Dear Summer of 2011,
We know you’re only about a week old, but you’re old enough to learn something very important. Your older brothers Summer of 2003, Summer of 2005 and your sister Summer of 2009 learned at a very young age what we’re about to tell you. Listen carefully because your life and legacy is dependent upon one thing and one thing alone: a great summer soundtrack.
There are three things we need you to understand to really get what it is that we’re trying to tell you: 1) The importance of a great summer soundtrack pre-dates you and your siblings, 2) Your siblings added to American history, much in the same way that the Kennedy brothers did, and you must follow in their footsteps, and 3) You can’t afford to wait around to get started and don't need to be limited in how you start either.
A great summer soundtrack has been an American standard since the advent of radio, and even more so since TV was invented. Back in Summer of 1963’s day, the Beach Boys put out ‘Surfin’ USA’, in Summer of 1983’s life Bananarama put out ‘Cruel Summer’ and Summer of 1991 will always be known for Will Smith (then known as Fresh Prince) and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s mega-hit ‘Summertime’. These songs are considered classics in American music, at least in summer dance parties. You can play these songs throughout wedding season and people will almost always dance. Even 20 years later, young people still know the lyrics to ‘Summertime’ and the chorus to ‘Cruel Summer’ nearly three decades later.
We don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but you’re already trailing behind history and your older brothers and sister because they set very high bars for you and didn’t wait so long to get started. Summer of 2003 had Chingy’s “Right Thurr” and Sean Paul’s “Get Busy”, but it’s Beyonce and Jay-Z’s “Crazy in Love” that really helped him come of age. Summer of 2005 helped make Rihanna a star with “Pon de Replay” and 50 Cent had “Just a Lil’ Bit”, but your brother’s big claim to fame was Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”.
Still, your sister outshines them both because she really showed how well rounded she was. She was actually born prematurely and ended up putting out ‘1901’ by Phoenix, Drake’s ‘Best I Ever Had’, Pitbull’s ‘I Know You Want Me’, Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Boom Boom Pow’ in the Spring of 2009 making her destined for greatness at a very early age. Then she followed with Grizzly Bear’s ‘Two Weeks’ as performed on The Late Show with David Letterman on July 23, 2008 and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Heads Will Roll’, which was released exactly two years ago today believe it or not.
Now we know you’re wondering how to go about creating this summer soundtrack and we're going to give you some tips from our experiences and others'. You can go the traditional route and ask your favorite artists to make a song with the word “summer” in it like ‘Summertime’ or ‘Cruel Summer’ or even Don Henley’s ‘The Boys of Summer’. You can go another fairly traditional route of finding some one-hit wonder to make a hot summer track like Len’s ‘Steal My Sunshine’ or Luniz’ ‘I Got 5 On it’ which will forever be the only song they are known widely for.
Some families have made a good living from one generation to another by staying in certain American cities. There’s the family from Miami who have done well by relying on disco summer songs like KC and the Sunshine Band’s ‘(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty’ in the ‘70s to Rick Ross’ ‘Hustlin’ for Summer of 2006. Detroit gave us the Summer of 1973 with Grand Funk Railroad’s ‘We’re An American Band’ and the Summer of 1999 with Kid Rock’s ‘Bawitdaba’ and is a first cousin of your brother Summer of 2003 thanks to Eminem’s ‘The Real Slim Shady’.
Still, there’s another option of sticking to a particular genre and being known primarily for that type of summer song. There’s Summer of 1993 and it’s flair for pop hits like Ace of Base’s ‘All She Wants’, The Proclaimers’ ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ and Tag Team’s ‘Whoomp! (There it Is)’. There are the triplet brothers Summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996, possibly the pinnacle of rap music before the deaths of both Tupac and Notorious B.I.G., with ’94 songs like ‘Regulate’ by Warren G and Nate Dogg (R.I.P.) and ‘Juicy’ by B.I.G. followed the next summer by ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ by Coolio and concluding in ’96 with ‘How Do U Want It’ by Tupac featuring K-Ci & JoJo. Those songs all live in some 29-year-old from Dallas, Texas’ iTunes library today. Trust us.
As you can see, creating your own legacy doesn’t mean you have to produce a certain type of summer soundtrack so long as the American people approve of it, like they often did of our music year after year. And by “American people” we're referring to teenagers and 20-somethings primarily since they have the most free time in the summer and absorb and grade music most feverishly, and 30- and 40-somethings secondarily because their kids are out of school for a couple of months and they still pretend to be ‘hip’ to what’s hot in music at any given moment.
The choice is yours, son. Your soundtrack can be rooted in a city, perhaps Atlanta…although T.I. appears to like the inside of a jail cell. Or maybe it’s firmly planted within one genre of music too. But we must warn you that your early results have already proven that Lady GaGa, Taylor Swift, Kesha, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry are incapable of creating a song that has the staying power of the aforementioned hits that span multiple Summer families and generations.
Actually, let's take that back, the choice is not yours. At least not yours alone. Your legacy is the combination of several people’s choices. Like Andre 3000 of Outkast’s choice to no longer make music we can dance to like Hey Ya! or Jay-Z and Pharrell choosing not to make another song like ‘Frontin’ (both Summer of ’03, your brother). It could be a choice from an artist like Justin Timberlake to actually put out a new album for the first time in five years or the choice of a major label executive to sign that artist who will become the next one-hit wonder, and provide you with your special anthem, despite that same artist’s inability to actually write songs and perform live in front of an audience.
Whatever it takes, whatever you have to do…know that we believe in you. And your brothers and sisters are sitting at the grown folks’ table and very eager to have you join them once you mature a little. However, you’ve got a lot to prove. Not just to your siblings, and us but also to the American people.
Summer of 2011, you were born into a world with a disappointing national economy, an NFL lockout (and a pending NBA lockout), the makings of a miserable presidential election in 2012 with people like Michelle Bachmann considered legitimate, record heat in places like Connecticut thanks to climate change, and the passage of a gay-marriage bill in New York State that still lacks a gay song to match! You see, these people really need your music.
Americans love their music, especially in the year’s hottest months. They need to feel it the second they hear it on the radio, walk onto the dance floor, turn on their car stereo, finish their first dance at the wedding, take their first shot at the club, throw their housewarming parties, take their daily commutes to work, start their weekends, cruise their city streets and open up that karaoke song book.
Needless to say, there’s a lot of pressure on you to perform and, more so, to succeed. Your life and legacy depends on it because Fall of 2011 is closer than you think and you’ll be left behind without even a moment’s thought if you don’t do something special. Like bring SexyBack.
Love always,
Your Mom a.k.a. Aretha Franklin
Queen of Soul
From Respect, Summer of ’65, to Freeway of Love, Summer of ’86
Your Dad a.k.a. Michael Jackson
King of Pop
From I'll Be There, Summer of '70 (with my brothers in the Jackson 5) to Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, Summer of ’79, to Scream, Summer of ‘95
Wow, what a post, really eye-catching.
I really admire your writing skills.
Posted by: Boy Suit | June 28, 2011 at 03:14 PM