worst song to enter the top 10 of the Hot 100 so far in 2013

looking at what had entered the top 10 by mid-April in the past couple years should give you a good idea of how remarkably bad this slate is even by recent standards:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_top_10_singles_in_2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_top_10_singles_in_2011

Swedish House Mafia's Nickelback-meets-rave-synths over Imagine Dragons' tedious post-grunge, not because it is less listenable but because it is exactly the kind of thing that disappoints me when the public seems to buy into it.

yeah that's the duo that's primarily battling it out for my vote too

this has truly been a banner year for total garbage rising to the top

it started from the bottom now its here.

really speaks volumes that i find songs with Macklemore and Mac Miller to be among the more tolerable half here

FWIW, "Daylight" may the first time in history where my reaction to anything involving Adam Levine has just been "meh" and not "ow, my freakin' ears!"

scream & shout

New 2013 chart metrics make all music novelty songs, really

voting wacklemore

"Feel This Moment" Pitbull featuring Christina Aguilera

"Sweet Nothing" Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch

here's a set of words that made me grimace involuntarily

To my knowledge, I haven't heard these two yet:

"Feel This Moment" Pitbull featuring Christina Aguilera
"The Way" Ariana Grande featuring Mac Miller

I haven't heard them all yet but will.i.am and Pitbull have set a high bar for dreck.

Voted Swedish House Mafia for bringing shame on the mob.

that f*cking bastille track, pompeii ....

macklemore and drake are the ones that elicit actual rage in me - some of the others may be worse but in a much more ignorable way

haven't heard the pitbull/xtina one and am gonna check it out w/genuine anticipation, i hope it's really really trashy

oh obv "harlem shake" elicits rage in me but i barely consider it a song at this point and unlike gangnam fucking style its moment seems to be passing with fortunate rapidity

the Pitbull may be the most hilariously shameless sample/interpolation in a career full of them

"Sweet Nothing" is by some distance the best song here imo

OH MY GOD i am just listening to the pitbull song

FFS

oh obv "harlem shake" elicits rage in me but i barely consider it a song at this point and unlike gangnam fucking style its moment seems to be passing with fortunate rapidity

Still voted for it.

I still haven't heard Harlem Shake in public I don't think

yeah "Harlem Shake" is terrible but my hate for it is largely symbolic since i've had to hear it so few times. whereas my hate for "Scream & Shout," "Don't You Worry Child," "Started From The Bottom," "Just Give Me A Reason," "Feel This Moment" and "Radioactive" is very real and rooted in radio ubiquity.

I stopped listening to the radio to avoid ever hearing some of these songs

Bruno Mars needs dropping in a barrel of scorpions.

I mind "Harlem Shake" and Pink's "Try" least.

"Try" is really good

Airplay helped.

Voted Pitbull. I had never heard "The Way" before. Pretty good song but what a blatant ripoff of early Mariah Carey.

I hate Macklemore, but that Pitbull song is the worst thing ever. I refuse to believe anyone would pay for an mp3 of that.

Harlem Shake was fine when it was just another track in a Rustie DJ mix. The craze is bullshit but it doesn't magically make the record worse.

I was going for Started from the Bottom because I feel it's Drake's worst song by far, but 'Feel this Moment' is a whole other level of mediocrity.

Well at least the US can be glad that it hasn't had to deal with "Inner Ninja".

man, fuck imagine dragons and their 'you can't tie me down' broschtick forever, but the interpolation of 'take on me' in that pitbull/xtina song almost made me have a stroke the other day

can we do a poll on pitbull samples? the 'love is strange' one is ALMOST more egregious

I voted Will.i.am and Britney but they all should burn in a fire.

voted F**kin' Problems by accident, figuring the question is "best song to enter the top..."

Oops, forgot the Pitbullguilera plunders A-Ha. That should've been my vote.

don't know a lot of these songs but voted for lil wayne

Pitbullguilera

anyone that votes for anything other than this is doing it wrong

also i know it's terrible and the whole thing is basically just one giant holler, but i'm into the florence & calvin track

I can't remember who it was but someone in the Worst Songs thread said that Pitbull was like the Beatles of that thread - every song he releases is guaranteed to go straight to the top. He's an evil genius.

He's replaced Gloria and Emilio as status symbol and godhead 'round these parts.

I like the first four songs on this list!

As for worst, I'd say the Drake one insults the intelligence most, so him.

"The Way" Ariana Grande featuring Mac Miller

this song is pretty cool imo

I voted "Scream & Shout" because of the horrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible "Britney" sample, and all the rest of it too

I kinda like "Don't You Worry Child" because I hear it as "Sierra's got a plan for you" & I wonder who Sierra is, maybe Sierra Mist, I dunno

"The Way" Ariana Grande featuring Mac Miller

this song is pretty cool imo

I kind of dig that song, but would prefer it if it didn't have Mac Miller.

totally

can we do a poll on pitbull samples? the 'love is strange' one is ALMOST more egregious

― maura, Tuesday, April 9, 2013 10:16 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha i've long been meaning to do some kind of list or mix of Pitbull taking hits from the 70s/80s/90s and making them sound so crazy, now may be the time. he's got deep cuts that sample "Gypsy Woman" and "Rock Lobster" and shit.

hating on pitbull is impossible, if people wanna make him rich for that shit then i can only applaud the chutzpah

agree this is between shm and imagine dragons, can't choose, equally gruesome

do kinda have an irrational urge to stamp out the ariana grande tho

I kinda like "Don't You Worry Child" because I hear it as "Sierra's got a plan for you" & I wonder who Sierra is

^this, although I have assumed it's Lex's beloved Ciara :)

hating on pitbull is impossible, if people wanna make him rich for that shit then i can only applaud the chutzpah

OTM a million times over

I like "Don't You Worry Child", "Try" and "Thrift Shop" a lot. The rest of these I wouldn't put on myself, but the Lil Wayne is the only one I actively hate. Seems like a pretty normal year, to me.

