We had really high hopes going into 2021 from 2020. We thought the pandemic would end, places would open back up and we would reemerge into society as normal. But just as in every other way, 2021 was a disappointment in music.
We had to power through some of the drabbest and most cringe-inducing pop songs while already on edge.
So let’s take a look back on the 5 worst pop songs of 2021.
5. Astronaut In The Ocean – Masked Wolf
As a misfit and oddball in society, this song had the potential of being my anthem, but unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, the song falls flat on its face. Masked Wolf struggled to stick to the subject at hand. He rapped about any and everything, apart from being an astronaut in the ocean and what that feels like.
Apart from the hard-hitting instrumental and the catchy hook, this song has no redeeming quality whatsoever. The rhyme schemes are forced and uninspired, the flow is all over the place and the subject matter of the song which could have made it a whole world more interesting is entirely wasted.
Combine that with the sheer everywhere-ness of this song reminding you of everything that it’s not that it could’ve been, it’s more than enough to earn the song a spot on this list.
4. Peaches – Justin Bieber Featuring Daniel Caeser & Giveon
OK, confession: I’ve never actually heard Peaches in its entirety. Yet, it’s on this list. What does that tell you?
We know Justin Bieber from his first smash hit Baby. And, unfortunately for him, that’s the image he has burnt in our minds forever. Of a baby. That makes this song that much more jarring and unbearable.
For starters, I have a very hard time deciphering what this song is even about. I have yet to hear a celebrity tell us where they get their seasonal fruits with even a hint of braggadocio. And unprompted. So, if it’s some slang he’s using, I’ve never heard it before.
This hit, following Bieber’s last hit Yummy, leave me with the impression that, at this point in his career, Justin Bieber is just coasting on the inertia of the start of his career, which I find to be very optimistic because that means that very soon, he’s going to run out of momentum and we will never have to go through this again.
Until the next Justin Bieber comes around.
3. Drivers License – Olivia Rodrigo
Drivers License might come off as a high school kid’s anthem of liberation and freedom. But that’s not what this song is. It’s just another breakup song about missing your ex and wishing you were still together.
But being a boring, run-of-the-mill breakup song is not enough to put this song on this list. The reason it’s here is because of how the song sounds. It is easily the blandest song this year. This song has no substance, no personality. It plays like a hollow oil barrel. Say what you will about Peaches but at least that song has some energy. Meanwhile, Drivers License just tries to hammer you with a single note played at every beat.
In the bridge, I feel like Olivia just had a checklist of things you see on the road that she had to mention in the song to give you the illusion of a theme. The way she goes about it does not help her case either. Red lights, stop signs, white cars, front yards, sidewalks, traffic. Before you know it, you’re teleported to a game of Jeopardy.
But the bad beat and the uninspired lyrics are not even the worst part of this song. The worst part is Olivia Rodrigo’s off-putting cadence. It sounds like she’s trying to fit as many syllables as she comfortably can in a line and then going +1. Coupled with the fact that she sounds like a psycho stalker on the chorus and the gratuitous swearing in the bridge just to prove that she’s an adult and not to be taken lightly, the song is excruciating to listen to.
2. ABCDEFU – GAYLE
This song is easily the most confusing thing that happened this year. How does this exist?
I can’t say exactly what GAYLE was trying to do here (and I don’t buy that it was an idea thrown at her from one of her TikTok followers), but this is not working. The chorus with that whole ABCDEFU does not fit the cadence or the time signature of the song and it just sounds absolutely cacophonous. This song is on this list just because of that chorus. I would much rather listen to someone scratch their nails on a chalkboard than this mess.
The problem with this song goes beyond the chorus though. GAYLE takes a lot of shots at this guy she broke up with and more than half of them seem forced. In fact, a lot of them even sound like quirks that would have attracted her to him in the first place. But, now that they are no longer together, they are easy targets. In other words, this entire song is the definition of a low-blow. A cheap shot at its best. At its worst, just pure pettiness.
1. Way Too Sexy – Drake Featuring Future and Young Thug
Drake’s albums are usually a dive in a dumpster to find a couple of pieces of gold. Unfortunately, diving into Certified Lover Boy just left me goldless, stinky and miserable. Among the absolute garbage pile of an album was this song.
There’s nothing that I can say about this song that hasn’t already been said. This is an abomination. It’s the same, typical, braggadocious rap song trope that has been run into the ground. But the reason it’s the worst song of the year is because, just like Astronaut In The Ocean, it had a lot of potential.
Way Too Sexy samples one of the most popular novelty songs of the ‘90s. Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy was hilarious and Drake’s rendition did not do justice to that sample even in the slightest. But it’s my fault for expecting more from a song featuring Future and Young Thug.
This song’s undoing was that all three rappers took themselves too seriously and were too afraid to take any risks and play around with this song. So, they ended up giving us this mess, taking 2021 to a new low.
Guilty Pleasures
Of course, 2021 also gave us some songs that aren’t exactly good songs but you still can’t stop listening to them. Here are the guilty pleasures of the year:
5. Spaceman – Nick Jonas
In 2020, with the quarantine and the lockdown, every other artist thought it a good idea to make a song or an entire album about isolation, loneliness and everything. Nick Jonas tried his hand at it and we got Spaceman. Now, the album in its entirety is not bad. It’s nothing special though, quite bland and very off-topic. Except for the title track, Spaceman, which captures the entire vibe of 2020 by likening the isolation of quarantining to the isolation of a spaceman on his own out there. And it’s a banger!
4. Bad Habits – Ed Sheeran
It’s hard to imagine Ed Sheeran indulging himself in the typical hedonistic lifestyle that comes with being a celebrity – the drugs, the partying, the sex. So, when he makes a song not just about that lifestyle but about reverting to it, implying that he has been actively involved in it before, it sounds a little out of pocket for Ed. But I’ll be damned if it doesn’t sound good!
3. Summer Of Love – Shawn Mendes & Tainy
Sometimes you meet someone and the energy between you both is just raw and electric. Moments like those are usually fleeting in nature which makes them that much more exciting. Summer Of Love captures that excitement rather well. Shawn Mendes’ soft, sensual delivery and Tainy’s reggaeton-inspired production make this song more of an earworm than it has any business being. They make it work really well and I can’t not listen to this song on repeat.
2. Industry Baby – Lil Nas X
Lil Nas X has had a good 2019 and 2020 with Old Town Road being as big as it was, spending 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, throwing him into the spotlight. Subsequent songs did pretty well too, including Panini and Rodeo. Having done as well as he has, being gay in hip hop, a notoriously homophobic genre, it’s about time he celebrates that height. Now, this song may not be anywhere near the best song you’ve heard but the energetic and vibrant nature of this anthem of triumph is infectious, to say the least.
1. Beautiful Mistakes – Maroon 5 Featuring Meghan Thee Stallion
This is the only song on the guilty pleasures list that I actually hate. Beautiful Mistakes is as bland as oatmeal cereal. The lyrics are weak, the verses are reminiscent of a pendulum swinging between 2 notes, and Maroon 5 has a knack for featuring misfitting rappers on their songs. Megan Thee Stallion doesn’t belong on this song (and Cardi B didn’t belong on Girls Like You, but I digress). Still, I’ve listened to this song at least a hundred times, if not more. Something about that hook keeps me coming back for more.
Now, of course, 2021 wasn’t entirely bad. We got some good music last year too. Next, we’ll go through the list of the best pop songs of 2021. See you there!
For the best songs of 2021, check out: https://www.daily-deck.com/post/best-songs-of-2021
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