What makes the perfect song of the summer? Professor Devon Powers studies summer songs. She says every great summer songs usually has three things: a memorable chorus, a beat that makes you feel good and lyrics anyone can swing.
In this episode of Profoundly Pointless we look a the last 25 years of Songs of the Summer. We talk making the perfect summer song, the behind the scenes marketing that turn ordinary songs into massive hits and why we sometimes don’t have a song of the summer.
Then, in the Pointless part of the show, we countdown the Top 5 Summer Songs.
00:00 Introducing Professor Devon Powers
00:58 What Makes a Good Summer Song
06:62 A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey
09:23 Despacito by Daddy Yankee
10:19 Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke
11:55 Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jespen
15:38 The Simple Complexity of Summer Song
18:04 Old Town Road by Lil Nas X
19:30 Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO
21:21 The Best Song of the Summer
22:19 The Worst Song of the Summer
24:20 Timing the Song of the Summer
26:26 2026’s Song of the Summer
27:37 Pointless
46:18 The Top 5 Summer Songs
Interview with Song Researcher Devon Powers
Speaker 1 0:01
Nick,
Nick VinZant 0:12
welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, summer songs and summer songs
Devon Powers 0:21
as a phenomenon, it just like lit it on fire, and she kind of broke something open that I feel like had not been broken open before, but it is the the watershed moment of our contemporary era.
Nick VinZant 0:38
I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a rating or a review. We really appreciate it. Really helps out the show. So I want to get right to our first guest, because she studies what makes the song of the summer the song of the summer. This is Professor Devin Powers. What makes a good summer song?
Devon Powers 1:00
A good summer song is a song that makes people feel and think that it's summer, you know. It's one that gives off a summer vibe. Is
Nick VinZant 1:09
it something about the music, or is it something about the time?
Devon Powers 1:14
I think there are aspects that summer songs of the summer share, you know, like I think they tend to be upbeat, they tend to be happy, they tend to be about summer, or like, you know, about things that people do in the summer, but you know, really, it's about the experience that you have, and the sort of like vibe that a song makes you, you know, evokes, and that doesn't necessarily mean that the song has to be kind of about the summer,
Nick VinZant 1:41
do we seem to kind of coalesce around one
Devon Powers 1:45
of the inputs that it has to do with is like what people are talking about, what are music critics talking about, what are people who you know, influencers who have a lot of following online, what are those people talking about, what's kind of the conversation, right, and of course that's like one of many conversations, but it's part of this kind of like cultural dominant, if you will, and I think that that tends to coalesce around a couple of songs. Last year, 2025 it didn't, and that's one of the reasons why people say there wasn't really a 2025 song in the summer.
Nick VinZant 2:16
I was thinking about that, like that was the first year that I felt recently, or at least in my lifetime, like, oh, there wasn't really a big song of the summer.
Devon Powers 2:25
There were so many like eulogies for the song of the summer in 2025 because there wasn't kind of that, you know, that espresso or that despacito, like the song that kind of felt like it was everywhere. That's not the first time it has had that has happened, right? Like, there have been summers prior to 2025 where there was not kind of like one dominant song, and, but you know, I think when people think about 2025 they think, oh, you know, with streaming, with fragmentation, and with kind of the political environment and the climate, like, there were all these different things that were happening that meant that the cultural consensus kind of didn't emerge the same way that it had in previous years, but you know, again, what, what is a cultural consensus, like, we could have a long debate about that,
Nick VinZant 3:15
we'll get into this in a little bit, but I noticed when I looked at, like, the official and official in quotes, list of songs of the summer, the older ones I would go, like, oh yeah, absolutely. And as we've gotten more closer to today, I have much more disagreement about it, like, I don't know about that. Is that kind of, you think, part of this?
Devon Powers 3:39
Yeah, I think that that's absolutely part of it. Well, there's a couple of things. One, I think it's some of it is aging, right? So, like, the older you get, the less you're kind of plugged into that kind of youth culture where songs are new and you're excited about every new, you know, song by whatever artist is coming out. So, some of it is that, but I really do think some of it has to do with public spaces where people are listening to music, and if you think about it, you know, I was driving yesterday, and I heard Lucky Star, right, Madonna, Lucky Star, from like 1980 whatever, and I rolled my windows down, and I turned it up, and I obviously looked like an old person doing that, but also it reminded me, like, how often am I hearing what other people are listening to, it's not that often, you know. I have my headphones in, I have my earbuds in, I'm walking around, everybody else does too, you know. Maybe in a store, but in a store, you're hearing the playlist of, you know, whatever clerk or barista is like controlling that thing, so that's not necessarily going to be the same everywhere, whereas when you were a little kid, if when I was a little kid, I went to the grocery store, I heard the same songs that I heard on the radio, which were the same songs that I heard kids playing in the park when I went to play, which were the same songs that were playing, you know, at the school dance, or whatever it is, right? So all of those things made it easier to kind of know what other people were doing. And have more of a consensus,
Nick VinZant 5:01
yeah, that's that's true. The disappearance of just general music in public has definitely happened, as people have kind of privatized that a little bit more. When you talked about the idea that how these songs come up, do they usually seem to be coming from the ground up, and that people like them, then the influencers start talking about them, then that kind of fuels it, or do the influencers set the tone, and then the public kind of decides what the song of the summer is.
Devon Powers 5:29
That is a great question, and I think it's a mix of those two things, and I also think it's, it's hard, and it's getting harder to know. So, just to use one example, if we go back to summer 2024 Brat Summer, right? Like, whether or not you thought that you know anything on that album was the song of the summer, it was Brat Summer, like that was the name of the summer, right? Like, I feel like there was a lot of consensus around that, and that was a sort of a lot of grassroots and fan interest in Charlie XCX, but it was also a fantastic and perfectly timed marketing campaign, right, that was executed brilliantly, and that involved some of the sort of, you know, seeding things, if you will, on social media, right, like getting people to, like, cross post stuff, for example, feeding the songs and feeding the album into the right influencers who are positioned in the right places, right. So all of that happened, right. And because it worked so well, right, these campaigns don't always work that well, but because it worked well, it felt organic. And you know, what do you want to call that? Do you want to call that top down or do you want to call that bottom up? It's kind of a hybrid, you know, so I think that it's often that those two things really kind of work together, and that's true now, and it was true in the 80s, and in the 90s, and in the 2000s as well.
