This summer's theme in the music world seems to be the final death of monoculture. When looking for a global summer hit, there are two undeniably strong candidates. The duet "Rein Me In" by English singers Sam Fender and Olivia Dean has topped the United Kingdom singles chart for twenty‑three weeks. That breaks a record set in 1953, when Frankie Laine's "I Believe" managed to stay in first place for eighteen weeks.

This week, the English duo lost the top spot in the UK chart to Ella Langley, a country singer from Alabama whose song "Choosin' Texas" has been at the top of the U.S. Billboard chart for twenty weeks. Three more weeks and it will break the record held by Mariah Carey's Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

A person who claims they have never heard Mariah's Christmas song is likely mistaken or lying, yet both "Rein Me In" and "Choosin' Texas" are unfamiliar tracks to many music listeners. People say they first heard about "Rein Me In" only when reading about its historic chart achievement. It seems unbelievable that something can be so popular and yet so unknown at the same time.

What should we conclude from this? That charts lie? Probably not, but it is becoming increasingly clear that culture no longer reaches people through the same TV and radio channels, or even the same playlists. Some songs are still a bit more popular than others and break through several social bubbles, but creating a summer hit that unites the public or a cross‑generational favorite is becoming harder. Maybe the search for a summer hit should be retired for good. Everyone has their own summer hit, whether someone generated theirs with AI or another listens to songs from the 1970s regardless of their birth year.

Looking at Estonia's Spotify chart, it is still dominated by Nublu and Sadu, with a bit of Säm and Triibupasta in between. The Estonian‑language pop music world is simply so small that artists known to everyone from preschoolers to retirees are still possible. Nublu's "Kesselaid" got an excellent jump start on the path to becoming Estonia's summer hit thanks to the Eesti Laul program. Eesti Laul and Eurovision seem to be the last breaths of monoculture in this region, but it is already clear that Eurovision can no longer unite an entire continent the way it once did.

It is possible that the only major cultural event that truly unites the world is the soccer World Cup. Only young men from selected countries make it onto the field, but the audience and fans are much broader. Music charts hint at this through the continued presence of Shakira and Burna Boy's song "Dai Dai," made for the tournament. Still, "Dai Dai" is only a pale shadow of Shakira's 2010 World Cup song "Waka Waka," and it is doubtful that anyone will remember "Dai Dai" sixteen years from now, unlike the latter. In Estonia, Villemdrillem and Triibupasta jumped quite successfully onto this year's soccer excitement train with their song "Mr. Atškoo."

The death of monoculture is not entirely bad, but the number of cultural references understood across groups and age brackets is shrinking. People who do not share a common cultural space are easier to pit against one another and easier to manipulate into distrusting those who are different. An annoyingly popular pop hit is silly and simple, but it is an effective way to create the feeling that we are all similar people under the same sky.

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