Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2018
2018 is an interesting year in popular music. On one hand you have the complete take over of trap rap emo SoundCloud music (whatever you wanna call it) and the rise of artists like Cardi B and XXXTENTACION but there’s also the pushback from the radio, Bebe Rexha, and the overall extremely dower mood. The further we get from 2018 (and the further we get into this country fluff family friendly religious grifting my wife and life are perfect type music era), the better 2018 looks. 2025 makes 2018 look diverse wtf. 2018 is just a big fuck you to the music industry. Random kids off SoundCloud could just get top 40 (even top 10) hits and that was just normal. The streaming charts (what people actually wanted to listen to) and the radio charts could not have been so different from each other. All other genres had to revolve around a genre that’s never seen mainstream success before. Songs like Lucid Dreams by Juice WRLD were ACTUALLY getting radio play (sometimes completely uncensored). Alot of the songs on this list could NEVER’ve gotten popular in any other year but 2018. It’s special, whether you like what makes it special or not.
I’ve already made the best list (linked below) so now I need to do the worst list. I loved this year ALOT more than I thought I would but that doesn’t mean I loved every song. There are songs on here that get me legitimately angry, also Dr*ke.
For a song to have a chance of making this list, it must’ve made the Billboard 2018 Year End Hot 100 (linked at the bottom of this wall of text) or hit #1 in 2018. If a song made another Year End list, it must’ve placed higher in the 2018 one (this excludes Sicko Mode b/c that’s a 2018 song to its core). This would make Trip by Ella Mai, What Lovers Do by Maroon 5 ft SZA, Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, 1-800-273-8255 by Logic ft Khalid + Alessia Cara, Bodak Yellow by Cardi B, Happier by Marshmello ft Bastille, and Feel It Still by Portugal The Man ineligible for this list. I also extended the 2018 Year End, so that would make I’m A Mess by Bebe Rexha and Chun Li by Nicki Minaj eligible. I ranked and chose the songs based on the quality of the song as well as what it represents in the bigger picture of popular music if accapule. If an honourable mention has a ☆ next to its title, it was originally gonna go on the list/was considered for the list. This took 2 straight days of work btw (I have no life, until a started school this week, oh fuck no).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_2018
https://www.tumblr.com/music-recommendations-offical/793082707308625920/top-10-best-hit-songs-of-2018?source=share
10. Yes Indeed by Lil Baby ft Dr*ke
Drake sounds like an air conditioner on low and Lil Baby sounds like Kodak Black through a tin can. The ‘beat’ is just some light skitters, 8O8s, and this distant violin so I can’t even TRY to ignore their voices. The chorus is at least catchy; it’d be kinda good if it were on a different song and sung by a different person.
9. Never Be The Same by Camilia Cabello
Camilia Cabello sounds shootable as ever on this song; who told her she could sing? Just from the first weirdly contoured piano notes, the song’s just begging to be turned off. She can’t even do a lower range, she sounds like she just got kicked in the throat. But we all know why this is here; nicotine morphine heroween. The instrumental is SO spacey and echoey, sounds like it was recorded in a fuckin cave. Why’s this 4 minutes long?
8. I Like Me Better by Lauve
That opening sounds like it’s from 2016. No one likes this song. It has barely any views (in comparison to its placement on the Year End list), no one streamed it, no one bought it (physically or digitally), it’s only here off of the radio. It only peaked at #27 on the Hot 100 but it stayed on the chart for so long because the radio hates letting things go. I’d be fine (still be annoyed but fine) IF IT WAS ACTUALLY GOOD. What the fuck is this; it’s like everything I hate was rolled up into one 3 minutes ‘song’. Those loud snaps, the hyper detailed acoustic guitar plucking, that 2016 ass sounding sound, it’s just awful.
I had to listen to Scorpion for this. I've been waiting YEARS to say this: I HATED DRAKE BEFORE IT WAS POPULAR. Oh my fuckin god did I hate Dr*ke in 2018. I had to hear that In My Feelings song MULTIPLE times a day EVERYDAY that summer. I also had to hear a bunch of his other songs on the radio. People were doing the In My Feelings Challenge, referencing it in conversation, humming it, playing it, talking about it, ect. I can’t even imagine how it was to be on the internet with this fuckin song. I can’t look at this song as an actual song anymore. Dr*ke was ALL over the charts this year; he released an album and EVERY song off it charted in the top half of the Hot 100. I’ve spent most of this section on how much ‘In My Feelings’ terrorised me that year, there’s nothing else I can really say. He was just EVERYWHERE that year. He used his fame to make some of the worst rappers chart and sometimes famous. All his songs sound like an air conditioner on low, idk what else you want me to say. Fuck Dr*ke.
6. Te Bote by Casper Magico ft Nio Garcia + Darell Nicky Jam + Ozuna + Bad Bunny
In 2017 Despacito opened up the flood gates to a bunch of Spanish songs being able to cross over. You’d think that they’d be like, yinno, happy and bearable like Despacito. NOPE. It’s the same mumbly half asleep garbage but worse and in Spanish now. I can’t understand a word they’re saying but I just know it’s worthless. IT’S ALSO 7 MINUTES LONG! Who the fuck wants to listen to this for 7 god damn minutes? I finished writing this section before the song even ended. Whoever said those elongated syllables would work shouldn’t be allowed to have opinions. All 5 people on this track sound the same.
5. Thunder by Imagine Dragons
I shouldn't have to talk about this commercial soundtrack ass song. Why is he doing that Valley Girl intonation thing? The pitch shifted voice saying thunder is there and oh no. This is the #1 hot rock song of 2018. I don’t know what else to say, it’s Thunder by Imagine Dragons. TURN IT OFF!
