Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” Called 2013 Summer Song

"A dance song about sex with a hook that won't quit? It's a no-brainer," one radio programmer told Billboard's radio analyst Sean Ross, who named “Get Lucky” the song of the summer in his column.

According to Duane Dudek at jsoneline.com, Ross compares interest in the "song of the summer" concept in the United States to interest abroad in quaint foreign rituals, like the Eurovision song contest or the annual U.K. Christmas No. 1 single competition portrayed in "Love Actually."

But Dudek wonders, are summer songs made or born that way? And just how in the age of Spotify and PPM, the radio analytic that tells stations exactly when listeners tune in and out, does a song reach that exalted status?

YouTube, TV shows and the consumer press publicity are all part of the equation when music labels attempt to create buzz for a song or artist.

"But radio confirms it," said Ross. "A big part of the summer song is hearing it everywhere ... without really trying to. And to do that you need radio.

"There are new ways to listen to music. But radio is the closer."

Summer songs of the recent past have included Kid Rock's Lynyrd Skynyrd riff "All Summer Long," Katy Perry's "California Gurls," the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," and what Ross calls "throw up your hands" songs like "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO.

Cousin Ed at WNRG 106.9 FM in Milwaukee says another contender this year is "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke.

A summer song, said Cousin Ed, "is the one song on the radio everybody wants to claim as theirs. 'That's my jam.' When you're by yourself you're singing it, and when you're with a group of people, you're singing it louder."

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