By: Jack Peng, Website Manager

Summer music is a staple to many vacations and these are the albums and hit singles that had us all sing along while relaxing. To kick off the summer, Tyler, the Creator released his second studio album, IGOR, hitting the top of the charts with his song “EARFQUAKE”. Following Tyler, Chris Brown took over the charts with his R&B album, Indigo. Its most popular song, “No Guidance”, which featured Drake and has 83 million views, and counting, on its music video. Trailed by, Daniel Caesar’s second studio album, Case Study 01; a great soul R&B album. A week later, J. Cole released Revenge of the Dreamers III, which brought many underground artists into the limelight with “Costa Rica” featuring nearly 10 rappers. On July 26^th, multiple artists released albums that hit the top of the charts, The Search by NF, my personal go-to album: The Sailor by Rich Brian, The Big Day by Chance the Rapper, and The Lost Boy by YBN Cordae. Surprisingly, NF beat all those three albums, reaching #1 on top charts that week

Midsummer, “Old Town Road” sparked popularity after being taken off country billboards for too much hip-hop influence. Soon after, Billy Ray Cyrus joined in on a remix of the song resulting in the #1 song for 17 weeks breaking a record previously held by Mariah Carey. Amongst this, an eight-year-old parody song by Minecraft YouTuber, CaptainSparklez and his song “Revenge”, a parody of Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love”, became #1 on Genius charts and held that place for a week. 

Following those array of songs, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello were constantly played on the radio with their song “Senorita”. Towards the end of summer, Drake dropped a compilation of unreleased songs, titled Care Package. A few weeks later, Young Thug released his first studio album So Much Fun. In his album, he collaborated with many A-list artists such as J. Cole, Travis Scott, and Future. A week later, pop star queen, Taylor Swift, published Lover with hits such as “You Need to Calm Down” and “Lover”. Recently, Post Malone released Hollywood’s Bleeding, hitting top charts with “Circles” and “Enemies”, which featured Freshmen XXL rapper DaBaby. This summer has been jam-packed with albums from many A-list musicians and soon to be mainstream artists. These artists surely delivered and left us all wanting more. Looking ahead, artist Kanye West will be releasing Jesus is King on September 27^th. The label, 88rising, will release Head in the Clouds II on October 11^th; featuring artists such as Rich Brian, Joji, and NIKI. I, for sure cannot wait for these to come out, this year has been full of splendid music.