Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2025

Music is a medium that reflects culture the most instant. While both movies and TV shows are usually have a time frames for them to be created and it doesn't immediately impacted the culture as much. Music especially pop music are easier and faster to make. With the invention of the internet and artists have shorter time in between releasing the music they have made during that year and marketing it. I mean you can see that happening in real time with the Kendrick Lamar vs Drake rap beef where the culture was shaped by these two rappers going at it and ultimately Kendrick won that battle. If there's a tangible time capsule that you can consume everyday then I believe music is the gateway to what's going on within a period of time. I give up describing 2025 pop music.

Whenever music historian will talked about 2025 pop music they might say how stale the chart is. But that characterization will missed the whole picture of 2025 as a whole. Strictly speaking, the listening habit of people in 2025 especially in the west correlated with the real world which has fallen apart. Trump second term has brought people to rightly put down their headphones and locked into what's going on in the world. More and more people are letting algo to dictate what music they want to listen to by smart shuffle or just asking Alexa "play a song". That's why the biggest songs of last year stuck around and never going down. The weakness of the chart really having an effect where something like a soundtrack for an animated movies were the biggest story of the entire summer. Not even Morgan Wallen's stream-trolling hold up well against his 2023 "magnum opus", that's how bad the chart is.

There's one good thing about the chart in 2025. With the absence of Americans listening to music, that left other countries to fill in the gaps and it has led to the most rich and interesting pop music that I have covered. Looking at Global Excl US chart has been the best thing I've done because it really opened up my ears on songs that can be hits in the absent of America. I'm gonna expand upon this on the best list but suffice to say the fact that there are Indonesian songs charted on Global Excl US chart is something that I would've never expected in 2025.

Now for the worst list on the other hand...Look I'm trying alright. The worst part of making the worst list especially with the songs I'm using here is that rarely these songs evoked any emotion out of me beside boredom and apathy. To a lot of people that might be worse than comically bad songs like last year, but to me this is making the list harder to assemble the most. Like look at the previous years alright, 2024 bad music were comical, 2023 bad music were offensive and rage inducing, 2022 bad music was an exercise of bad sampling, and so on. The worst songs of 2025 are tired, boring, and meandering with a few exception that we'll get to. 

Again some rules of eligibilty and I have tweaked it from last year: 

1. I'm now ditching Hot 100 entirely and replacing it with songs debuted at the Billboard Global 200 Year End with Global Excl US chart as well.
2. Songs from this year that hit 100 million streams as of Saturday, November 22th based on this playlist.
3. As usual this is my opinion and don't get mad at me when your favs Morgan Wallen will be on this list okay

Okay let's see which songs that could obstruct the honmoon seal because how bad and popular they are as I count down

Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2025

10. This year is dull enough as it is, we don't need a song that's doing lazy interpolation and sampling into the mix.

10. OWA OWA - Lil Tecca

One thing I had to praise for in Lil Tecca is that he's at least determined. Out of all the new rappers that debuted I think Lil Tecca is one of the few that really want to have hits the most. You can see with how he kept reinventing himself to varying of success. 500lbs was a surprise success in 2023 and he really capitalized on it with Dark Thoughts. Dark Thoughts is like Blueberry Faygo but better. So naturally he followed that up with this gunk

I feel like making this type of song in the year of our lord 2025 is kinda funny. Like you have everything at your disposal for making a sample heavy rap song and yet you still blew it. Beside the part lifted from "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles sounded very jarring in this swamped out bassy trap production, but the fact that this is the most boring brag rap that I've heard with only interesting lyrics being a Lady Gaga reference and I left wondering "why am I not listening to Bad Romance one of the best songs of all time?" Yeah I think I'll just do that than talking about this song again. 

9. I'm gonna say something that's very hot take territory, nepo baby isn't really my catch all term when criticizing media to me. Sure there are degree of nepo baby ranging from "I'm so sorry your dad is Elon Musk" to "go screw yourself the Ellison family". But in pop culture, people are always dismissing actors or musicians after they found out that they have famous parents. Sometimes you need those people to stand on their own feet first and for the most part they have succeeded in that. But I do get the frustration here, especially when this artist getting more and more praise despite being very basic.

