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One thing oddly missing from this year’s summer soundtrack is the elusive “Song of the Summer.” Every year, there’s usually one track—whether pop, hip hop, dance, or even a left-field sleeper—that dominates airwaves and burrows into our brains. This summer? Not so much.
Last year, Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso filled that role perfectly, becoming the go-to anthem from beach parties to TikTok reels. Her label clearly hoped Manchild would repeat the success, but while catchy, it never caught fire in quite the same way. Even with an impressive batch of bootleg remixes (some of them excellent), it didn’t fit the overall mood of this mix and was subsequently dropped.
How We’re Consuming Dance Music in 2025
As I’ve mentioned before, people aren’t just relying on traditional radio anymore. Music discovery is happening everywhere—Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, and countless other platforms. For the current generation, the club scene feels fractured, with most of the real momentum happening at massive EDM festivals. Having moved to the suburbs and living in a dry county, I’m admittedly far removed from it these days, but even from a distance it’s clear the club culture isn’t what it once was.
Dance music itself isn’t dead—it’s just shifting in how people experience it.
Diversity Defines Summer Heat
One thing that stands out across our Summer Heat 2025 mixes is the sheer variety. Unlike years past when a couple of styles dominated, the sound is now wide open. That diversity raises the difficulty factor when building seamless sets.
Take Afro House, for example. It had its hot minute, but it’s better suited for chill sets than high-energy dance floors. Transitioning from 120 BPM to 128 BPM can feel clunky without chopping tracks, and we’ve never been about jarring cuts just to get from one song to the next. Party Favorz is all about creating a musical journey, where each transition feels intentional. We may not hit perfection every time, but we get pretty damn close.
What You’ll Hear in Volume 2
Volume 2 is packed with the latest summer dance songs, club anthems, and fresh remixes that define the season. Alongside those are perennial dance classics resurrected through mashups and bootlegs—the kind of surprises long-time listeners expect from this series.
I do want to clear something up, though. The opener, Heartbreak Melody by Alan Walker and FAANGS, has been making waves on TikTok, with one viral video calling it an “80s classic.” Let’s get this straight: it’s not from the 80s. The track samples Be My Lover by La Bouche, a massive 90s Eurodance anthem. That song didn’t just dominate clubs—it crossed over to mainstream radio,