Really, really bad popular songs

[Hawkwings]

What some some songs that, in your opinion, are pieces of crap, yet are/were still popular? A reason for why they were popular would be nice too.

[Superman]

What some some songs that, in your opinion, are pieces of crap, yet are/were still popular? A reason for why they were popular would be nice too.

Are popular? A better question would be "what popular songs AREN'T crap?"

[Tranan]

What some some songs that, in your opinion, are pieces of crap, yet are/were still popular? A reason for why they were popular would be nice too.

only thing i can think of is that anioing thing. its so anoing and pepol still I repetSill hawe it on there mobiles.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

The one reason popular songs are crap and crap songs are popular: Payola!

[Saurencaerthai]

What some some songs that, in your opinion, are pieces of crap, yet are/were still popular? A reason for why they were popular would be nice too.

The list would go many pages. Generally, they're popular for a few reasons:
1. They are not that complex, harmonically or otherwise. Example: "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics. i-vi-V-i most of the way through, and any deviations during different sections don't contain that much.
2. They have a beat, making them dancible.
3. The mannequins that are "performing" the song (I'm being generous, here,) are popular/hot and so that is enough to give the song equity.
4. Marketing.

There are definately more, but those are the four that come to mind.

[Mrs Kendall]

Hmm, Let's see...

-"Who Let The Dogs Out"
-"Blue" (You know, that song that went, my world is blue and you are blue too etc... etc.. etc...
-"That Thong Song"
-"...

WTF is that song called where in the video it's just the two of them with their drums and guitar repeating over and over again... umm... That brother and sister group... I can't remember what they are called either, but thank god they are not too popular anymore...


as for my reasons, well these shouldn't need reasons but my reason is that it's just not my type of music and there are many more songs I hate and that I think are played way too often.

BTW didn't someone already do a thread about crappy songs before? I could be wrong though.

[The Spartan]

Mrs K: The White Stripes?

[General Zod]

My Humps, by Black Eyed Peas. Must. . . .kill . . .

[Hawkwings]

ahh, right, I should have made this thread ask the opposite question, what popular songs *aren't* crap. Or, even more rare, what songs are both popular and good?

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Neither are current hits, but I have a special place in that part of my body that hates things for them:

"Don't Stop Believing", by Journey. It might not be the sappiest, most obnoxious, or most overplayed power ballad out there, but I swear I'm the only person I know who hates it.

"Summer Girls", by LFO. Perhaps the most retarded lyrics ever commited to a song. If that was their big hit, I'd hate to see how bad the rest of their song catalog was.

[Zor]

My Humps, by Black Eyed Peas. Must. . . .kill . . .

IMHO ANYTHING by the Black Eyed Peas is treasonous against Music.

Zor

[Master of Ossus]

Milkshake, by Kellis, was a crime against humanity.

I've noticed, though, that there are some HORRIBLE lyrics out there--racist, misogynistic, violent tripe out there that doesn't get a second thought even from mainstream music authorities because the basic arrangement of the song is "cool." But seriously, "It's Getting Hot in Here" struck me as being offensive until it had been played enough around me that it no longer had any real meaning, and that was far from being the worst offender.

[Shroom Man 777]

The vast majority of popular songs the degenerate masses listen to strike me as pure unadulterated horse shit mixed with an adequate amount of donkey semen.

[Saurencaerthai]

My Humps, by Black Eyed Peas. Must. . . .kill . . .

IMHO ANYTHING by the Black Eyed Peas is treasonous against Music.

Zor

I had the opportunity to see them live and I have to say that their albums don't do them justice. The albums were produced with the pop market in mind, and therefore, they opted for the super-clean, overproduced format. Personally, I think that killed their music. Live with a band is a whole different deal.

[Noble Ire]

Milkshake, by Kellis, was a crime against humanity.

I've noticed, though, that there are some HORRIBLE lyrics out there--racist, misogynistic, violent tripe out there that doesn't get a second thought even from mainstream music authorities because the basic arrangement of the song is "cool." But seriously, "It's Getting Hot in Here" struck me as being offensive until it had been played enough around me that it no longer had any real meaning, and that was far from being the worst offender.

Indeed. I am astounded when I see those ads for "Kids Bop" CDs and the selection of some of the songs used in them. Honestly, who wants to actively promote their child's listening to poorly disguised (if at all) tracks about misogny and gang violence?

[PrinceofLowLight]

One word (well, one word three times): Skeet skeet skeet

[Joe]

Every song by Nickelback.

It used to be that popular music would get in your head because the songs had nice tunes worth humming. Now songs stick in your head because they're fucking irritating.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Any modern 'rock'.

