The question of what will be the breakout hit of the summer is less interesting than examining why certain artists manage to dominate the summer charts. It may seem cool to talk about “Otis,” but I’d rather try and understand our summer monoliths, and why it’s so easy for them.
Simply, can an artist figure out a pop equation? And can that equation seem properly well-hidden so as not to make the artist appear fake or contrived? Summer is a time for derivation, when the mass of young music listeners turn off their brains and bop, so it can’t be that hard, right?
Katy Perry is the apex enemy of intelligent pop. She took Robyn on tour seemingly just to make fun of her for being more successful; worse, she might not have ever even kissed a girl. Now she’s dominating most advanced metrics for determining pop hits with a hook of a song only a sorority girl would love, “T.G.I.F.” The pop tartlet is turning radio into her own private in-joke, something she alone has been able to categorically solve in the past few years. Katy Perry cares not for us writers, for we affect her lumbering monstrosity none.
Conversely, the indie-blog community seems all a-Twitter about festival-friendly pop trippers DOM, who over the course of two EPs—totaling 12 songs—have injected a dour cynics parade with a puff of nitrous. More specifically DOM’s newest hit, “Happy Birthday Party,” is a tongue-firmly-wagging-out ecstasy romp through unhinged partying, be it a birthday or not. In the artist’s world, there can be no regard for consequences or what might happen in the morning, simply because—
Wait. Which song are we talking about, “T.G.I.F.” or “Happy Birthday Party?” DOM’s may have the bratty drawl “gnar-lay,” but Perry’s has the just-as-meaningful crowd-sourced bridge “T-G-I-F” shout-along. Perry may be cloying and insincere, but there’s little doubt as to which song is funkier, or which song has a pretty badass sax solo. DOM may have jumped into a bigger pool with their second massive pop song, but I don’t think they expected their swimming partner to be the scantily clad Perry.
Both the radio and indie community’s smash hits occupy the same fuck-all party-goers anthem world and, while DOM’s is still an empirically better song, what both songs’ successes say about the similarity between their listeners is more important than qualitative ratings.
Want proof? Look at two of the better summer anthems of years past—Perry’s 2009 “Waking Up in Vegas” and DOM’s 2010 “Living In America.” Neither bears a passing resemblance to each other, but both are not-so distant cousins of the songs their parents would write one year later. While DOM’s 10 other songs may be evolving, their big draw tracks have basically stayed the same—Perry too. Both pairs have attained monolith fame, relatively speaking, despite not being groundbreaking pop music. Maybe that’s okay for radio, which has never been so blind as to place the crown of “groundbreaking” on its own head. But for indie, there’s something a little damning there. Perhaps the so-called “discerning” indie audience lets their guard down once in a while and praises a song that touches radio staples in more than a mocking way. Maybe we’re not as far removed from the people we might consider our enemies.
Or maybe it’s just summer. Hell, I’ve been drunk for months, who knows?
