What Does Summer Sound Like?
Introducing the Hot Summer Series! A collection of playlists that channel the best parts of the season.
What is the song of the summer?
This annual debate surrounds a superlative that lacks clear qualifications. Should we consider popularity, weeks at number one, or whether it’s even a good song? While audiences and critics alike argue what song perfectly encapsulates the few weeks of the year when we all feel a little bit freer, I can’t help but feel stressed at having to select one song. I think it is the indecisive Libra in me.
But honestly, I’m not interested in trying to find a singular track for the next few months, and though one usually does rise to the top for me, establishing itself as the cream of the crop, lately I’ve been interested in what summer as a whole sounds like and wondering how I can capture a few variations of the season and save it for one of our many rainy days.
Last year, I had this fantasy of driving down a dirt road in a vintage Cadillac. The top was always down, and my hair would flow behind me in the wind. My sunglasses were on to block out the sun. The kind of sun so hot it feels like it’s trying to pull every last drop of moisture from your body, and most importantly, the radio would be on as loud as I could stand it. While the music blasts from the speakers, dirt kicks up behind the car, leaving a hazy trail that blinds no one, as the road is empty as far as the eye can see. Me, music, the open road. Such a change from the densely packed streets I usually find myself on.
The best way I could make that fantasy a reality was by curating the music I’d hope to hear on my journey to nowhere. And that was how the Hot Summer Series was born.
I wanted to create a playlist that evoked the feeling of summer in the South. Summers where the heat is stifling, but the iced tea is sweet. Summers where the reality of Jim Crow still looms large, but joy and life continue in spite of it. That’s where hot summer, dirt road came along.
The playlist predominantly features artists from the Stax label, as I was influenced by the HBO Documentary this time last year. I wondered what summers sounded like in Memphis and created a playlist with a median year of 1966, which led me to think about what summers were like in New York in the 1960s and 1970s when my parents were growing up. I quickly had a growing list of carefully curated playlists that transported me to a time I had never experienced.
I had the idea to share hot summer, dirt road on Instagram during one of the heatwaves we’ve faced here on the East coast, and was inspired by a friend to throw my hat back in the Substack ring by writing about something that I’ve already created. For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a few playlists from my Hot Summer Series here, with what inspired them.
Some housekeeping before we get to the actual lists.
Although I try, none of these lists will be 100% historically accurate to what you’d likely hear each year on the radio. I try to keep the songs all in a particular time frame, but creative liberties are part of the fun.
A big part of making these for me was taking a visual in my head and attaching sound to it, so I encourage you to try and imagine what I describe or your own story. For some of you, it will likely be memories over a fantasy. But it is essential to try to see something. To focus on the music, its details, and its history to build a narrative.
Lastly, I suggest listening to these songs in a car with the windows rolled down and the volume up at least once. It sounds and feels better that way, and though we can’t all afford to zip around in vintage Cadillac convertibles, whatever you have on hand will do.
Come back for our first playlist, the one that started it all, hot summer, dirt road.
And in the meantime, what songs do you associate with summer, and where are you transported just by the sound of them?
Until soon,
Emily
P.S. I know I always apologize for my absence on Substack. With the second half of the year finally beginning, I’m hoping to take some half-baked ideas to the finish line, even if they aren’t perfect. Just writing this intro makes me feel so excited to be back!
In the time that I’ve been away, I’ve reached 109 subscribers! Thank you all for taking the time to read and having some interest in whatever I might say. It is simultaneously the most tremendous validation and the most significant deterrent to my posting.
More soon, I promise!