Nick VinZant 6:52
Can we just look at a couple of the songs that have been songs of the summer, and then get your thoughts on them? So, the first one that I picked out was a bar song by Shabuzi that was to me like, oh, that was the song of the summer,
Devon Powers 7:06
yeah, that song was the song of the summer, and it was also the song of the fall and the winter, and like, like that song was on the charts for so long, and I think still, if you look at, like, a couple of months ago, like, I looked at the Shazam songs that were Mo Shazam, and it was still up there, right? So that song kind of blasted through many, many different layers of culture and has like a lot of staying power. One of the things I love about that song is that it's based on that Jaekquan Tipsy song.
Nick VinZant 7:34
Yeah, I remember that.
Devon Powers 7:36
Yeah, which not everybody knows, right? But I think that's one of the things that made that song sort of pop for people, because if you were young, you're like, no, this is just like, you know, this is just a really great song. If you're older, you're like, wait a second, I remember that chorus, right? So I think it's kind of cut through demographics for that reason, and obviously that song is like a country song, but it's also like kind of a rap song, right? So it kind of bridges demographics in that way too. And I just think, you know, it's brilliant for that reason.
Nick VinZant 8:08
Do is that the kind of song that when you first heard it, you were like, that's gonna be big.
Devon Powers 8:13
I, you know what it is? It's the kind of song that you hear it and you go, what's that, right? That's the reason that I think people Shazam it so often, because if you haven't heard it, you go, I've never heard anything like this, you know. And I think it's got that kind of, you know, it's got that beat that just kind of like almost that stomping kind of throughout the song, and it just carries you through. And I just feel like you just, you just want to know what it is you want it. The conversation stops, and you go, what am I hearing? Yeah,
Nick VinZant 8:40
it definitely crossed. I feel like so many different lines in the terms of like country people could get behind it, rap people could get behind it, pop people could get behind it. Yeah, from in when we look at its musicality, I don't know if that's the right word or not. Is there anything special about
Devon Powers 8:56
it? You know, I think it's got pretty easy lyrics, you know, it's got a chorus that, like, keeps coming back, and you know what it's going to be, and that's a very, almost like a sing-along kind of chorus, you know. So you can imagine being in a room, being in a bar, for example, and everybody singing that song, and I think that's another thing that kind of makes it, you know, a very collective kind of everybody likes this kind of song,
Nick VinZant 9:23
Despacito by Daddy Yankee.
Devon Powers 9:26
So that song is interesting because it was released in January, and then they added Justin Bieber to it. I want to say in like April of that year, that was 2017 right? And so that song, like Justin Bieber, changed that song for a lot of people, I think, and brought in kind of all of that fandom to the song, and so as a phenomenon it just like lit it on fire, and I can remember that summer, and like you could not escape Desucito, it was also like kind of sexy, a little bit dirty in that. Sense, right? So I think that there was a little bit of a very small amount of, like, a pearl clutching response to it, especially the video, if you remember, like it was a very sensual video. So I think that really kind of helped, you know, push that one along, for sure,
Nick VinZant 10:19
sticking with a little bit of the controversy, for lack of a better phrase, Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, that's another one that it's like I remember that song, but was that really the song of the summer?
Devon Powers 10:30
That song, I mean, another inescapable song, another very sexy video, and that had a lot to do with why that song kind of, I mean, that video was almost like X-rated for people, you know, and that song, you know, it's got the Marvin Gaye hook in it, and it's just like it is, it is definitely a jam, but it's also like one of those songs that's aged really badly, and it's aged badly, not just because of the copyright controversy I mentioned in the Marvin Gaye thing, but obviously the content of that song in the wake of the Me Too movement, and this idea that you're supposed to sort of push a sexual encounter with somebody that maybe isn't sending you clear signals that you know that goes to the same place that, like, Louis CK went, you know, it's kind of been retired among like the way that people are comfortable talking about sex and sexual relations and those kind of things, so for me, like 2013 was about Get Lucky, which is also, you know, kind of a song about, about, you know, relations, but it's a much happier, much kind of like more benign approach to those same themes, and it's just like that is a dance song, you know. So I would say that the song of 2013 was Get Lucky,
Nick VinZant 11:55
go back in time a little bit, call me maybe Carly Rae Jepsen, that was another one that I remember. If I was gonna like tier list summer songs, that one to me was really big too.
