What Was Your Song Of The Summer For 2013?

There are lots of ways to pick a song of the summer. For the summer of 2013, Billboard used a special chart based on the Hot 100, Music Machinery combined song plays and song fans while MTV went with fan voting via social media hashtags. Me? I don't care how many plays it got. If people didn't hear it booming from multiple sources on hot sunny days for weeks at a time, then it won't no Song of the Summer.

I tend to not follow such controversial issues at close hand, preferring to focus on more superficial matters, but Paul Lamere made some good points on his way to identifying the Song of the Summer. So I thought I'd take a look at different approaches and ask you, dear reader, what was your Song of the Summer?

Billboard: Robin Thicke – "Blurred Lines"

Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" was named Billboard's Song of the Summer for 2013:

"Billboard's annual Songs of the Summer running tally tracks the most popular songs based on cumulative performance on the weekly Hot 100 chart from Memorial Day through Labor Day."

Here's Billboard's Songs Of The Summer chart.

Music Machinery: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – "Can't Hold Us"

Paul Lamere has issues with this approach and so created his own chart that:

"shows a plot of the top 750 songs played over the summer. The plot represents the song plays vs the song fans. Songs on the upper right are the songs that have the most fans and are getting the most plays."

But, as Lamere points out, these stats, like others, are often subject to being gamed.

MTV: One Direction – "Best Song Ever"

The folks at MTV Video Music Awards turned to the fans to choose the 2013 Song of the Summer asking them to:

"Vote with the hashtags below on Twitter, Instagram and Vine. The best photos and videos will be featured here and on TV during the VMAs!"

Such an approach becomes as much about mobilizing fan support as getting an overall sense of who liked what.

What Was Your Song of the Summer for 2013?

Personally I don't have one. I didn't really get a sense of one song that stuck out and followed me wherever I went. But I'm not a very good judge of such things these days.

What was your pick that defined the Summer of 2013?

And how did you decide that was the one?

[Thumbnail image courtesy Moyan Brenn.]

More:

• What 'The Fox' Say? Norway's 'Song of the Summer' Could Be 2013's 'Friday'
• 5 songs by Latin artists you'll be blasting all season long
• The Drop.fm: Top 15 Songs of Summer 2013

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.