I have the same problem with it i have with shows like South Park that suddenly want to be 'biting scocial comentary' . I dont fuckking need social comentary, i know how fucked up the world is thats why i retreat into music, retard! If i wanted to hear how upset you were, or gave a flying fuck, i would ask. Notice how i dont ask?

Nickleback, Linkin Park, Khorn, Yellowcard and a host of other bands all fall into this category.

The only ones who do it right are Green Day and thats because they're songs are WELL WRITEN and you can still 'rock out' as they said back in my day.

In the mean time, i still have Kanye West...

[Fleet Admiral JD]

Rap in general licks ass. Although I seriously dispute it being known as "music." It usually has very little of a musical aspect to it, and is more like "swearing to a beat, mo-fucka."

Boy bands: They just suck.

There's many more, but these two have depressed me enough to make me stop.

[Rye]

Any modern 'rock'.

I have the same problem with it i have with shows like South Park that suddenly want to be 'biting scocial comentary' . I dont fuckking need social comentary, i know how fucked up the world is thats why i retreat into music, retard! If i wanted to hear how upset you were, or gave a flying fuck, i would ask. Notice how i dont ask?

Uh, right, music isn't about expressing emotion or thoughts or anything. Even at the corporate level, it's about giving the droves what they want, and a lot of angsty teenagers want music they can relate to or that talks about a particular stereotype or subject(gangsta rap or goregrind, for instance).

Nickleback, Linkin Park, Khorn, Yellowcard and a host of other bands all fall into this category.

I assume you mean Korn since Khorne is the Chaos god . There are some quality korn songs out there, but the rest of that list is pure wank, and not in the technically proficient way.

The only ones who do it right are Green Day and thats because they're songs are WELL WRITEN and you can still 'rock out' as they said back in my day.

Nah, Green Day are shit, they're what happens when poppy mass music meets punk and aging rockers try to keep "with it" by making consistently mediocre music, adored by fans of pop and emo alike.

In the mean time, i still have Kanye West...

I have managed to miss that meme so I can't comment.

I personally cannot get over all this goddamned death, post black and grindcore metal in the charts, it's all they seem to play nowadays.

That aside, boyband shit, black eyed peas, (especially that fucking lumps song, ffs, i have to listen to that several times a day at work, all it is is some goddamned whore bragging about being a slag, jesus, i get it, you're a slut, now stop telling me about your goddamned hindquarters and milk-duds, and how you're spending my money). That "alternative but not too alternative weenie rock that's always around (like the "where are you now?" song they play at work), anything Bon Jovi, girlband shit, "brag-rap" , the gangsta stuff can be quite cool (I still like Coolio's gangsta's paradise for instance, and some Wu-Tang stuff) but in the main it's shit. Grunge was shit (wow, being a loser is now marketable, shit!), emo is shit (being a loser with black rimmed glasses, goth makeup, terrible haircut and acne is now marketable, COOL!), pop punk is shit (I'm a dick, hooray!), that metal that's just wussed out and mainly hip hop (linkin park and papa roach, i'm looking at you) is shit beyond belief. Especially if people associate it with me.

I have rants that go beyond that, but this is mainly aimed at music popular in recent years.

[Col. Crackpot]

In the mean time, i still have Kanye West...

Who ripped off Ray Charles blending of R&B and gospel sounds and "changed" it by tossing in a hip hop beat. Although his lyrics are somewhat creative.

[Mrs Kendall]

Mrs K: The White Stripes?

YES! Thanks

[RedImperator]

Rap in general licks ass. Although I seriously dispute it being known as "music." It usually has very little of a musical aspect to it, and is more like "swearing to a beat, mo-fucka."

Well, you'd better get used to it. Rap is the future. Rock is dying, and the time to save it is long past.

If you're under 30 and you're a fan of rock, you're a member of a shrinking minority. If you like modern rock, you're a member of an even smaller minority. Your peers, across all racial and socioeconomic groups, listen to rap, buy rap albums, watch rap videos, and dream about living the rap star's lifestyle (as if there's any real difference between what P. Diddy is selling today and what Motley Crue was selling in 1985).

Rap has done to rock what rock did to big band and crooners in the early 1950s. Before the war, big band was what all the kids listened to. Rock was underground, its audience primarily black, with very little mainstream awareness. Then "Rock Around the Clock" was released, and suddenly virtually everyone under twenty had found their new thing--music to which their parents didn't listen, music their parents didn't like (I can just imagine some Ward Cleaver lookalike harumphing that he "seriously disputes rock being 'music'. It usually has very little of a musical aspect to it, and is more like 'screeching to a guitar without any other instruments, hep cat.'")

