This week we got the rights to a song that is destined to go viral -- OK, already has gone viral if you're a hip kid on the West Coast who takes to YouTube to learn the coolest new dance (which, as demonstrated by that statement, we obviously are not). So, the song: New Boyz's "You're a Jerk," a repetitive, minimalist, dangerously addictive affair that is destined to crawl under your skin like the best kind of rash and accompanies a squirmy, jumpy dance style called (what else?) "jerking." In short, it's got "summer jam" written all over it.Now, New Boyz might not ever make much of an impact beyond SoCal (though Diddy's son's fandom might suggest otherwise). But it's got me thinking about what other songs we're bound to hear booming out of every car window this summer. A few candidates have already set up camp at the top of the charts, and more are destined to assert their own claim over our eardrums before Labor Day rolls around. On this week's single-phile, we take a look at and listen to the likeliest contenders for summer jam dominance.
Kid Cudi. The enticingly restrained "Day 'N' Nite" is everywhere all the time, but it's been out for a while. What do you think? Has it hit its peak before summer jam season? If so, Kid's got another entry, but his latest, "Make Her Say," couldn't be more different than his debut. The tune began as a remix of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (still a summer jam in its own right, though it's been out for months), and wound up this quirky, whimsical, almost cabaret-esque fare featuring Gaga and Kanye. It's like day and night from "Day 'n Night." (Sorry.)
Flo Rida's also thrown a couple hats into the summer jam ring. "Right Round" is a self-fulfilling prophecy (as in, it spins your head right round, baby. You know, like a record?). But our money's on the tooth-rottingly addictive, Eiffel 65-sampling (no, really -- and it works) "Sugar." Neither of these tunes makes you want to make a fool of yourself on the dance floor like "Low" did, but we guarantee you'll be doing the driver's-seat booty shake to one of them.
Two neo-soul offerings have caught our ear, though neither of them is a straight-up jam per se. I've already extolled the virtues of Laura Izibor's dusty, sunnily soulful "From My Heart to Yours," but an even stronger contender is Melanie Fiona's fabulous "Give It to Me Right." Love her commanding vocals, but I am really digging the brilliantly deployed sample of the Zombies' "Time of the Season," which always sounds like heat radiating off the pavement to me.
We also probably haven't seen the end of 3OH!3's "Don't Trust Me." Although it's been out for a while, it's just so frenetic and hormonal -- the perfect summer jam (virgin) cocktail. Plus, every summer's got to have one big song from a white boy band who over-pronounces lyrics with an oddly affected inflection (see also: Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco -- and oh yeah, the brothers Jonas, whose brain-conquering "Paranoid" also makes a run at this category).What we have here is but the tip of the iceberg (er, the first drink of a frozen margarita fishbowl?). Other destined-to-be-omnipresent (if they aren't already) tunes include Lady Gaga's "Lovegame" (already discussed here) and maybe her deliciously extravagant soap-musical "Paparazzi"; Katy Perry's grating but attention-grabbing "Waking Up in Vegas"; and more Black Eyed Peas than you can count (OK, at least three). And then there's our favorite for Summer Jam of the Season: Pitbull's sun-drenched party banger "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)." We're going to devote almost a whole post to that one sometime very soon. But go listen to it again. Seriously -- you know you want him, and you should.
You can also quench your summer jam thirst with this massive playlist of warm-weather hits:Summer Jams, Past and Present
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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