Devon Powers 12:08
That is a song that is an ear worm, right? So the thing about that song is, once you get it in your head, you cannot get it out of your head. And anybody who's listening to this, if you know, call me maybe, if you haven't listened to it a while, you probably can call it to mind, right, it's got that infectious chorus, you know, it's got that kind of looping structure, it's very cute, it's very, you know, sweet and benign, and yeah, it's just like, again, totally inescapable, one
Nick VinZant 12:36
that is not on this official, official in quotes list of song of the summers, espresso is not on this Harry Styles as it was, is is that surprising to you? Because I remember espresso being like, oh, that's the song of the summer, at least I thought that,
Devon Powers 12:53
you know, this is one of those questions where we get into a debate about who gets to say what the song of the summer is, and how is that calculated, you know, is it by streams, is it by chart placement, is it by sales, is it by tours? Is it, you know, there's all so many different directions you could go, you know. I think that, as it was an espresso, are in some ways very, very similar songs, right? They're like kind of that mid tempo, they are major keys, they are sort of like light and airy, and they just kind of wash over you in this kind of like happy, you know? You feel, you feel your mood elevates when you listen to them, and you don't even have to be paying attention, right? You could be in a coffee shop, and as it once comes on, and suddenly everybody has a little bit of a spring in their step, and they can't even tell you why, right, and they do that without while also being memorable, right. So they're not just musical wallpaper, which sounds kind of like an insult, but I do think that in the sense that they can kind of seamlessly seep into whatever vibe you're in, but they also are memorable, right. They have really, really strong hooks, really good choruses, really easy to learn, you can learn the chorus the first time you listen to the song, and you can sing it by the end of the song, and then the next time you know it. Is
Nick VinZant 14:09
there anything more to that from a musical standpoint? Like, okay, we kind of talked about the idea of like they're upbeat, they're easy to remember, but is there anything more from a musicality standpoint, like they're using three quarter time, or I don't know enough about music to even ask you this question correctly, but is there more to that layer? I guess
Devon Powers 14:30
I mean, most songs are in four four or two four, like some kind of, you know, they're not in three four, they're not interpret, they have a very regular beat, that's just the, that's just the structure, you know, that's like dominant through pop music. It says I should say dominant through kind of like a mainstream vein of pop music, right? You hear things that are have more triplets and whatnot in other places, but yeah, I think that that that having that and being in a major key is kind of like and being. In a sort of, in a mid-range, which makes it easy to sing, and easy for, you know, people have different ranges in their voices, but the voice that, like a teenage girl, or, like, you know, the voice that you can sing, you know, that's kind of, that's important as well, right, to have something that's really singable for a lot of people, that's not a stretch, that's not doing a bunch of vocal gymnastics. It's just, you know, if you think about it, like espresso has like five notes, maybe four notes, right? I'd have to look at the music to know, but it doesn't, it doesn't have very many. It's not a complicated song, you know.
Nick VinZant 15:38
Would you say that they're generally simple songs, or they know they're complex, but they're simple in their complexity. Does that make sense? What I'm asking,
Devon Powers 15:48
yeah, it does. And I would, I think that simple is a little bit of a misnomer, because to write a really catchy song is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it, and we would know every song that's been ever been written, and we don't, right? So, the fact that we don't means that it takes a lot of talent and skill to put together a song, even if that song is four notes and two chords, right? But that said, like, I do think that when something is kind of like distilled down to that essence, and it doesn't have a lot of, you know, can like a Mariah Carey song, like
Nick VinZant 16:24
right,
Devon Powers 16:25
most people can't sing along to that, even a Chapel Road song, you know, who like, like Hot to Go, you can sing along to that song, but Chaparrone has a fantastic voice, and so there's a lot of things she does with her voice that most people cannot do, but like espresso, people can do that,
Nick VinZant 16:42
so some of the ones from the early 2000s Mariah Carey, We Belong Together, Usher Confessions, Part Two, those are both slower songs, if I remember, like Usher Confessions was a song of the summer,
Devon Powers 17:00
I don't remember that song as a song of the summer. Yeah, if we, you know, if again, if we get into the designation of the song of the summer, every summer there is a song that's very popular, and that's probably goes back time in memoriam, right? But the tracing of the song of the summer and the competition for the song of the summer is much, much, much newer, right. So, Billboard doesn't launch their song of the summer chart until 2010 right. So, again, to whatever degree you think Billboard is or isn't an official arbiter of this thing, that doesn't happen till 2010 right. So, it's really like late 90s forward, that you start to see people talking about the song of the summer as like a thing and honorific and a competition that people want to have, and before that, and even I would say even the early 2000s it's a little more iffy than it is after, say, like about 2010 yeah, and really like 2020 13 is when you start to get like, oh yeah, I know what these songs are.
Nick VinZant 18:04
Old Town Road,
Devon Powers 18:06
Old Town Road is one of those songs that I don't even think of it as a song of the summer, so much as like a song of the century, like a song of the song of the year, really, because that song was just Lil Nas X, and then he brings Billy Ray Cyrus on, kind of in a similar way to Despacito bringing, bringing Justin Bieber, Justin Bieber on, right? So, so that song, Old Town Road, changes the game, right, because it's a rap song and a country song, and it's not the first time that people had tried to bring those two songs together, but it is the the watershed moment of our contemporary era, right? And it's how we get Lil Nas X as a star, right? And the thing about, like, Old Town Road is that that song is so easy to learn, it has the chorus is like the whole song, the song is what, like two and a half minutes long. Yeah, it's got these verses. The verses are super easy. It's got a very clear story. I remember watching videos in 2019 of like, like assembly rooms full of children singing that song, you know, and so, like, any song that you can play for five year olds, and they love it, and you can also play it at the club, is like, that is a song, right? This one is one
Nick VinZant 19:30
that seemed to be a little bit faster tempo than some of the other ones, but LMFAO party rock anthem.
Devon Powers 19:37
Oh my gosh, that song is so good. That song was a gimmick. It had a very, very funny video. They were sort.. it was almost a novelty song, you know, like Grandma Got Run Over by Reindeer or something. Like, it was almost like that. It was a caricature of a party song that was also a party song, and I think that. For that reason, it both hit the people who wanted to just be like, this is literal, this is just like I'm putting this on and I'm going out with my friends, and the people who wanted to think of themselves as like this is a commentary on partying, and it just got all of those people, so
Nick VinZant 20:17
a lot of the songs that we've talked about, they seem to have this undercurrent of nostalgia, you know, like a bar song, Old Town Road bringing back Billy Ray Cyrus. Is there usually a component of nostalgia in some of these?
Devon Powers 20:32
I think the nostalgia element, or the kind of retro element that you're calling attention to, has more to do with where music is right now than it does songs of the summer, per se, right. So, if you think about, like, covers, remixes, bringing back house music, right, bringing back different forms of dance music, right, looking at, you know, there's just all of these kind of like revivals that happen cyclically across music for the last 20 years or so, that's really kind of been the case, and I don't want to say that there's nothing new under the sun, but there is a lot of like rehashing of old things to themes of things coming back in style, etc. etc. And so I think that shows up in the song of the summer, but it shows up everywhere else too.
Nick VinZant 21:21
Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? What, in your personal opinion, is the best song of the summer?