9. That's So True - Gracie Abrams

Honestly being basic isn't really a bad thing either. At the end of the day, you will find a lot of people gravitate towards something basic because it just works. That's how Ed Sheeran became such a hit makers because he played to those basic lived in experience and it works...mostly. Playing to those basic instinct when done correctly can be very comfy and lived in and you know how that person is like. In a way it's more intimate than most of songs that supposed to be that. So I know why Gracie Abrams trying to do that approach with this song, but it just falls flat.

I think my main problem with this song that I don't have issues with like Ed Sheeran one is that the immaturity on display. I know she's a year older than me but these lyrics are sounding like they're coming from a teenager. Putting aside how the structure of the song is very wonky like not even an intro? The fact that Gracie is trying to airing her ex to his new girlfriend and oh wow I don't miss the bad lyrics from Taylor's early to mid 2010s. With only acoustic guitar, the wobbly bass, and minimal percussion you have to look at the performance and the lyrics and they're very sub par. I don't know why Gracie chose to have the vocal tamber of Lorde and it sounded very stilted. While the lyrics...dropping f bombs in the worst possible moment is crazy work. It really showed how limited as a songwriter Gracie Abrams is and thus the nepo baby label is squarely put on her. Again I don't care about the nepo baby stuff but I do care about mediocre music and this is very mediocre.

8. The biggest song of 2025 is going to be Ordinary by Alex Warren. Now if you have read my blog you know that the song is very meh. A byproduct of the emerging pop music scenes where you have the singer songwriting type like Hozier and sanded down even further to genuine worship music. Now I don't hate this song as much to be on the worst list. But there are another singles where I hate even more than Ordinary and I think the problem is that the title of the song. Ordinary the title of the song is apt because yeah this song is ordinary but we make it extraordinary. Meanwhile this song title...yeah flying too close to the sun.

8. Eternity - Alex Warren

From the organ alone I know that this is gonna be the most boring and overwrought song that he's ever made. And yeah that's what it is, a song with too many embellishment and no bite. The lyrics is too basic to have this kind of productions. Everything just piled up to the mess that we are listening to. From Alex Warren's oversinging, to the harp, to the windchime, to the big drums, and the choir. This song really took itself too seriously and that's my main problem of the song. Again the basic question here appeared again because when Ed Sheeran talked about being in love with more restraint, it worked because he knew the productions that's perfect for the vibe of the song. Meanwhile, Alex Warren really trying to ham it in that his love is for eternity without the intimacy and the closeness because he's playing for the grand platituted that does not work at all. You know in a worse year this won't be even in my top 10 of the worst of the hit, but in these times I have no patience with this type of song so next!

7. Do you guys think that Sabrina Carpenter will need to create a new bit here because being ironically into not good guys has ran so thin that this is the final results of it.

7. Nobody's Son - Sabrina Carpenter

I think we need to have a talk about how Sabrina Carpenter weaponized these kind of gender war for her own gain? Like at this point Sabrina's kind of teehee humor isn't that funny anymore when one of the biggest singles from Man's Best Friends literally said that having a guy who can *check notes* do the laundry and being responsible hot...yeah sure you can make a satire about what's going on right now but this is just borderline to outright depressing at times. And also at times the productions didn't help enforcing that yeah all of the politics here are ripped straight from sitcom of the 80s. And I believe Nobody's Son is the worst example out of them all.

Nobody's Son is about Sabrina being disappointed by this guy not giving her what she wants...because he wants to be emotionally ready after gotten so many bad experience? Like I do get what she wants to say here like you are sexually active and it's frustrating that this guy is still needs some times to sort out his emotions before you have intimate time. But honestly airing those frustration at his mom is a line that you shouldn't cross (the production is the reason why Manchild isn't on this list). It's honestly something that irked me about Sabrina's brand of comedy because you can just be mean and spout some of the most backward gender role imaginable, but with some ironic detachment that made it "funny" or "compelling" and I'm sorry it doesn't work anymore not in this climate. Also the productions sounds very awful with herky jerky synth, the violin breakdown that sounded so fake, and that drum which is so distracting. 

