Between CharliXCX’s Brat (and its accompanying “Brat Summer”), Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” 2024 has produced several strong contenders for the “Song of the Summer” in the U.S. While this analysis doesn’t weigh in on which song is THE “Song of the Summer” (though Rolling Stone puts their stake in the ground here), we wanted to explore which genres U.S. consumers listen to the most when trying to beat the heat through the summer months.
Before diving in, it’s important to recognize that certain genres are already highly seasonal in nature, with Holiday/Seasonal being the most obvious example.
In the chart below, see the Country core genre and R&B subgenre’s average streaming (On-Demand Audio) performance over 2022 and 2023. Country music is generally oriented toward consumption in the summer months, while R&B is generally oriented toward consumption in the spring/fall/winter.
By comparing a genre’s average weekly on-demand audio streaming volumes in the summer months to its average weekly streaming volumes over a two-year timeframe (2022 – 2023), we can identify which genres are the most oriented toward summer.
This approach suggests Reggae is the most summer-oriented genre, with Country and Afrobeats also enjoying a sizable share of their streaming volumes over the summer months.
Inversely, R&B and Rap subgenres exhibit slightly lower streaming volumes during the summer, with Jazz and Classical – among other “traditional” genres – also under-indexing in the summer.
So while certain titles might contend for the “Song of the Summer” title in 2024, we hope this analysis can shed some broader light on when there might be seasonal advantages for release planning, and which genres/moods listeners like to pair with their beach days and their barbecues in the summer heat.
Please note, the reporting period – what we’ll refer to as “Summer” – for the data in this analysis are from 6/1-8/31 of 2022 and 2023 (i.e., June, July and August).
