Spotify’s “Songs of Summer 2024” playlist includes Nashville favorites
Spotify has released a playlist of 30 songs that are considered possible candidates for the title “Song of the Summer.” Seven of these songs have their origins in Music City.
Shaboozey explains why his No. 1 song “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is so well received by fans
Shaboozey speaks with Tennessee country music reporter Marcus K. Dowling before his performance at Nissan Stadium on Thursday, June 6, 2024.
Summer officially begins this week, but it’s not too early to assume that another hit from Nashville will dominate the season.
Spotify has announced a playlist of potential songs of summer 2024 – Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Dasha, Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, Josh Ross, Shaboozey and Taylor Swift join acts like Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Chappell Roan on the list.
That’s 25% of the list’s total output.
Music with roots in Nashville outshines Afrobeats, hip-hop, Latin trap and R&B.
In May 2023, Clay Bradley, BMI’s vice president of creative in Nashville, told The Tennessean, “Southern pop music’s moment shows that fans no longer care about the genre. They just want to hear the truth. In a century, nothing has expressed the truth as clearly as country music.”
Here you will find selected songs that could become the song of the summer on Spotify (and in pop music).
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey
Summer in Nashville lasts from June 20th to September 22nd.
During this time, it’s safe to assume that veteran Empire-signed artist Shaboozey will have not only belted out his summer party anthem, but also thrown a party so huge on Nashville’s Fifth Avenue North that the main thoroughfare was closed during CMA Fest.
It also likely would have followed Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” to the top of the country sales charts, appeared on two tracks from the Grammy winner’s “Cowboy Carter” album, and possibly topped the Billboard Hot 100 all-genre chart and, yes, the Billboard Country Airplay chart.
The latter is notable because Jimmie Allen, Charley Pride and Darius Rucker are the only other black artists in the last 50 years to first reach the top of the country radio charts as solo artists.
“Being from Virginia, I was inspired by the things around me, the cultural landmarks and the things I saw,” Shaboozey told The Tennessean and USA Today in April. “I saw all kinds of people, whether it was in the South or the Mid-Atlantic, but also in the (semi-)North. NASCAR was a big thing that I incorporated into my sound, and farming … all the things that I was exposed to, I incorporated into my music.”
“I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen
Post Malone and Morgan Wallen have sold the equivalent of 300 million singles in a decade.
Therefore, their collaboration on the wild times anthem, “I Had Some Help,” is largely unprecedented.
Both artists are at the peak of their careers. Wallen won 11 Billboard Music Awards in 2023 and “Last Night” was named Spotify’s song of the summer. This time last year, for the first time in 42 years, two country singles – Combs’ and Wallen’s – were at number 1 and 2 on the American Billboard Hot 100.
Wallen was also certified by the Recording Industry Association of America as the most successful country artist based on digital singles certifications in the organization’s history.
As for Malone, the “Circles” singer’s transition to country music has been pretty smooth so far. From Stagecoach and CMA Fest to Bonnaroo, he’s been an exciting presence, a head-turner and an almost instant superstar.
Dasha’s “Austin”
A singer-songwriter for 10 years, Dasha, a native of San Luis Obispo, California, had never been to Austin, Texas, until the CMT Music Awards in April. The former Belmont University student’s rise from the newest TikTok queen to stardom at Nissan Stadium at CMA Fest is one of country’s most fascinating stories.
Perhaps more than anything else, it shows how easily the aesthetics and principles of the genre are now taken as guarantors of the authenticity of an artist’s work.
Dasha landed on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 chart in March. Three months later, “Austin” still hasn’t stopped working. Currently, the song is in the top 20. It’s in the top 5 on the country sales charts and – like country as a genre in general – is growing in popularity around the world.
If you’re looking for the one song of 2024 that could be a sign that fans outside the genre are finally discovering the pop appeal of country music, this is it.
“Country music allows me to write lyrics that don’t require me to think much further than, ‘Is this song undeniably me?'” Dasha told The Tennessean in May.
“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” by Luke Combs
The 29-track soundtrack to potential summer movie Twisters is a huge deal. And how huge? It includes singles from country music entertainers of the year Combs, Thomas Rhett and Lainey Wilson, as well as award-winning country and Americana artists including Kane Brown, Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Megan Moroney and Shania Twain.
Additionally, many other streaming-ready up-and-coming country and Americana chart-toppers are included, including BRELAND, Conner Smith, Warren Zeiders and Bailey Zimmerman.
Of course, Grammy winner Combs will also release “Fathers & Sons”, his most personal album to date, in summer 2024.
Could there be too much Luke Combs on the market?
Possibly. But a modern version of the 1996 blockbuster Twister, directed by Oscar-nominated writer-director Lee Isaac Chung, with executive producers including Oscar winner Steven Spielberg, Thomas Hayslip and Ashley Jay Sandberg, could prove to be just the superpower the market didn’t know it needed.
Taylor Swift’s “I can make it through a broken heart”
Even though Taylor Swift is on tour in Europe throughout the summer of 2024, Swifties are currently one of the most valuable audiences in pop culture and streaming.
The critically acclaimed breakup anthem from their 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, is rising to become a top 10 hit worldwide and was included in the recent revamped setlist of their Eras tour.
The chorus of the song “Light, Camera, Bitch, Smile” has also recently gained popularity on TikTok.
“With fluttering synths and an electropop beat, it’s constructed like one of Swift’s signature, shiny pop gems,” says USA TODAY. “But in the lyrics, Swift takes the most haunting psychological journey on the subject of ‘The Show Must Go On’ since Smokey Robinson and the Miracles detailed ‘The Tears of a Clown’ in 1967.”
“Miles On It” by Kane Brown and Marshmello
Three months ago, Brown received a diamond trophy and plaque for his five-year-old single “Heaven,” while eight other singles – “Be Like That,” “Bury Me in Georgia,” “Good as You,” “Homesick,” “Lose It,” “One Thing Right,” “Thank God” and “What Ifs” – were celebrated for selling a combined 30 million copies in just over half a decade.
He previously collaborated with EDM darling Marshmello on “One Thing Right” (released in 2019). The DJ/producer visited Brown’s Nashville home the day after a concert to record his vocals for “Miles On It.”
“The artists now work with me on the basis of personal friendship and the desire to write hits as professionals,” Brown says of the gesture.
This season, Brown released “The One (Pero No Como Yo),” a bilingual tropical house-country duet with Mexican regional airplay chart-topper Carín León that impacted radio and sales charts both domestically and internationally. He also covered Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind” at this year’s ACM Awards.
“Single Again” by Josh Ross
Canadian-born Universal Music Group-signed artist Josh Ross is riding the wave after garnering tens of millions of streams from six singles on Spotify alone to be considered for “Song of Summer” in 2024.
“Single Again” is the first track on his EP “Complicated”, released in spring.
“Call me first after you call him last and you’ll never be single again,” he sings.
Considering he spent some time touring with equally lovesick and pop-oriented country darling Bailey Zimmerman and will soon be touring with 30-time country chart-topper Luke Bryan, the potential for exponential growth in his fan base and listenership is obvious.
“I’m a complicated person who draws inspiration from many different genres of music, but country has such a traditional style of storytelling and the meaning behind a lyric remains true,” Ross said in a press release. “I hope everyone can relate to (my music).”
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