Devon Powers 21:30
I'm gonna go on a, on a weird limb and say that it's California Girls by Katy Perry, which I know is a strange choice, but the reason I'm saying that is actually because of the Snoop Dogg cameo in that song, and I think that song is part of why Snoop Dogg has become a national treasure, and it sort of marks this like launch of this kind of new cultural position for him, and it's also a bop, and also like it's really singable, and it's really fun, and it was kind of Pete Katy Perry,
Nick VinZant 22:08
and I get what you mean with Snoop Dogg, where he was famous in certain circles, and then how like that launched him into where he's commenting on the Olympics.
Devon Powers 22:17
Yes, absolutely, absolutely right, I get that.
Nick VinZant 22:19
What do you think is the worst one
Devon Powers 22:22
magic rude 2014 which I don't know. Oh, yes, you do. Do you? Don't, don't make me sing it. I'm
Nick VinZant 22:33
unfamiliar. You don't have to sing it. Do you remember the lyrics?
Devon Powers 22:36
It's yeah, it's why you gotta be so rude, I I
Nick VinZant 22:43
hated that song.
Devon Powers 22:45
Yeah, but that song, like 2014 you could not escape that song.
Nick VinZant 22:51
Are these good songs? Like, would you take any of the songs that are songs of the summer? Did they have a chance of being in the top 100 songs of all time, like those are good songs. Are these just flavor of the month that sometimes goes on for more months
Devon Powers 23:14
in terms of songwriting? Some of them are very nicely written songs, like I think As It Was is a very, very nicely written song, you know, but if we're looking for virtuosity, if we're looking for, you know, someone with a spectacular voice doing gymnastics with their voice, if we're looking for complexity, if we're looking for, you know, some song that really totally breaks new ground, I don't think you necessarily have a lot of that. The one caveat I will give, in kind of recent memory, I think Chapel Rone is doing some very, very interesting things musically. I think she's got an amazing public persona as well to go with those songs, and she kind of broke something open that I feel like had not been broken open before, so you know, whether you want to say like Pink Pony Club or Hot to Go, or either one, I'm not sure when they were released, because songs of the summer are usually released in like April or May or something, but both of those songs, like, I couldn't, I couldn't avoid hearing them,
Nick VinZant 24:20
could the song of 2016 be the song of 2021 Like, did these songs seem to adhere to something that, like, yeah, but it had to be that year.
Devon Powers 24:33
I think that songs don't have time, and what I mean by that is, you know, if we look at 2025 for example, two of the most popular artists in 2025 were Radiohead, because Let Down became kind of a meme, and Goo Goo Dolls, because Iris became a sort of social media meme, and so in that sense, like those songs are. From the 90s, why were people listening to them, and they were listening to them because they served a purpose in 2025 So, in that sense, like songs can be whenever, right, as long as people attach to them again and find a reason and a value in them, then they don't have to be of their moment. That said, like, people are writing songs about World Cup 2026 and you know, or when you drop, like, you know, post it to my Myspace lyric in a song, right, that's like immediately dates the song, and there are lots of songs out there that are like that, right, that will always be kind of frozen in the moment that they came out.
Nick VinZant 25:41
Has there ever been a sad song of the summer?
Devon Powers 25:45
You know, this year Olivia Rodrigo, The Cure is kind of a saddish song. I think of, I mean, I think Olivia Rodrigo is a really interesting artist because she's super, super popular and very pop, but she's not her music is not always happy. In fact, it's usually not that happy. So, if people get really into that song, then maybe that'll be the song of the summer. You could also look back at Somber, Back to Friends, right? That song's not really happy, but it is. It did have a real kind of moment during the summer last summer.
Nick VinZant 26:26
What are your early favorites for 2026
Devon Powers 26:30
Anything but Drake.
Nick VinZant 26:36
I have not heard any of his new music.
Devon Powers 26:40
Yeah, so Drake released those three albums a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, you know, the there's different theories, but one theory is that he was trying to get out of his contract, and he had three albums he had to deliver, and he delivered three albums, and he maybe had an album and a half of material, but he delivered three albums, but Drake is Drake, so when Drake releases material, people are going to listen to it, and if you look at the Billboard top songs of the summer chart, the number one song for the week of june 6 was Janice STFU, like, so that's, you know, that's showing the power of Drake over the culture.
Nick VinZant 27:21
I want to thank Professor Powers so much for joining us. If you want to connect with her, we have linked to her on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and we've also included her information in the episode description. Okay, now let's bring in John Scholl and get to the pointless part of the show. How do you feel about people who back into parking spaces?
John Shull 27:46
I don't really think one one way or the other.
Nick VinZant 27:48
I generally have a slight amount of judgment for people who back into parking spaces. I mean, I don't. I look down on them ever so slightly when you back into a parking space,
John Shull 28:02
we've documented my parking lot anxiety, so the further I can get in, the more air parentheses control that I can have over parking, which is obviously easier to pull out of a parking spot than back out of a parking spot. I'm all for it.
Nick VinZant 28:22
See, that's why I have a little bit of a judgment, is because I think when you're backing into a parking space, you're essentially saying I can't back out of the parking space, I'm not a good enough driver to be able to back out in difficult circumstances, so I can only pull forward. That to me is what you're saying, you're admitting you're admitting defeat, and that's why I have a little bit of judgment towards it.
John Shull 28:46
I mean, I don't, I don't blame anybody for that. Maybe it's just also easier, like I said, I feel,
Nick VinZant 28:53
but it's not easier, because either way you have to back in, either way you have to back up at some point, so it's kind of like you've got to add something up to three, you've either got to do two in the first round and one in the next, or one in the first round and two in the next, like, so it's not easier
John Shull 29:11
if you put it that way, then it's, it's for me it would be better to get the hard part out of the way first, that way you don't have to worry about
Nick VinZant 29:19
it, okay, okay, I also do tend to notice a pattern that people who back into parking spaces are mainly bigger cars, mainly like trucks and big SUVs are backing into parking spaces. I think it's because they're not good enough drivers to just make the turn and park correctly in the first place.