Look I know that Sabrina really intended the album being a satirical look at the gender war that has been going on right now and it does work with some songs here I'll admit that. But when you ran out of ideas you start to get bottom of the barrel stuff like this where the comedy is stale, the politics is questionable at best, and the productions is a rush job. Hoping after this she can take a break so that she could refined her works because I think the exhaustion will kick in and the output might not be ideal.

6. You know this year is very stagnant that even the worse performing album by Morgan Wallen number wise will have more songs on the Hot 100 Year End than the ones in 2023. Part of it maybe because of the overplayed, like you make an album with more than 30 songs in it, people will be exhausted surely. The backlash is palpable especially the SNL debacle. And yet he's still got clout to push artist to #1 and it's Tate McRae this time.

6. What I Want - Morgan Wallen ft. Tate McRae

The Adam Levinafication of Morgan Wallen is completed with I'm The Problem, a followup to One Thing At A Time where the label concenssion is apparent and the sound is getting worse. With this album he played it even more safe and the result is nothing stands out beside couple of big stinker like Miami. This one stands out to me just because of how mercernaries it really it even if Tate shouldn't do it.

Tate McRae is the main pop girlie that 2025 deserved. Her success this year not really baffled me but it's telling how she's one of the few pop girlie that has any success at all. So why does she needs to be on a Morgan Wallen album? Well she got her #1 but also there's a deeper reason as to why. I think the reason why Tate McRae really want that bag is that Morgan Wallen needed a female artist for him to collaborate so that his brand of misogyny can be tolerated. It's like when SZA appeared on that last Drake album is to make these type of break up more palettable and honestly that's the second worst part of the song. 

The main issue here is that this song just sounds like ass. Like always Morgan Wallen's writers and producers can't make trap productions without sounding very thin and this is not an exception. That guitar is actively clashed with the trap hi hat while the bass is so weak it got drowned by the percussion. And putting Tate and Wallen voice together is just the death nail to this song. Congrats Tate for your #1 but honestly you need to pray that your fame isn't just confined to 2025.

5. This is probably the most unintentionally funny bad song of the year and all it took for me is that this is the continuation of what I like to called "fuckboy pop". This time around you got a mixed of that plus the bombast of Riverdale core. 

5. Devil In Disguise - Marino

As someone who's not a man but formerly a male, this shit still baffled me that people love it. This is basically a song about a nice guy who's actually a bad guy and I'm sorry it's just very goofy everytime I hear it. The framing of the song implied menace, but with the overperforming and the bad lyrics, it made this song very unintentionally funny. This is the opposite of Alex Warren where you can clearly hear the jealousy and the bitterness and yet he can't conveyed it properly. The productions also didn't helped with the plucky guitar, the stomp clap hey percussion, and that awful chorus with the heavy guitar and bass to make it sound menacing but sounded very fake instead. Also the fact that this song barely run two minutes made this one very undercooked.

Look in every decades there will be certain music for the disaffected young men, this song plus the surrounding of it really highlight that young men are in crisis but not what it seems. This song encapsulated everything wrong with internet and how they treated men. From the condensending lyrics for women, the plot of the song being nice bad guy that doesn't reflect reality, and the accessability of it all. This song sold you fantasy that you will never get but you can get it by y'know being shitty towards women. Unlike Truck Bed last year though this song is not nearly as institution proven so there won't be real problem by hearing this song systematically, but theoritically it's still damaging so yeah worst song list material it is then.

4. Oh speaking of country music here's more Morgan 

4. I'm The Problem - Morgan Wallen 

You know how the title track of One Thing At A Time is about Morgan Wallen would do substance abuse, including meth, if this girl is leaving him? Well for the title track of this album he's concern trolling this girl to say that yes I'm probably the problem but the ex is the reason as to why he's very shitty. This is why the Drake comparison is inevitable because when you are playing the safe route, you have to make this kind of songs where the misogynoir is just in the periphery but it's always there. 

Honestly speaking this wouldn't be as bad but the framing and the production here are rancid. Morgan Wallen just because you are very shitty to this woman doesn't mean you can project that onto other people especially when you're "metaphorically" want to burn this thing down. But also the production being very sandy and outlaw country esque with the guitar, the strings, and the spare drum really made you sounds like a macho guy but really you're whiny asshole that really don't want to take the blame here. This song really condensed why I hate this album, the manipulative lyrics, bad productions, and Morgan Wallen not even trying. And I'm afraid if this continues we will get more of this and we are doomed.

