10 Worst Pop Songs of 2016

5. Treat You Better – Shawn Mendes

For the majority of the year I was convinced that Stitches was gonna make this list. It’s the type of song I’m naturally designed to dislike, some dude and his acoustic guitar singing about how sad he is that a relationship ended, using all the clichés in songwriting. However, I’ll admit that I grew quite numb to it – musically I don’t think it’s that terrible, but lyrically, it absolutely is.

I spoke too soon with ‘Stitches’ as he came back with ‘Treat You Better’. My first few listens to that song flew by me, I barely noticed it. You could easily mistake the intro to the song with Stitches as I’m almost certain they’re the same. Sonically, there isn’t much there, but those goddamn lyrics. I quickly realised “oh, so it’s one those songs”. The “your new boyfriend is shit and I will treat you like a gentleman should treat you” song. The ultimate nice guy anthem.

His last single was about how hurt he had been by a former lover who broke his heart. He then released Treat You Better less than a year later as his next single, which is about how he can be a better option for someone who isn’t in a good relationship, and the guy is only 18. The writing collaborators are clearly attempting to appeal to young teenagers that experienced a break up and now they desperately need music to relate to. Shawn Mendes is the face of this, and I have no trust in him at all. Keep away from him, girls.

 

4. I Hate U I Love U – Whoever the hell these people are

Remember when I said at the beginning that I struggled to find any fun in pop music this year? Well, this song really does back up that claim, doesn’t it?

You know, the piano in this song isn’t actually that bad, and I do like slow, downtempo music when it’s done really well. However, the “I hate you/I love you” shtick has been played to death, and it’s a music cliche that I generally don’t enjoy, and there’s nothing really good about the way these guys do it. Is ‘Gnash’ supposed to be a rapper? He does a slight “rap” verse in this song and if there’s anything that doesn’t fit well on this kind of beat, it’s a rap verse. There’s a reason Nick Cave never has guest rappers on his songs, it would sound completely out of place, like here.

I really can’t get behind a dreary, melancholic song about how a relationship has ended as there are so many of them that make it into the charts already, but never have I heard it done with such melodramatic/forced sadness. The way Olivia O’Brien sings the chorus makes the words “love” and “hate” have no meaning to them, they could easily be interchangeable because there is no passion in the way she sings.

To me, this song is just an amalgamation of all those “so relatable/break up” pictures you’d find on Tumblr, so I guess I’ll give this song a Tumblrcore label and leave it at that.

 

3. No – Meghan Trainor

Meghan Trainor started out bad, but this year she truly became a certified dreadful artist. She’s drifted away from that doo wop sound and I think she might sound even more terrible now. Who’d have thought it was possible for Meghan Trainor to get even worse than she already was.

Here’s the thing, if a man is being annoying and not leaving the girl alone when she’s not interested then of course she has every right to say no, I’m in full support of this. But Meghan, why must you make it sound like this? This is the whiniest way you can possibly say no. This is another example of an overly repetitive chorus which once again, sounds completely redundant.

According to Meghan Trainor, this song was written as a response to her record label as they told her that they didn’t think the new album was good enough. Now, clearly the lyrics in this song don’t show that that’s what it’s about, but one positive thing I can say here is that I’m glad there are some people out there telling Meghan Trainor that her music is, in fact, dog shit.

 

2. We Don’t Talk Anymore – Charlie Puth (ft. Selena Gomez)

Oh Charlie Puth, you naïve young child. Oh wait, he’s older than me? Nevermind, I thought he was 16. I mean, you certainly would think he was 16 with this kind of songwriting. Instead of writing why I dislike this song and how it drains my soul when I hear it, I’m going to attempt to offer some advice for Charlie Puth.

You see, Charlie, you’ve broken up with someone, therefore you more than likely won’t talk to them anymore. Here you ask; “What was all of it for?” in the chorus, and the answer to that is: the experience. I’ll admit that I’ve been in this same position before after a break up and I’ve questioned what it all meant, I’m sure most people have, but it’s a stupid mind-set. It doesn’t mean that it was all a waste of time, why would it mean that?

It’s funny that on his last single ‘One Call Away’, he said “Superman has nothing on me” and now on this song he’s displaying a huge weakness. I can say however, I’m very thankful that he’s not made any more Marvin Gaye references.

 

1. Me Myself & I – G-Eazy (Feat. Bebe Rexha)

Of all the songs to be released this year, this is probably not one that people will hate the most. There have been a lot of annoying sounding songs this year but this definitely annoys me the most.

Firstly, I must address G-Eazy (Eazy-E? Jeezy? Weezy? Yeezy? How many more?). I don’t think there could a more bland rapper out there than G-Eazy and he’s become extremely popular. What does G-Eazy tell us? “A Ferrari, I’m buying three”. Wow, bragging about all the money you’ve got, how original.

Furthermore, G-Eazy has an incredibly boring voice, he has no personality and he barely sounds interested when he’s rapping. Then we have Bebe Rexha on the chorus, and the chorus really sounds like it would fit better on a David Guetta song than it does here. Although honestly, I would rather not hear her voice anywhere, it really grates on my ears as she yelps over the chorus.

I think the reason that this song is the top of my list is because these are two new artists with barely any talent, collaborating on a song together and it becoming a hit. With a lot of songs from this year, it’s been artists that are already popular, releasing fairly mediocre songs.

I don’t have much hope for 2017 if G-Eazy is the future, although he did perform at the MTV Awards and that’s usually a sign that you won’t be a part of the future of pop music.