John Shull 29:39
I mean, I'm not gonna hate on anybody for trying to park one of those. Those are not easy cars to park. I, I wouldn't even try it at that point. I would just park six spaces away from somebody.
Nick VinZant 29:52
That's the thing, too. That's what I would respect that more if you just park way away from everybody. I don't like the fact that you don't have as much judgment about backing. Parking, as I do, and I think that you're secretly trying to kind of apologize for them because you want to be one of them. You would be a bark back in Parker full time if you, if it was allowed.
John Shull 30:10
I mean, I'm a pad time, I'm a part-time backer inner. I do do it at like large events, like sporting events, concerts, things like that, because there's no way that I'm like, you know, there's already going to be a line first, right, to try to get out of the venue, or wherever, and then you have to, you know, you have to back out. There's, there's a lot of anxiety, so I'd rather just be able just to pull out, maybe have to cut somebody off if I have to, and it's just easier that way.
Nick VinZant 30:40
I think that we have gotten to the root of the issue on both of us, right? Like, so back in parkers are ultimately slightly afraid of leaving, they're afraid they're not going to be able to get out, they're just afraid they're not going to be heard. So back in parkers are inferior to other people.
John Shull 30:57
Wow, I feel like you're going real deep on that, I don't think that I do think it takes more, a level, more of a level of thought than just pulling into a spot. The only way that I would actually judge someone for backing into a spot is if you know the parking lot or whatever was kind of sparse and then still back into a spot, then I'd be like, hmm, you know, you didn't necessarily didn't have to, but I'm cool with it, I'm not gonna pass judgment one way or the other,
Nick VinZant 31:30
okay, I'm gonna pass a little bit of judgment, 10 to 25% judgment is what you're getting from me if you're back in Parker,
John Shull 31:39
how about this? Who would you have more judgment against? Someone who back in parks when they, when they don't have to, or somebody who stops in a handicap spot, runs into the store, and then comes back out real fast.
Nick VinZant 31:54
Oh, the person who parks in a handicap spot. You can't do that. Can't do that. I won't even use the handicap stalls at bathrooms, like, no, that's reserved for somebody who needs it. You can leave that alone.
John Shull 32:08
You must be going to much nicer places than me. I mean, I don't, I don't think I've really ever seen a handicap-only bathroom. I mean, there's accessible bathrooms, if that's what is that what you mean? Like, accessible
Nick VinZant 32:19
bathroom, yeah, like the one that's usually at the end, the bigger one.
John Shull 32:23
I mean, I've used those before.
Nick VinZant 32:25
You shouldn't. You shouldn't. I have a good friend that ran into an incident once, somebody was in there and his son needed to use it. Don't do that. Don't be that guy, man. Don't be using handicap things when you don't need it. Just get through life. Wait, have you done that? Have you parked into a handicap stall and ran in?
John Shull 32:46
No, I've never. I've never parked. No, I've never done that. And I actually do judge people who I see do that, because I just, I just think it's tasteless, like a lot of times it's 10 extra steps, and you're clearly not handicapped, at least physically. And then the bathroom thing, I am usually with my children, and it's a bigger stall, so it's easier to use. That's a little bit of
Nick VinZant 33:11
a pass. I'll give you more of a pass for that now. If you were just using it on your own, I'm like, no, dude, you gotta get out of there. Obviously, if somebody
John Shull 33:18
comes, comes in that needs it, I mean, you know, you do what you can. It's not like you're using it to piss off the handicap community, but no, I don't mess around with handicap spots in parking lots. I don't even get that close to the front of the store. I just know I'd rather, yeah, and I just pull in, man.
Nick VinZant 33:36
Uh, you got, you got, you ready for shout outs there? Let's,
John Shull 33:40
let's get going here. I got a good first one here in memory of my favorite club. So we start with Luna Roach, Abdul Rahman Ponce, Liana Garcia, Margie Graves, Donna Sweeney, Holly Reynolds, Daisy Brennan, Dylan Butler, Mark Singh, and Harry Smith,
Nick VinZant 34:05
we'll talk about your mustache. We're gonna leave that alone. Just wanna know,
John Shull 34:10
I mean, what I mean, we can talk about if you want. I don't. How about there? How about you ask me, how many days it's been since I've shaved, and in that way the people listening will have an idea of what it looks like.
Nick VinZant 34:22
Okay, but I know you don't grow a lot of facial hair, so I on me, which I can grow a mustache. I don't grow a lot of facial hair, but I can grow a mustache pretty quickly. That's probably three days, maybe two,
John Shull 34:42
okay. Okay,
Nick VinZant 34:44
I bet that's been a week for you.
John Shull 34:47
Yeah, at least, probably more like going on day nine or 10, maybe 11, but it's definitely been a week.
Nick VinZant 34:53
You really can't grow facial hair. You really
John Shull 34:59
can't grow, I. It is what it is. I don't, you know,
Nick VinZant 35:02
are there a club, right? Like, there's clubs, and there's all kinds of things for men who are bald. Are there clubs and organizations for men who can't grow facial hair? Do you want to be the president?
John Shull 35:13
I mean, there's that, there's that, that hair in what's it called, hair,
Nick VinZant 35:20
hair club for men
John Shull 35:21
implanting thing in Turkey, where people go to Turkey, and apparently they have some thing there where they can have hair, they can do it for your facial hair too. I was reading, but I'm not gonna, I'm not that desperate.
Nick VinZant 35:33
Could you like what kind of facial hair would you get implanted? Like, you just really want to grow a mustache, it'd have to be a beard. You, the only reason that I could see somebody going and getting facial hair implants is if they thought a beard could really make their jawline look better. That would be the only justification I could see, because I couldn't see somebody just being like, "Man, I've always wanted a mustache.
John Shull 36:02
I mean mean, I don't want a beard, I don't want a mustache, I don't want any facial hair, like I just haven't shaved, because I just haven't shaved, but, like, I, you know, we both have friends, I'm sure, or know people that have just these big bushy beards, and I'm like, How do you live with that thing on your face, I mean, it's so itchy to
Nick VinZant 36:23
me. It seems so itchy.
