The “Song of the Summer” is an annual debate about what song best represented summer for music listeners. Every year, there are multiple songs that could be given this title for their cultural impact and how many people listened to them. Today, we asked members of The Daily Campus Life section: What is the 2025 song of the summer?
Dan Stark, Life Editor:
There are a few songs that I could easily pick here, but I’m going to take an unorthodox route by picking a band that has surged back into the zeitgeist this summer: Oasis.
With the Gallagher brothers seemingly burying the hatchet to embark on the group’s first tour since 2009, Oasis experienced a surge in popularity this summer, with droves of new fans exploring the band’s music.
Picking one song is a difficult task. Hits like “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Wonderwall” and “Live Forever” soared back into the charts, but deeper cuts like “Slide Away” and “Acquiesce” have received more attention this summer.
Samantha Brody, Associate Life Editor:
In our TikTok-infused modern day, the elusive title of “Song of the Summer” has become a holy grail for the world’s most hopeful musicians. The song of the summer is going to define the year for many, so it needs to be infused with enough summery energy to infect the public for the next half a decade, while having the popularity to match.
Although Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” topped charts for most of the summer, he doesn’t get my vote. In my opinion, it’s a bland song that makes itself out to be almost too palatable. And admittedly, Benson Boone got everyone’s ears with “Mystical Magical”, but I wouldn’t call that attention favorable.
Instead, I want to point out “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter. It came out right at the very start of the summer, so it’s perfectly timed, but it also has that special sauce that Warren is missing. There’s also a layer of poeticism that comes with gifting the “song of summer” to a pop queen. It’s complicated, it’s challenging, it’s popular and it’s Sabrina. What’s not to like?
Bonnibel Lilith Rampertab, Staff Writer:
This probably flew under your radar, but I personally believe the 2025 “Song of the Summer” to be drum and bass, alternative R&B and emo rap artist Levi Ryan’s song “eyes wide shut.”
There’s tons to enjoy in Ryan’s work whether it’s his guitar playing, singing or production chops. This song is no different but still finds a way to experiment even further with the current sound he has going on — now with blatant industrial influences mixed in.
Levi Ryan doesn’t know how to miss in either his lyrics or production. It comforts the disturbed.
Patrick Boots, Campus Correspondent:
The “Song of the Summer” this year was “Manchild,” recorded and co-written by Sabrina Carpenter. Carpenter tells listeners about her foolish ex-boyfriend, wrapped up in a synth-y country-inspired pop melody which almost certainly gets stuck in your head.
Sabrina’s a good pop artist and has done a great job of becoming musically independent. She has a significant following too, so it’s no wonder she sold out the XL Center on her “Short ‘n Sweet” tour — I’d kill for that kind of attention (and revenue!)
I’m a radio guy, so maybe because “Manchild” was playing on mostly every station all summer – probably today, too – it earns my vote.
Thaddeus Sawyer, Campus Correspondent:
I’ll be going on a nostalgia trip for my pick. After living on through reruns for the better part of a decade, Big Time Rush burst back onto the scene this summer with their “In Real Life Worldwide Tour.”
Seemingly every time I opened TikTok in the past few months, there was a video from a BTR concert. Sometimes it was Stephen Kramer Glickman (Gustavo Rocque in the show) singing Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.” Other times, it was someone complaining about not being chosen as a “Worldwide Girl.”
Regardless of the video’s focus, the cultural revival was a reminder that BTR put out three albums of genuinely catchy pop music that is now reaching a generation that never even watched the show. While not their best (“No Idea”), I’ll go with “Boyfriend” as it may be their most well-known. Bonus points for having a version featuring verses from Snoop Dogg.
Ayyan Tamjeed, Staff Writer:
I’ll take this time to extoll the brilliance of Joey Valence & Brae’s “HYPERYOUTH/LIVE RIGHT.”
These are two different songs, but I can’t see one without the other, they’re both so infectious in their vibe. You have “HYPERYOUTH” where the production fills your eardrums with the most pulsating drum and bass. The song starts off with these hypnotic chants of “Dance, Bounce” which serve as a great appetizer for the verses, but also as a transition for the second song, “LIVE RIGHT.”
If “HYPERYOUTH” is the track you play at the club, “LIVE RIGHT” is the one you would play looking back on those days. It has some of the most emotional lyrics these two have written, all about their fears of growing up and their love for creating good memories with friends. The production perfectly fits the feelings of melancholy and nostalgia that are imbued within this song.