"Teenage Summer" by Tyler Ward, Monday, May 31, 2021

Last month when I wrote about Sam Tsui, Max, and Kurt Hugo Schneider's cover of Neyo's "So Sick," I talked about how Tyler Ward was my gateway drug to the world of YouTube cover artists who eventually branch out and write and produce their own music. I discovered Tyler Ward when I was bored in my dorm room and watching pop music videos--ironically of course--and saw that Ward was covering artists like Katy Perry, Far East Movement, Ke$ha, and even oldies like Oasis and Goo Goo Dolls. Starting in 2007, Ward released original music, but was mostly covering songs by the end of the '00s into the early '10s. Ward's first album stylistically flirts with rock and piano rock; however, when Ward started recording original music again, his sound was solidified as a pop singer with a penchant for non-twangy country. "Teenage Summer" is pretty typical of Tyler Ward's sound--uplifting and light.

'CAUSE WE WERE RAISED ON THESE REAL GOOD, FEEL GOOD SOUL SONGS. I remember somehow Ward came up in a conversation about music with my roommate. I said in pseudo-disgust, "I hate this guy. He plays guitar and produces his own music on YouTube. He makes pop music sound so cool and respectable. He's a cool, good looking guy. And he even has my name!" I was jealous and enchanted. I even purchased some of his covers, downloaded a few others from YouTube, and bought his album Vol. 1. Yes, some of the songs were a little cringy, and sometimes the production sounded awkward, but I couldn't get enough of the guy. His somewhat mysterious/ambiguous connections to CCM including collaborations with long-forgotten singer Rachel Lampa, his air of confidence and smile when he sang, making it feel like he was your best friend, his dirty blond/light brown hair, his past as a football player. I couldn't vocalize it then. It was like a '90s sitcom crush with the punchline being, "I'm not gay!" In fact, I wouldn't dwell on it much, but yeah, my obsession with Tyler Ward in college makes a lot more sense given what I know about myself now.

GOT TEN WEEKS TO DO WHAT WE WANNA. "Teenage Summer" is a nice nostalgic track for youth. Today, Memorial Day, is often called the unofficial start of summer, and for Americans, it seems that summer, though cancelled last year, is back, baby! For South Koreans, however, summer vacation is short, lasting from mid July to mid August. Winter vacation is much longer in Korea. Still, when the weather gets warmer, I'm reminded of my teenage summers--11th grade and the summer after graduating. I remember getting my driver's license and working, teaching guitar lessons/gigs and other odd jobs and taking community college classes. A few times, I made a few mixtapes for driving, but my car's CD player was old and hated burned CDs. But my teenage summers were pretty mild. I had an old car and a guitar, and no girlfriend. I thought my teenage years were pretty lonely. However, I was hoping to start a musical career, maybe getting into session work as a guitarist or keyboardist. I could make money on playing wedding gigs as a classical guitarist, teach lessons, and my career as a musician would make up for not having a normal "teenage summer." Well, that didn't work out.

Read “Teenage Summer” by Tyler Ward on Genius.