Check out our playlist of all the summer songs since 2000 below.
Sunscreen and the smell of water. Car windows down and speakers on. And music that feels as good as the sun on your face. The song of summer is a wave, an idea, one that is… debate generated from at least the 1880s until today.
“At this time, look for the song of the summer,” he said. New York Tribune In 1910 he wrote about the popular trend of the time, piano sheet music. “What will this season be like? Will it be humorous? Will it be sentimental? Will it be absolute rubbish? Will it be at least bearable, in text or in music, or in both?”
More recently, some of them have been all of the above, and these songs help tell a larger story about the evolution of music. From hip-hop’s reinvention on the radio in the early 2000s to the comfort pop of the early Obama years to the soul-sampling revolution of Pharrell and Mark Ronson to the rise of Bad Bunny to the culture wars that are gripping the rest of culture, summer playlists have seen it all.
There is no perfect criterion that separates The e Song of the Summer among other big hits. When putting together our list, we were drawn to tunes that highlighted major musical trends. So, for better or worse (but mostly for the better), here are the songs of the summer from every year of the 21st century so far.
2000. Santana with Rob Thomas — “Smooth”
Five simple words: Man, it's hot. Since the dawn of the 21st century, it has simply been impossible to make such an innocuous observation about the climate without immediately Hear Carlos Santana's guitar riffs and Rob Thomas's sultry vocals in your head. One of the great collaborations between a music icon and a contemporary popular artist, “Smooth” doubled down on its warm, lazy tone with a music video which captured a quintessential summer experience: hanging out in the neighborhood, enjoying good people, good vibes, and good music. It has endured like an earworm ever since. Liz Shannon Miller
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