John Shull 36:26
It's.. I will say this, I think the.. because I think the mustache is back. I think, and I think it's ridiculous looking. I've always thought mustaches, unless you're like a cowboy in 1809 like it just, they just make no sense, and I'm not even sure what a mustache really does, other than catch all the shit before it hits your nose. I guess
Nick VinZant 36:50
I'm gonna go out on the limb here and give my controversial opinion that if you're growing a mustache, you've run out of things to do. You have run out of things to do if you're just gonna like, I'm going to grow a mustache. There are people like I know a couple of people with beards, though, that I think grow them out so they look much different, like some people without a beard, like, oh, you look a lot different without that beard.
John Shull 37:16
Well, Jelly Roll just said this, actually, and I agree with him that bigger guys grow beards because it hides their chins and their fat
Nick VinZant 37:25
rolls,
John Shull 37:26
and I, I don't disagree with that, but also, like, I feel like you have to pull it off.
Nick VinZant 37:34
Yeah,
John Shull 37:34
you have to be able to pull it off.
Nick VinZant 37:36
You are a bigger man than I am. Do you have a lot of green shirts? I have always had this theory that bigger guys really like to have a lot of green shirts.
John Shull 37:53
No, I have primarily three colors of shirt in my closet. Now I do have a one or two green shirts. Yes, exactly.
Nick VinZant 38:02
I don't own a single green shirt.
John Shull 38:04
Well, that's okay. Then I mean, green is a main color. I mean, by chance you should have one, even if it's a polo or something.
Nick VinZant 38:13
I think that green shirts are reserved for bigger guys. Skinny guys don't wear green shirts. Look around, so anxiety.
John Shull 38:24
I think white shirts are for skinny guys. So,
Nick VinZant 38:27
I mean, you just made that up. Just look around now. Once you're aware of the big guy green shirt phenomenon, you will notice that, like, tell me the next time you see a skinnier guy in a green shirt, it's not. It's a bigger guy. Bigger guys love green shirts. It's my theory. Wow,
John Shull 38:44
I've kind of lost interest in this conversation.
Nick VinZant 38:46
Okay, all right. Well, then let's move on.
John Shull 38:50
I mean, how can we not talk about last night, which is the NBA Finals and the game, you know? First off, a ticket to game three, it's if you're not familiar with the NBA, it's the San Antonio Spurs versus the New York Knicks, blah blah blah. The starting ticket for game three in New York was like $10,000 which is absurd. President Trump, for all of our American listeners, there, here was there, which was a catastrophe in terms of they had to shut down, or they like the bars and viewing parties around the arena were asked not to do anything due to security concerns for the president being there, which seems really shitty on the president's part, you know, taking away all that business, and then the game happens. The Spurs beat the Knicks, which I think it's two one now. New York still in the lead, but then after the game, New York fans, there's tons of videos on social media of Knicks fans just like randomly attacking Spurs fans, like be. Them up, ripping off their jerseys, like there's this really.. it's really sad, actually. And it doesn't look like this person.. like, you know, you never know, but it doesn't look like the Spurs fan is walking by himself. It doesn't look like he's trying to cause any trouble, and Knicks fans are like, "Spurs jersey, Spurs jersey, and they just start jumping this guy, and he starts trying to fight him off, and of course, like, you know, one against 20, you're never going to win, and they beat him up pretty bad, and took his jersey, and it's like, so, anyways, I just wanted to talk, you know, I just wanted to bring that up, like, with the World Cup here, I don't think we could have done a worse job as a country of anything for the World Cup promotion, security wise, all this stuff, like it's all terrible, and you know, then you have that yesterday, and I just, I just, I'm thinking to myself, like, what are, what are we doing, like that's why my question to you is, would you take your kids, you know, because you have two younger boys, just like I have two young little girls, like, would you take them to a football game, or like a high stakes playoff game, like I know I won't,
Nick VinZant 41:04
no, I would not, and I certainly wouldn't, like you gotta know where you are in life, like I would not go to another team stadium that's really fired up wearing the opposing team's jersey, like, I just wouldn't do that. I think to some degree you should. This shouldn't happen. I don't think anybody's arguing that it should, but like, don't, don't do, don't do that. Don't go into a hostile environment trying to egg on the hostile environment. Like, if I was in that situation, I'm not wearing a Spurs jersey, I'm not wearing a Spurs jersey, there,
John Shull 41:43
I mean, I'm not going to sound all machismo, but I mean, I would, I would wear a Detroit jersey, because I just don't think, you know, you know, I, I wouldn't think that would happen, right? Like, if
Nick VinZant 41:54
this, this is the championship, though, right? So, why would you even need to be in a situation where you would be wearing a Detroit jersey to a championship. Detroit never plays at a championship. You would never be in this situation. Why would you even think about it? There's no chance that a Detroit team will ever be playing for a championship. So this is essentially a problem that you don't even have to worry about.
John Shull 42:18
I mean, do you want me to give you the 32nd ramble on the state of Detroit sports, because I can make you feel much better.
Nick VinZant 42:24
They're terrible, they're terrible, they're all terrible. Go ahead, our go ahead.
John Shull 42:28
Our captain of the Detroit Wet Red Wings, our hockey team requested a trade this week. He's the captain, and he wants to leave now. Fine, be gone. But anyways, yeah. Did the Pistons made the playoffs, by the way? Did Seattle, do they have, do they even have a basketball team anymore, or did they know?
Nick VinZant 42:49
Because they have a championship football team and won the Super Bowl. What's basketball? I'm sorry, what's that like? The number three, number four sport. I care about football championship.
John Shull 43:00
It's smashed this year, and I can't, I can't wait.
Nick VinZant 43:04
Okay, cool. At least we won.
John Shull 43:07
You're right, you won. So
Nick VinZant 43:10
your whole theory about, like, I'm gonna wear a Detroit T-shirt night. No, you're not, because you're not going.