3. Like I said before but this was a brutal year for the pop girlies. Some of them released mediocre followup to their last year's outing including one Taylor Swift. The Life of Showgirl is the album that I would described as inessential. But the outrage from this album is both a long time coming and also surprising at the same time. It's surprising how this album got so many backlash when the worst thing about this album is how Max Martin fell off. But it's also a long time coming when you consider this song on the album.

3. CANCELLED! - Taylor Swift

Making any song about being "cancelled" is always a bad idea even if you're the most gifted writer ever. Not only it showed how online you are when you are not supposed to, it showed that you are delusional. But especially Taylor Swift who became a billionaire last year. The term cancelled has muddied the discourse a lot in talking about media because you can't really get cancelled unless you are either getting killed or being thrown in jail forever. And even then, there are still freaks that will follow you no matter what. Also when you said you are getting cancelled maybe it's because you are actually not a good person and honestly it's fine as long as you don't hurt anybody. Father John Misty's ethos are primarily around being a shitty white man. So yeah it's a reveal of your personality to make a song about being cancelled especially Taylor Swift.

First off this production from Max Martin is an all timer clunker. Why on his right mind to make this production sounded very barren and the mixing being dogshit. The guitar, the spare drums, and the rancid atmosphere in general just made this song sounded like Jack Antonoff reject. But that doesn't negate how bad these lyrics are. 

Look I know that this song exist because Taylor is hyper online and she's thinned skinned, but I think there's a way for her to make this song works. Vigilante Shit is a prime example where Taylor thinking about what she would do even if it's white collar crime as she said. There's the menace and bite to that song and y'know not basing your boss bitch anthem being about having cancelled friends. Isn't she supposed to be my English teacher? Why is her writing here coming across as Billie Eilish reject. Honestly I think Taylor needs a break because she ran out of ideas and the more she focused on internet drama, the more delusional she is. Hopefully the marriage is going well though.

2. The early 80s has been documented as one of the most important time for pop music. So much of what we took for granted today, the music production, the advances of mixing and mastering, the imagery, and what pop music really is came from the stretch of 1982 to 1985 especially with MTV slowly gaining popularity. It left the door wide open to innovation, odd novelty, and room for new stars to grow. It was a great time for pop fans where most of 80s classic came from this era. But an era must come to an end and the 80s were hitting that hard.

Let's not minced word, late 80s to early 90s are considered the worst era for pop music. Everything good that happened in the early 80s were exploited and turned it to mush around 1988-1990. This era is infamous with boomer nostalgia that were mixed bag at best, the produtions turned into formless mush of synth and drum machine, labels cared more about the image than the music, and some of the worst lyrics ever being put on cassette tapes. Trying to listen to 1989 hits is like trying to fall asleep but someone chugged you a liter of Red Bull. Honestly thank god that not a lot of artists trying to copy these era...well not everyone.

2. Mystical Magical - Benson Boone

People are always pointing out the lyrics of this song being the worst part and hey it's definitely bad. Putting aside how the line "Moonbeam ice cream" is still an awkward line to go by, the phrase "mystical magical" as describing your sex perfomance is something that even Starland Vocal Band wouldn't dare to make. Also this song has this sleazy vibe that really doesn't match the jaunty tone of the song itself. The song is basically Benson Boone waiting for the perfect time to woo this girl and I'm sorry but the persumptious nature of the framing here does make it seems like Benson here not chasing that high, but just waiting for his prey to backed down. It's the worst case scenario of performative male craze and I won't elaborate on that.

What I do want to elaborate here are the productions which is the actual worst part of the song. The beginning alone with the revving up sound, the twinkle, and that farty synth turned me off to the song immediately. But when the bass and the guitar came around for the first verse I will say best part of the song even if it does still sound like very generic 80s stuff. But the vocal harmony that sounds very deflated tells me that oh wait will it get worse? Then the bridge happened where it's only jaunty piano and Benson Boone higher register voiced that sounds dying mid song. And then surely it can't get worse after this right? The chorus hit you with the worst mixed thing I heard all year. That trumpet with the pileup clash of the guitar, the bass, the drums, and the piano feels so busy in the worst way. That's why I said something about late 80s music because it does produced this badly. It's like if Peter Cetera making a Peter Gabriel song it just doesn't work. So yeah while this song might be this high, it's the song that's very fun to talk about how bad it is...we need more of this to be honest.

