McKinley: Hey, I just met you, and things are looking up

The songs that top the summertime charts are often faster and perkier than the tunes popular in…The songs that top the summertime charts are often faster and perkier than the tunes popular in colder seasons. But this summer more than ever, these catchy rhythms and lyrics have paralleled an equally upbeat national and local attitude.

The popular hits of summer 2012 are in many ways typical of summers past. There are lyrics that don’t actually rhyme, repetitions of the same chords and cliche expressions of simple teenage love. Summer songs are usually upbeat — the sort of music you want to listen to on a long drive. But this summer’s songs are exceptionally so; and when mixed with other signs of progress along our country’s highway, they finally don’t seem too out of place.

It was on a recent 11-hour road trip that I first noticed the similarity of this year’s hits, regardless of how often I changed the radio station. For nearly 500 miles between Cleveland and New York City, behind the wheel of my Subaru station wagon, I heard ultra-sweet songs such as Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and Demi Lovato’s “Give Your Heart a Break” on repeat, and not much else.

On road trips in recent summers, these happy summertime hits would seem at odds with a nation struggling with bursting housing bubbles and major national catastrophes. It was hard to enjoy “California Gurls” or “I Gotta Feeling” between bleak job reports during the recession or hourly updates on the BP oil spill in 2010. But this summer, the songs made an appropriate soundtrack as I passed the signs of a country getting back on its feet.

In surprisingly pretty Cleveland, progress is manifest in the reinvented West Side, where each week is marked by the grand openings of restaurants and other new businesses. In small towns that sometimes seem little more than exit signs along the interstate, there are factories, such as GM’s Chevy Cruze assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, working at full production. Across the hills of Pennsylvania, old strip mines are overshadowed by miles of newly constructed — and far more sustainable — windmills. Even the spots of traffic brought on by highway construction and repairs were signs of progress.

From chart-topping veterans like Katy Perry to the wholesome teens of One Direction, the upbeat music does indeed match the signs of American progress this summer.

The occasionally terrifying Nicki Minaj shed her creepier alter egos in the song “Starships” to encourage us to “reach up and touch the sky.” A band fittingly named Fun. reminded us that “We Are Young,” while One Direction, the summer’s biggest boy band, told us that “What Makes You Beautiful” is simply not realizing that you are indeed beautiful. With cheesy lines like “I wanna give your heart a break,” these tunes are optimistic enough to serve as wedding vows at a shotgun wedding. Even recently divorced Katy Perry highlighted her ability to get over heartbreak in her newest hit, “Wide Awake.”

But you don’t need to be on a highway to jive with the summertime tunes. In Oakland, a spirit of progress consumes the campus. On a stroll down Fifth Avenue, students pass the old entrance of the now-relocated Book Center and the quick construction of a residence hall. In Alumni Hall, the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid has a new chief enrollment officer for the first time in three decades. Even the touch-ups to sidewalks along the Cathedral or Schenley Quad remind us that this is a season of progress.

Off campus, we are treated to new restaurants such as Hello Bistro and The Bagel Factory. Even Bigelow Boulevard got a fresh level of tar. Things were so good in Pittsburgh this summer that the perpetually defeated Pirates adopted a winning attitude. The Buccos entered the All-Star break leading the division, and center fielder Andrew McCutchen has become a viable candidate for the MVP award.

Last summer, the soundtrack to the Women’s World Cup was Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory,” which seemed especially fitting, as the U.S. team made it just to the edge before losing in a shootout thriller to Japan. Japan received accolades for its ability to turn out a championship team despite overcoming the devastation at home brought on by an earthquake and a tsunami. This year, we expected a great deal  from Olympians, and those expectations matched the music of the summer. The official song of the London Olympic games was “Survival” by Muse, in which the opening line is a confident declaration that “life’s a race / and I am gonna win.”

Summer smash hits will always be upbeat and positive — it’s the nature of the season. This year it is refreshing to have an upbeat environment to match. But before long, we will find ourselves making study playlists again for long stays in Hillman Library and Posvar Hall. So throw some Katy Perry and Justin Bieber onto your iPhone, because if we can’t keep summer, we can at least keep its upbeat attitude.

Contact Rosie at romckinley@gmail.com.