Anybody else experiencing summer blahs?

[shocker]

It's August - the dog-days of summer, and the height of the doldrums.

Musically-speaking, it's the time of year when there aren't too many good new or current songs being released or spun heavily on the radio.

My current personal chart has quite a few older songs from late winter and spring; and contains very few bullets, with the biggest one being a song that I never thought would enter my chart ("Big Girls Don't Cry"). Ironically, that song is probably one of the better ones as far as depth and substance right now.

So with that being said, who else agrees that summer usually isn't the best season for good music? In the last few years, I've found the better songs occur between February and May. Could there be a more substantial reason for this?

[Kai]

Summer is usually known for light fluffy fare that goes better with a cold beer and dancing on the beach, but, even looking at your top ten, a lot of the songs on the radio are anything but light and fluffy. I would classify Makes Me Wonder, U +UR Hand, Sweet Escape, Before He Cheats and a few others as a typical summer songs (light on substance but fun to listen to) but this year I think we've had a crop of songs with more depth than normal.

For example, Little Wonders has struck a chord with people from all walks of life with some of the most meaningful lyrics to hit in years. It makes people want to think about their life and what they take for granted -- hardly the usual summer fluff. But it's been a long slow burn summer hit. Nickelback's Rockstar is more typical summer fare but "If Everyone Cared" which topped the charts for a lot of the summer, even though it sucks, is still a little more serious than the usual summer hits.

Maybe it's the times?

[atlantaboy]

I think usually there's tons of new releases in the late spring so that their CDs will come out in time to be summer hits - right now it's mostly second and third-cuts from CDs - I think "Broken" by Lifehouse will be big - have a feeling Matchbox Twenty, Maroon 5, and Daughtry won't have very long chart lives, but I heard there's even (potentially) bigger new M20 songs on the greatest hits CD - and I'm really hoping new GGD song continues to build - Emerson Hart really deserves to be a hit IMO too - it's #3 on WPTE/Norfolk!!

I also think the new Silverchair song is gonna be huge - almost reminds me of Van Halen - that's what I thought about "Dance Floor Anthem" though and it's movin pretty slowly

[shocker]

kai said:

Summer is usually known for light fluffy fare that goes better with a cold beer and dancing on the beach, but, even looking at your top ten, a lot of the songs on the radio are anything but light and fluffy.

Which makes me think it could be me getting older and wanting more serious songs than I used to.

I would classify Makes Me Wonder, U +UR Hand, Sweet Escape, Before He Cheats and a few others as a typical summer songs (light on substance but fun to listen to)

Those were mostly spring releases. Summer '07 so far hasn't had many big hits that are really good - serious or fluffy.

Little Wonders has struck a chord with people from all walks of life with some of the most meaningful lyrics to hit in years. It makes people want to think about their life and what they take for granted -- hardly the usual summer fluff. But it's been a long slow burn summer hit.

Again, another spring hit.

"Little Wonders" turned out to be a disappointing chart performer because it is such a great song. It hardly got spun by CHR; and it went top 5 at Hot AC, but it still had the potential be #1.

Nickelback's Rockstar is more typical summer fare

Spring for me. The Hot AC station where I live played the hell out when it was in recurrent status. One reason it was brought back to life was because of Mix 96.9 giving it so much airtime.

[Kid Pulse]

I have to say "Rockstar" is a summer jam, but that's just me. I loved it in summer 2006, and now again a year later.


I think each season has its style of song. When I think of spring, I think of catchy, refreshing, poppy music like "Hips Don't Lie" or "Girlfriend".

Summer has those droning, lagging hits like "Hey There Delilah", and "One Thing" by Finger Eleven in 2004 was another example. Also, "Big Girls Don't Cry" fits the category.

Fall is my favorite time, and tends to have sappy songs like "Far Away" and "Lips of An Angel" do well. This should continue this fall with songs like "Over You".

Winter is for ballads like "Ever the Same" and also "Hung Up" by Madonna was very winter-like in my opinion.

[shocker]

Having listened to and loved many summer-time hits from the '60s through much of the '90s, I honestly think there's a serious lack of laid-back, or catchy summer hits lately.

When I think of summer, I think of songs like "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett, "Cruel Summer" by Bananrama, "Make Me Lose Control" by Eric Carmen, or "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane. The fun-loving, "crank-it-up-and-put-the-top-down" kind of songs.

Last year, Blue October's "Hate Me" was a summer hit, but its dark message would've more suited for late fall or winter. "Into the Ocean" was brighter and more summery-sounding, but that came out during the winter. Go figure.