Taylor Swift’s plan to win Song of Summer 2015 is going to work perfectly
In Taylor Swift’s otherwise immaculate career only a single goal has escaped her: having a Song of the Summer. Her wall is littered with platinum records, she’s won an Album of the Year at the Grammys and collected over 250 trophies from various awards shows from around the globe, but her best Song of Summer finish was just fifth all the way back in 2009 with “You Belong With Me.” I’ve long posited that you could probably engineer a Song of Summer if you really wanted one, and I believe that’s exactly what one of Hollywood’s most powerful women has done. Allow me to explain how she probably just beat the system.
First, Swift reworked her fourth single from “1989” to feature Kendrick Lamar, a stroke of genius that will be incredibly helpful in a quest for Song of Summer success. Since 2006, only “I Kissed A Girl” and “Call Me Maybe” haven’t featured a rap verse or been classified as a hip house song (a designation that applies to “I Gotta Feeling” and “Party Rock Anthem.”) This is only, of course, if you allow that Iggy Azalea is rapping, but I’m comfortable just ignoring “Fancy” in any equation. The other verses:
· Timbaland in “Promiscuous Girl”
· Jay-Z in “Umbrella”
· Snoop in “California Gurls”
· T.I. in “Blurred Lines”
Second, Swift went all out with the music video, teasing it across her vast expanse of social media accounts, employing a wide list of co-stars to help promote it and then debuting it at the beginning of the nationally broadcast Billboard Music Awards. The last three champions got tremendous boosts from their videos, with Justin Bieber powering “Call Me Maybe” to success, the talents of Emily Ratajkowski elevating “Blurred Lines” and Jimmy Fallon’s lip sync battle with Emma Stone utilizing “Fancy.” The youths who drive pop music love YouTube, and Swift gave them quite the video to consume over and over and over again (20 million views in the first day, a Vevo record). Also helping the cause? Russell Westbrook’s Instagram video, which got a shout out from Swift herself.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, Swift timed the release of this video – and the ensuing jump up the charts it would almost certainly portend – to the exact perfect moment. Timing is everything with Songs of Summer, and while “Shut Up and Dance” (27 weeks on the chart), “Trap Queen” (18 weeks), “See You Again” (11 weeks) and “Want To Want Me” (11 weeks) start to lose momentum, “Bad Blood” has hit number one as we head into June and will likely hold that crown until the crucial holiday of July 4. Eight of the last ten Song of Summer winners were number one around Independence Day weekend, with “Party Rock Anthem” and “I’ve Gotta Feeling” ascending a week later. If you’re number one for most of June and July, it’s really hard for anyone to wrestle the Song of Summer crown away.
(If you want to reference 2014 one more time, “Rude” became number on July 26 and held the crown for six weeks, but the “Fancy” damage was already done.)
It is possible “Bad Blood” does not win Song of Summer 2015, but it seems unlikely at this time. “Shut Up and Dance” would be a contender, but it’s been out for so long it’s hard to see it finding the kind of second wind you would need to ascend to the top. “See You Again” has been performing tremendously well and has over 350 million views on YouTube, but it hit number one on April 25 and seeing it sustain that kind of staying power for six more weeks seems like an impossible task. “Bad Blood” is at the top of iTunes and perhaps more importantly at the top of Shazam’s Future Hits listing. (Since “1989” isn’t on Spotify, we’re denied a data point, but it’s worth noting “See You Again” is still No. 1 there on the United States Top 50.) You can gamble on “Want To Want Me” or “Hey Mama,” but it doesn’t seem like either is going to have enough juice to take out the reigning queen of pop and Kendrick Lamar.
So I will echo the prediction of my fellow Song of Summer aficionado Rubie Edmondson and predict “Bad Blood” wins 2015 - just like T Swift wanted it to.