Once the kids stop buying, a genre has about 20 years left until its fanbase grays up and dies out. That doesn't mean it goes away immediately. Frank Sinatra had a spectactular career mostly after rock came onto the scene, but his audience just kept getting older and older, just like him. He was feeding on a corpse. By the time most of the people on this board were born, Sinatra was a relic, singing grandma songs. He got rich as hell and fucked Marylin Monroe along the way, but he was the last of his kind, sent off to fossilize in Las Vegas by Elvis Presley (who would wind up mummifying in Vegas himself, but that's another story).

The exact same thing is happening to rock right now, except instead of a dignified fade out, we have the Rolling Stones dragging their colostomy bags on stage, Kurt Kobain blowing his head off in a flannel shirt, and white trash scumfucks like Fred Durst trying to keep the corpse walking a little longer by stealing rap's style without touching anything that makes it innovative or creative. All the while, rock's market share has imploded, rock radio is evaporating, and nobody with any commercial success is doing anything new. There's still new and creative stuff going on in rock, but it's so far underground as to be invisible, and won't make any difference in the general collapse. It gives me hope that rock will have some kind of afterlife as an art genre, much the same way jazz has survived long after it stopped being commercially viable or having mass appeal, but the underground won't save rock.

Meanwhile, rap is still exploding, with new subgenres budding off all the time, styles constantly evolving, and big breakout artists arriving every few months. It's still growing from the grassroots--new innovations are brewed up on the streets and work their way up through the underground into the mainstream. It's relevant to its audience. And unlike rock, it hasn't gotten tied down in ossifying nostalgia. Did you know that according to my students, the Wu Tang Clan is "old school"? That was brand new in 1996, and to them it's old fart music. Meanwhile, before it got flipped to rap, the only "modern" rock station in Philadelphia was playing vintage 1992 Nirvana in its regular rotation--not as a "'90s flashback", but as current, modern rock. The surviving rock stations are even worse. I don't know how they think they're going to improve their demographics playing the same 80's power ballad junk that bored an entire generation into switching to rap in the first place, but that's evidently the plan.

Rap will eventually burn out creatively, just like rock. And something will come along to replace it, undoubtedly originating on the streets in black neighborhoods, just like rap and rock and jazz and ragtime, and old coots will complain that the new stuff isn't real music, not like Kanye or Dr. Dre or Eminem. And the kids will ignore them, just like kids today are ignoring us, just like our parents ignored their parents when they insisted those Duke Ellington records on the Philco were real music, not this do-wop crap. What's never going to happen is a comeback for rock.

[Fleet Admiral JD]

<Snip>.

You're absolutley right. I see more and more idiots in the hallways trying to "bust a rhyme, listening to their "cool shit" on their Ipods. I'm the kind of person who listens to the "classic rock" stations and "oldies." I know that it's odd, but I know plenty of people who enjoy it too, who are my age. And it's unfortunate that interest in 60's and 70's music is fading, because it truly was good.

Keep in mind, RedImp, I'm 16. I detest rap, and I don't really like the Stones. I like a lot of stuff from the 60's, 70's, and some of the 80's. I like jazz, blues, big band swing, and bebop. I guess I'm a throwback.

[RedImperator]

<Snip>.

You're absolutley right. I see more and more idiots in the hallways trying to "bust a rhyme, listening to their "cool shit" on their Ipods. I'm the kind of person who listens to the "classic rock" stations and "oldies." I know that it's odd, but I know plenty of people who enjoy it too, who are my age. And it's unfortunate that interest in 60's and 70's music is fading, because it truly was good.

Keep in mind, RedImp, I'm 16. I detest rap, and I don't really like the Stones. I like a lot of stuff from the 60's, 70's, and some of the 80's. I like jazz, blues, big band swing, and bebop. I guess I'm a throwback.

Total extinction for any genre is unlikely. There are still people who listen to ragtime, after all, and not all of them are in their 90's. But most reach a point where very little or no new music is created, and at that point they're just feeding on what came before. Rock, if it follows the pattern its ancestors did, has about 15 years to go, maybe less, before it hits that point. It might do what jazz did and become an art genre, where there's a constant influx of new material, but it's a trickle and a lot of it is too experimental for most people's tastes. Or it might do what big band swing did, and become totally fossilized, with a few fans listening to albums that were created decades before, and virtually nothing new coming out (minus an occasional flash-in-the-pan revival).

It's a shame because it didn't have to be this way. Rock didn't have to become bloated, lazy, and creatively bankrupt. Rock didn't have to tie a noose around its neck and wait for rap to come along and kick the stool out from under it. But it did. Rock seemed to become more interested in appealing to the tastes of baby boomers with Woodstock nostalgia and Class of '86 mullet-heads with their hands in the engine compartment of a Camero and their hearts stuck in high school than the next generation of listeners--and for black kids, rock hadn't been relevant for a generation already. Rap spoke to them when rock didn't, flannel-wearing crybabies aside.