and headliner Gift of Gab, forcing the volume to be dropped to silly-low levels at about 8:30 p.m. It spoiled the show for hundreds. Consequently, a planned September Hyde Park ’Til Dark show has been canceled. The future of the series next year remains up in the air.
Work on revamping Boise’s noise ordinance needs to resume. It’s been at a virtual standstill for months.
• Lots of changes are happening on local TV stations such as KTRV 12 and the new Fox9. Confused? Check my blog, where it’s explained in detail. (There’s also more about the Hyde Park concert — including dozens of reader comments.)
Michael Deeds co-hosts “The Other Studio” at 9 p.m. Sundays on 94.9 FM “The River”; he appears Thursdays on Channel 6 News. Twitter: @IDS_Deeds