4. Changes by XXXTENTACION
If you saw my best list, you’d know that I love XXXTENTACION. Then, you may be asking yourself, why is one of his songs on this list and SO high? Me loving X’s music makes THIS song (out of any of his other album tracks) being the one to make the Year-End EVEN WORSE. Out of EVERY fuckin song from him to chart that year, THIS is the song the public liked over EVERY other one of his songs (besides sad); the ‘song’ that’s really just a piano loop (that I always think is All Of Me by John Legend for the first couple seconds) where X repeats the same 5 lines for two minutes. It has none of the usual personality or ideas that X’s songs have. ANYONE with garageband and a voice could make this. THIS is one of the songs that represents him on the 2018 Billboard Year-End; it placed over Moonlight! What the fuck. Go listen to Jocelyn Flores or Going Down or ANY other X song; NOT THIS!
3. Meant To Be by Florida Georgia Line ft Bebe Rexha
#1 country song of 2018; The #1 country song in the U.S. for 50 weeks and the longest running #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart. THIS ISN’T EVEN A COUNTRY SONG! THIS is country but Old Town Road isn’t?! You don’t know how much I wanted to count this as country music so I didn’t have to talk about it. Bebe Rexha has a #1 country song. You can’t even blame the country audience for once; this song was #1 on the country radio chart for 1 week but #1 on the pop radio chart for 5 weeks. That means it was played 5X more on pop radio than on country radio. Even the radio knows this isn’t country. This song ISN’T here because of this, it’s because it’s just an abhorrent fuckin song. Who told them that trap instrumental would mix well with that fake ass garage band piano? I could rant on for HOURS about how AWFUL this fuckin song sounds but I’d just be repeating myself.
2. Freaky Friday by Lil Dicky ft Chris Brown
I feel like we all know why this is here. It’s a ‘song’ where Chris Brown brags about being Chris Brown with a DJ Mustard beat. Of course Chris fuckin Brown got a hit this year (and a #1 hit in the U.K.); why wouldn’t he? Lil Dicky is supposed to be a comedic rapper. I could fill several hard drives with jokes regarding Chris Brown. Lil DIcky needs to get a new joke. He writes off a SERIAL ABUSER as just having a ‘controversial past’. Controversial means people can disagree; I don't think it’s very controversial to say that abuse is bad. All this wasn’t even in the past, he continues to do this shit to this, he just hasn’t been punished. Chris Brown can also NOT FUCKIN SING. Why is this waste of space famous?
Mi Gente by J Balvin + Willy William ft Beyonce
No Brainer by Dj Khalid ft Justin Bieber + Chance The Rapper + Quavo
Natural by Imagine Dragons
Lights Down Low by MAX ft gnash
Wolves by Marshmello ft Selena Gomez
Way Too Good At Goodbyes by Sam Smith
Friends by Marshmello ft Anne Marie
1. FEFE by Tekashi69 ft Nicki Minaj
I don’t think I have to go through why he’s an abhorrent monster of a ‘human’ who deserves nothing but jail for life; look with caution. And that fact that NICKI MINAJ is openly doing a song with him is just wow. I guess I have to say one of the things he did to be able to make the points I’m bouta make. In like 2016 (idfc to look for the exact year) he and some others recorded and distributed a video of them raping a 13yro. You may be asking, what does this have to do with my hatred of this song? He brags about it IN the song, he uses ALOT of childish imagery mixed with strippers, the cover is these ‘chibi’ models of him and Nicki, and, for all he cares, THIS is why he’s famous. Him being an outward pedophile isn’t even the top 5th reason why I hate this song SO fuckin much; it’s a microcosm of everything awful in popular music this year (excluding Dr*ke). This song just sounds awful; from the nothing beat to the nothing performance from both, WHAT’S TO LIKE?! They both sound like they’re about to pass out from boredom, not from being tired, they just don’t fuckin care so why should I? Fuck this and everyone involved in it!
0. Girls Like You by Maroon 5
You may be asking, I thought FEFE by Tekashi69 ft Nicki Minaj was the worst hit song of 2018? It is. Girls Like You by Maroon 5 gets the honourary #0 spot; it doesn’t deserve to get a spot on the actual list. Does anyone even like this song, who isn’t the fuckin radio? This is NOT the 5th biggest song of the 2010s. If FEFE represents everything wrong about popular music in 2018, then Girls Like You is everything wrong in popular music. The lyrics are completely meaningless while ‘attempting’ to be some big statement; I usually can ignore the lyrics but there’s NOTHING else in the ‘song’. Adam Levine is also breathing! No one fuckin likes this song. It only got as big as it was because it easily slid into playlists and the radio LOVED it; no one thought to turn it off. This mayn’t be their worst sounding or hardest to get through but- JUST ACTUALLY LISTEN TO IT. When I hear this ‘song’, I don’t hear a song. I hear everything I HATE in popular music. A bunch of talentless hacks getting popular because they were in the right place at the right time, the radio always having its way, the most boring slop gets pushed to the top whilst actually good stuff is just-
Idk if I’m explaining my hatred of this song well enough; just know that this gets me SO fuckin mad and I’d like to stop thinking about it.
I feel like I got WAY too heated about some songs, this is still my top 10 worst hit songs of 2018 list though. Go look at my best list ACTUAL fully fleshed out thoughts on this year. Negative posts are ALWAYS more popular than positive ones so yeah.
