The 1A Record Club Listens To The Songs Of Summer

1A

NPR

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4.4 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

The first official "Song of Summer" award was given to One Direction in 2013 for... well... "Best Song Ever." It's been more than a decade since that inaugural MTV Video Music Award.

But has the way we consume music evolved so much that a "song of summer" is a relic of the not-so-distant past? How can we measure what makes a good summer song?

We convene the 1A Record Club to get into it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you ever look at political headlines and go, huh?
0:03.6	Well, that's exactly why the NPR Politics Podcast exists.
0:07.8	We're experts, not just on politics, but in making politics make sense.
0:12.6	Every episode, we decode everything that happened in Washington and help you figure out what it all means.
0:18.3	Give politics a chance with the NPR Politics Podcast, available wherever you get your
0:23.3	podcasts. This is the 1A Record Club. The 1A Record Club. This is 1A. 1A. 1A record club.
0:30.8	Hey!
0:32.3	Let's go!
0:35.6	Welcome to the 1A record club
0:37.7	When I say summer, what comes to mind?
0:42.2	Maybe sitting in a long chair in the backyard with the grill going,
0:45.8	or maybe it's sweating profusely in that short walk from your car to work.
0:50.5	Maybe it's meeting your friends at your neighborhood pool or the weekend trip to the beach, perhaps a night on the town.
0:56.6	But all of those memories likely pair with the soundtrack.
1:00.8	For our latest installment of the 1A record club, we want to dive into the songs that you pair with summer memories.
1:07.6	What are your ingredients for a solid summer song?
1:10.6	Is it a rank on the charts,
1:12.2	popularity on the internet, or just a song? That's a banger. Should there even be such a thing as
1:17.4	a singular song of the summer anymore? Now, some of you shared your thoughts with us.
1:22.8	This is Kara, calling from Indianapolis, Indiana. My favorite summertime song is Will Smith and Jazz
1:28.6	Jeff, Summertime.
1:29.7	Summer, Summer, Summer, Summer. Let's just sit back and unwise.
	...

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