Summer in Song

Q:  What's your opinion on summer songs?

A:  It all depends.  When it comes to summer songs, I feel like the radio stations purposely overplay certain songs to get people to think of that summer when that song is next played, but the usual result is that people get tired of the song three weeks into the summer and hold their hands over their ears every time it is played after that.  I have that opinion of a number of summer songs, most notably being Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA."  I still change the radio station every time I hear that song, and I will avoid that song until I die.

There are a couple songs that I will always remember with fondness related to the summer of 2008.  That's the summer between my high school graduation and my first year of college, and I maintain that that was the best summer I've yet experienced:
"How Far We've Come" -- Matchbox 20
"All Over You" -- The Spill Canvas
"Shake It" -- Metro Station
Over that summer I spent the majority of my time driving at night with the windows of The Sugar Cube (this isn't the exact Sugar Cube, but looked exactly like that...) rolled all the way down and music blasting with one of those three songs.  I walked around the nearby walking park with my friends nearly every night, cruising up to the deserted parking lot by the playground and taking a pause to play on the toys that relied on centripetal force to move.  We drew chalk pictures all over our high school's parking lot, spent more time at Baker's Square eating pie than we did at home.  We went to the Renaissance Faire.  And sometimes we just sat around in one friend's house and talked.  I'm not sure anything can beat that.

Last summer, one song revealed itself to be my favorite song of the summer, and it has maintained its place as my ringtone, so that has to mean something: "Animal" -- Neon Trees.  Though last summer wasn't as epic as that one summer, this song was played over and over on the radio, and I'm sure it was overplayed for normal people, but I couldn't get enough of it.  (I'm also one of those people who enjoyed "Chelsea Dagger" during the Stanley Cup the more it was played.)

This summer, I haven't listened to the radio enough to be able to tell what song is going to be the "song of the summer"...but I can tell you right now that I'm hoping that it's catchy.
My brother literally just introduced me to this song, so I may be overplaying it for myself:

I already love this song, and anyone living in or near my house this summer will probably get annoyed with it, but hey!  That's another thing that I've found out about summer songs: if you really want something to be your summer song, you don't have to try that hard and you definitely don't have to rely on the radio to dictate what that song will be.  I've decided that this will be my summer song.  Done deal.

"We’re going at it tonight tonight

There’s a party on the rooftop top of the world."

- Hot Chelle Rae