Summer Bummer (with Commotion’s Elamin Abdelmahmoud)

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Commentary, Music History, Music Interviews, Music

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every music critic seems to agree: 2025 has no true song of summer. Last August, Teddy Swims’s “Lose Control” dominated the charts. This year…Teddy Swims’s “Lose Control” dominates the charts. What’s going on? Why is there no new summer song to unite us in collective listening, and will there ever be again? Elamin Abdelmahmoud, host of the CBC’s daily culture podcast Commotion, joins Nate and Charlie to discuss the dearth of seasonal bops, and suggest some possible contenders for sleeper summer hits, from the soundtrack of the anime film KPop Demon Hunters to the latest from the Haim sisters. Despite the moribund status of the Hot 100, there is no shortage of great music to be found in the dog days of summer if you’re willing to listen closely. More Check out more music commentary from Elamin and Commotion, like their dive into Bruce Springsteen’s unreleased albums, or their dissection of Bieber’s latest with our very own Reanna Cruz. Songs Discussed HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA - Golden Tyler Childers - Eatin’ Big Time Haim - Relationships Ravyn Lenae - Love Me Not Amber Mark - Sweet Seratonin Sly and the Family Stone - Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:40.9	slash audio. Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And today we welcome a very
0:58.2	special guest, the host of commotion, a daily pop culture podcast from CBC. It's Elamene Abdel-Mamud.
1:07.3	Woo-hoo. Hello. Thanks for having me, pals. So glad you're here today, Alameen.
1:12.7	We're big fans of commotion, and we're not just saying that to pad our inevitable visa application.
1:21.5	You'll be welcome anytime.
1:23.1	And we're thrilled to have you here to discuss a topic that seems to be everywhere in the music
1:29.6	media discourse right now. Let's call it the summer bummer. For instance, the Guardian has a
1:35.0	headline. The Song of Summer is dot, dot, dot, nothing? Global news. Shouldn't we have heard about a
1:41.5	song of summer by now? The National, why no one can agree on the 2025 song of the summer.
1:47.1	Time magazine, the song of the summer is dead.
1:50.3	Thank God for that.
1:52.2	That's rough.
1:53.3	That's by our friend Taylor Grumpton.
1:55.5	And your own CBC Kids, Elamene says, is there a song of the summer yet? The internet says no.
2:02.7	Okay, so there's a lot of concern about this development. Where has the song of the summer gone?
	...

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