These Are Your Contenders for Song of the Summer

Every December, countless critics and fans and artists convene to argue about about the best art of the year. Those conversations are usually frustrating, pedantic, and fun.

But there’s another way to win song of the year, without actually being the best song of the year. While it’s getting harder and harder to identify a song of the summer—see: the fracture of the music industry by streaming services and listeners simply having more and more things to consume each year—there are still many contenders for the song that will dominate the best three to four months of the year. Summer is when music sounds its best, and the music that’s designed for a hot sun and the outdoors has its own kind of staying power. These are this year’s front-runners.