John Shull 43:17
The point, the point to be bringing this up was the kids thing, and like, I just, you know, I would be really butthurt, right? Like, you spend all that money, you go to a game, they lose, whatever, but like, in no way am I gonna randomly attack somebody because they're wearing another jersey, like that's not instigating anything, or appears to not be instigating anything, it's just, just seems absurd. Like, well, I agree. Well, once again, what are we doing? Like, it's crazy to me.
Nick VinZant 43:49
I don't think that there is a single thing, a single thing that we have in society that is going right now that is going well. Is there a single thing in society happening right now that is going well.
John Shull 44:06
I mean, not to be this person, but I mean, unless you're one of the 1% no, absolutely not. Like,
Nick VinZant 44:15
not a single thing is going well in the world right now, and I don't think that that was the case. I don't think that's always been the case. I don't want to try to put this all on one particular administration, although they think that they're largely responsible for a lot of things, but I just think that we have entered into an age of society and watch not a single thing is going well for people. Healthcare not going well, politics, that's not going well. Economy not going well, culture not going well.
John Shull 44:47
I mean, I just, you know, yeah, I don't disagree with you. I do wonder, and once again, I was, I was talking to somebody about this over the weekend. It's like, you know, we read history books about the 1800s right? What. Ever 1900s and we're like, man, that must have sucked for various reasons. In 200 years, when people read about this time, I wonder, I wonder what they're gonna say. Like, are we living through the worst time America's ever seen? Now, probably not, right? Because we haven't had a world war, like the COVID pandemic wasn't like the Spanish flu to a large degree, though it was still terrible, but it's like I just wonder what the history books are going to say about 2000 to 2030 you know,
Nick VinZant 45:32
it's going to be an interesting thing, right? I think that you'll have more cultural and societal uplift, but in the grand scheme of things, like humanity's still doing pretty okay. It's not like we're back in the bubonic plagues days, when a third of humanity died.
John Shull 45:46
Yeah, no, we just have Logan Paul and Jake Paul, arguably worse, arguably worse, the Kardashian family, you know, all that good stuff.
Nick VinZant 45:59
Yeah, I just don't think that we have a single thing in our society that is going well, or seems to be promising, like, oh, that's getting better. Okay, well, go ahead,
John Shull 46:10
that's depressing. But all right, maybe we should go to something uplifting,
Nick VinZant 46:14
okay?
John Shull 46:15
Like, maybe some sweet summer tunes.
Nick VinZant 46:18
Oh, okay, I want to see what you did here, because I have a feeling that you did not quite get the top five that I am talking about. So I did top five summer songs, like these had to be songs of the summer, not songs about summer.
John Shull 46:36
Oh yeah, okay. Well,
Nick VinZant 46:39
that's fine. We'll just do two separate lists, and then berate them equally.
John Shull 46:45
So, you did songs that came out from what, like May to September
Nick VinZant 46:49
songs of the summer, like songs that you would say, "Oh, that was the summer in 2023, versus the song of it that was the summer in 2021 It's fine, we'll just go through it. I mean, it's not like our lists are highly educated anyway, but our top five is top five songs of the summer,
John Shull 47:04
all right. So my number five is Kokomo by the Beach Boys. Yeah, like I still don't know all the words, but I know the theme and the beat, and I, you know, mumble it, so
Nick VinZant 47:26
I mean that's such an old person song, like no 1819, 20 year old is like, yeah,
Speaker 1 47:31
Coco, oh
Nick VinZant 47:32
baby,
John Shull 47:33
for all you youngins out there, my list is pretty old, because there's these are classic songs that are still played throughout the summer.
Nick VinZant 47:42
Okay, so number, I went with songs that were named songs of the summer. My number five is Crazy in Love by Beyonce, which was a song of the summer back in the 2005 to 2010 times.
John Shull 47:56
Okay, I don't, I mean, I know that song, I don't, I don't particularly remember it being a song of the summer, but that's fine.
Nick VinZant 48:05
It was the song of the summer. Kokomo was never the song of the summer,
John Shull 48:10
probably not, but people are still singing Kokomo, like, you know, it's like Jimmy Buffett. You can literally just say Jimmy Buffett is the top five.
Nick VinZant 48:19
I have always disliked Jimmy Buffett, great artist, seemed like a nice guy, but I have always disliked Jimmy Buffett ever since I worked as a bartender and heard Margarita play every 30 minutes every night for years.
John Shull 48:35
I did leave Margaritaville off my list, by the way.
Nick VinZant 48:38
Thank you. Pathological hatred to that song.
John Shull 48:43
I can feel it coming through the computer screen.
Nick VinZant 48:45
Hate it, hate it. To number four,
John Shull 48:48
so my number four is Dancing Queen by Abba.
Nick VinZant 48:52
God dang, you such a lame ass. Yeah, dancing, I mean it's good songs. I'm just not 65
John Shull 49:03
yeah. But I mean, once again it comes on, and you're just like, okay, this is a cool gym. It's warm outside, I got a beer water in my hand, like it's just.. it's cool, like it's just legit.
Nick VinZant 49:14
My number four is Despacito.
John Shull 49:16
Okay, that's a good one. That's a big
Nick VinZant 49:19
song. That's a big song. Probably could've honestly had that higher up on my list of summer songs.
John Shull 49:25
Yeah, that's a good one. Uh, my number three is California Love by Tupac.
Nick VinZant 49:32
Oh, now that is one of my favorite songs. I love that song. No, I don't
John Shull 49:40
mind. You, I do agree to a certain.. I think I know what you're saying there, like that song can come on at any point, it's fantastic. Yeah, but man, if you're just outside in the summer on a summer night, and that song comes on like it's a banger,
Nick VinZant 49:53
oh, I would be willing to make a bet in that. The closer you are to the interior of the United States, the more that song is a summer song to you. If you're on the coasts, that's not so much of a summer song.