Voted "Harlem Shake." A lot of these have bits I like (even if I don't ultimately love the whole song) or are otherwise inoffensive. "Harlem Shake" just feels ... empty, and I'm annoyed it hit #1.

Songs I like best: "Scream & Shout," "Suit & Tie" (subpar Timberlake, but it's grown on me), and, I guess, "Thrift Shop" (I disliked it in a kneejerk way at first, but my wife's love for it made me reconsider).

really hate this trope of counting how many people were involved in something bad

Truth bomb.

I mean, co-sign. Whatever.

Listening to this Ariana Grande for the first time. Not bad! Pop radio could use more budget Mariah these days. I miss Paula DeAnda.

really hate this trope of counting how many people were involved in something bad

cool

these songs just entered the top 10, would be poll options if i'd waited a few days to start it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5m2YWnsWB4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SihoKQ-uLqE

kinda think that macklemore song is significantly worse than "thrift shop"

"When I Was Your Man" is the most egregious, I think. It's just so mediocre, like it wasn't made by people but by a computer program that tacked together a bunch of lovesong cliches to make the blandest ballad possible. Thrift shop at least has interesting production/saxophones.

I kinda like "Don't You Worry Child" because I hear it as "Sierra's got a plan for you" & I wonder who Sierra is

^this, although I have assumed it's Lex's beloved Ciara :)

― Jeff W

What does it actually say? I keep hearing 'Tiara'. I guess it's actually saying 'the earth'(h)as got a plan for you'?

i thought it was "heaven's got a plan for you."

or "say heaven's got a plan for you" as in "i say ___", or something. maybe

it's "Hetfield's got a plan for you"

if you slow it down you can hear that what it's really saying is "satan's got a plan for you."

sweden's got a plan for you obv

the song is about julian assange

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i'm surprised that anyone voted for "fuckin problems". that song is pretty good.

I got tired of hearing "Suit & Tie" REALLY fast

the title "sweet nothing" almost has me expecting it to be some subtle, understated thing... but nope, just the usual from calvin harris

"Scream & Shout" is a song I know is objectively terrible but can't help liking regardless.

how on earth did "try" get votes and "just give me a reason" didn't

loool seriously

kinda shocked that that song could potentially go #1 on the hot 100, especially since i've successfully been able to completely ignore it so well

yeah it's #1 now :(

and oof "Mirrors" entered the top 10 this week, i shoulda waited

"Don't You Worry Child" is so middle-of-the-road it's kind of impressive. I hate it but whenever it comes on the radio I just crank the volume and let it hit me. It feels like I'm communing with something truly evil.

It's faux-arena-EDM but it's got that same comforting pseudo-Christian vibe as Coldplay. It's buttrock eurotrance.

it's Triumphant White People Music-EDM

haha last 3 posts are all very quotatious

that f*cking bastille track, pompeii ....

Only first heard of this band/song just now. Has the American push begun?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F90Cw4l-8NY

Trying that again for a full embed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F90Cw4l-8NY

Speaking of lousy songs that have made it everywhere except the US, I noticed this past week that this song leaped up 20 spots on the Canadian Hot 100 from 49 to 29, which makes me wonder if an American push isn't far behind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBumgq5yVrA

"thrift shop" and "scream & shout" are actually two of the best songs in the poll. top 5, at least, along with "suit and tie" and "the way" and "sweet nothing," probably. maybe "stay," too.

"Thrift Shop" is a total dick of a song that should be scourged from history

it is evident that I will never get my hands on a time machine because, if I did, I would go back and encourage Macklemore's web design career

Thrift Shop is still getting play around our house, but much less so than a few months ago. I'd like to think the turning point was when I actually took the kid along with me to Goodwill one day. "It's your time to shine, Mr. Thrift Shop! Help me dig through this box of mismatched silverware... "

Still don't totally get why Macklemore is so bad and hated. He's kind of a clown, but c'mon, he's a pop star. Pop needs clowns.

we've had better clowns! it's not like he's as good at it as Ludacris.

that's ascribing a lot more personality to him than exists

what American culture needs is more clownish white dudes, coasting on privilege, using black culture as a vehicle while simultaneously criticizing black culture for being materialistic & prejudiced, bragging about not needing a label because their inheritance & white-boy cuteness is sufficient to keep their music careers float, gleefully employing racial puppetry to call themselves "cold-ass honkeys," spreading the gospel of dressing like a hipster, front-loading their gay rights anthems with "no homo" verses

fuck this twerp 4ever. bring back Vanilla Ice

COLD EEEEEETHEEEERRRR

I want to frame crut's post and put it in a museum so that future generations can learn from it

to the dome

boom

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e9/Westside_Connection_-_Bow_Down_(Front).jpg/220px-Westside_Connection_-_Bow_Down_(Front).jpg

all of my future high fives will be secretly directed toward crut

Good critique, crut.

thanking crut for putting it way more succintly that i ever can when describing why i don't like him to my Macklemore loving wife.