John Shull 50:10
Okay, even though the well, I got, well, yeah, the guys that made it were, you know, coast
John Shull 50:17
guys, but
Nick VinZant 50:18
yeah, that's why maybe it's not so much, because you kind of have, when you're on the coast, you kind of have more of that atmosphere in general. Life is a little bit more uplifting when the weather's nice than then when I lived in the Midwest. Yeah, well, you feel better about life when you're on the coast and the weather's nice in any time of year than you do in the Midwest.
John Shull 50:47
That's why your hair always looks good.
Nick VinZant 50:49
Exactly, stress-free life, baby. I'm actually 65
John Shull 50:54
What if all along, you know, we reveal our ages at the end of this, and it's like Nick is 73 and John is 63
Nick VinZant 51:01
My number three is Party Rock Anthem by LM FAO.
John Shull 51:05
Yeah, dude, that's a fantastic song.
Nick VinZant 51:07
That's a great, great song, man. Did they just blow themselves up though?
John Shull 51:13
Yeah, I don't even know what happened to them. Did they just like make a couple of hit albums and then just stop?
Nick VinZant 51:20
Yeah, I think success got to them. I think they made two good songs, and then success got to them, and they just said, you know what, screw
John Shull 51:27
it. I have to be
Nick VinZant 51:30
pretty pissed off to not work with somebody if I was making millions
John Shull 51:35
of dollars. My number two is by The Beatles, and it's called Here Comes the Sun, I you're
Nick VinZant 51:43
just.. I mean, it's a great song. You're just such an old man. You don't have a song that's in.. do you have a song earlier than that? Like, do you have a song later than the 1970s Are all your songs from the 1970s and earlier?
John Shull 52:00
My number one is late 80s,
Nick VinZant 52:04
you don't have a single thing that came out in the twos. All my songs came out in the twos.
John Shull 52:11
I mean, maybe if we were going, like, if we had actually talked about our lists, I would have put Desposito on my on my list, like for like number one summer songs, for sure, or top five summer songs, but like, yeah, I don't know, the just when I think of summer, like, these are some of the songs that pop into my head, and Desposito wasn't on that list at the time,
Nick VinZant 52:34
I'm surprised you didn't go with Yellow Submarine, so Marines are awesome. My number two is a bar song by Shabuzi. That was everywhere.
John Shull 52:49
That's a great, that's a yeah. I left country off on purpose, but that, that's an all I love Shabuzi, by the way. I have every EP album he's ever put out,
Nick VinZant 53:02
I never understand that. I don't understand the difference between record of the year, album of the year, EP of the year. I don't understand any of that. Is the record the song?
John Shull 53:13
No, I think song is song. I, I'm not sure what the difference is between an album and a record. An EP is an extended play, which is only supposed to be like two to five tracks, but yeah, so my number one, Summer of 69 by Brian Adams.
Nick VinZant 53:36
God,
John Shull 53:37
do like I also have to put it out there. I love Bryan Adams, so
Nick VinZant 53:44
I'm sure you do. I'm sure you do. At no point in my life would I ever think that I would say the words I love Bryan Adams. I know Summer of 69 and that's the only song that I know from Bryan Adams.
John Shull 54:01
Yeah, I mean, there's.. I'm trying to.. I.. his biggest hit probably was the Robin Hood song. Remember that song, Everything I Do, I Do It for You?
Nick VinZant 54:12
That was Bryan Adams.
John Shull 54:13
Yeah,
Nick VinZant 54:16
no, I mean, yeah, I do everything I do,
John Shull 54:20
I do it for you.
Nick VinZant 54:24
An album is a collection of songs released together as a cohesive project. A record refers to the physical format used to play that music, or is used as a casual synonym, synonym for any recorded audio track or project. So, after reading that, I still don't understand it.
John Shull 54:42
I'm just gonna say they're the same thing.
Nick VinZant 54:44
Yeah, I'm just gonna say they're the same thing too. Uh, my number one, you had your number one.
John Shull 54:49
Yep.
Nick VinZant 54:50
Hope you're ready for this to be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. It,
John Shull 55:00
so come on, maybe call me, maybe. I mean, it's, it's catchy, it's, it's a crap song, but it's fine. She made tons of money off it, so
Nick VinZant 55:10
yeah. Give me some crap music. You're over here with your eagles, and whatever.
John Shull 55:17
Listen, people who know me know that I love crap music. I don't know if I'm gonna go as low as Carly Rae Jepsen, but that's fine.
Nick VinZant 55:28
How many can openers do you have at your house?
John Shull 55:32
Can openers,
Nick VinZant 55:34
yeah,
John Shull 55:38
electric or manual?
Nick VinZant 55:41
You have an electric and a manual can opener. Do you have more than three can openers at your house?
John Shull 55:47
Yes.
Nick VinZant 55:50
Do you have more than five can openers at your house?
John Shull 55:53
No. I have.
Nick VinZant 55:54
So, you have four can openers. I
John Shull 55:56
have two manual and two automatic, but the automatic ones were gifted to me. I don't use them, but I have them just in case I ever need them for whatever reason.
Nick VinZant 56:09
I don't really know of any situation in which you would need to have more than one can opener at your house.
John Shull 56:15
Why, why, why, what sparked this question?
Nick VinZant 56:19
I just had to buy a can opener this weekend, because I broke our other can opener, and I thought to myself, as I was bringing this, I bet John has more than three can openers at his house, because this is the man who has 13 pairs of tongs,
John Shull 56:35
it's probably more like 10 now, I busted a couple already, I accidentally left one on the grill, and it melted. That was a, that was a great time.
Nick VinZant 56:50
Unreal, unless you have some really good ones in your honorable mention.
John Shull 56:56
Nope, I'm just gonna be walking on sunshine. Hey,
Nick VinZant 57:00
that's a good song. I like walking on sunshine. I'm walking on sunshine,
John Shull 57:07
and it's time to feel good
Nick VinZant 57:10
by ending it. Oh, okay. That's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a quick review, we really appreciate it. Really helps out the show. And let us know what you think are the best summer songs. Have fun enjoying Call Me Maybe play in your head for the next week, because that's what's happening to me right now.