Anyways here's the Dishonorable Mention real quick before I'll reveal my #1.

La Pantera - Marcos Villalobos ft. Alan Arrieta

Honestly I'm restraining myself to put any songs that aren't English on here unless the lyrics are bad enough. Or in this case having bad production part that just ruined the song entirely. This one is the worst one especially listening to it with a headphone. That clicking sound is so annoying and actual hindrence towards the song in general.

Ordinary - Alex Warren

The biggest song released in 2025...apparently. Look the success of this song is explained pretty well by the fact that Lilo & Stitch live action movie grossed one billion dollars.

Call Me When You Break Up - Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco ft. Gracie Abrams

You know, for an collaboration album that supposed to be a celebration of you two being together, it sure has a lot of other people in it. Also starting your song with a call on hold is the corniest thing I heard this year. 

Which One - Drake ft. Central Cee

You know Drake unless you grew up in that side of Toronto, I don't want to hear you still doing Jamaican accent. Also for Central Cee...yeesh what a waste of career. Stream Dave instead his newest album is actually worth the wait.

Don't Say You Love Me - Jin

I'm just tired of this kind of soft rock 80s sound and I wanna move on to 90s adult alternative instead.

Love Somebody - Morgan Wallen

Possibly the most Maroon 5 he has ever sounded. This song hitting number one was the indicative that what Morgan Wallen was cooked up will be the most sanded down and sanitized version of his shtick and I was mostly correct on that.

Actually Romantic - Taylor Swift 

You know Taylor just because your friend Kendrick Lamar made one of the best diss tracks of all time (I'm talking about Euphoria btw), doesn't mean you can do it yourself. Especially when the song that mentioned you from Charli xcx was clearly an olive branch. What happened to pop girlie solidarity man.

Okay now onto the worst hit song of 2025.

1. Honestly speaking, I'm glad that these two songs exist both Mystical Magical and this one in particular. 2025 has been one of the dullest and inessential year for pop music since I have started talking about music. The closest thing I can point to is probably either 1974 or 1989 where the trends ran its course while the stagnation letting outliers to chart high or stayed on the chart. And just like those years, the bad songs here are either the most boring songs of all time or holy shit smack my girlballs bad songs. This is probably the most of the latter partly because it just smack you how bad it is at the beginning. And it's none other than the worst female artist of 2024.

1. Blue Strips - Jessie Murph

I'm so glad that the backlash for Jessie Murph has came out in full force because I can't stand her just like how Todd In The Shadow despised Justin Bieber in 2010. If there's one artist I would say happily that they're industry plant, is gotta be Jessie Murph. She came out of nowhere in 2021 because of Diplo cosign and then Nashville just ate that up because clearly they want their own female version of Morgan Wallen. So she collaborated with Jelly Role and unfortunately Koe Wetzel. You can see my more in depth take on those songs in my worst list but suffice to say they're not great. And her album this year proved that she's very one note, trying way too hard to be Amy Winehouse but country, and bad productions galore. This is probably her worst song to date

From the first second you played the song you are being assaulted by Jessie Murph autotune whalling about getting revenge on her ex. And then you hear the effect and the piano and the steel guitar and the worst produced trap beats of 2025. This reminded me so much of bad 2010s trap pop sound that was huge with acts like Bebe Rexha and Halsey and even then they have distinct voices unlike Jessie Murph here. It's shocking that the producer of the song has produced a lot of Mr Morale & The Big Stepper because this is just a hack job all around.

Now the lyrics here sent this one over the edge for me. Jessie Murph is trying to getting revenge on his ex while she's buying new mansion in Malibu with her new boyfriend (man talk about unfortunate time). And she found out that his ex got a stripper girlfriend so she decided to "blackmail" him by basically paying her ex's new girlfriend some money. Not only that there's no bite to this song, but also this song worried me the most since Jessie Murph is only 21 years old. There's this discourse among Gen Z that this generation is very puritanical. While I disagree with this to a certain extent (there's a lot more nuance in this from abstinence only sex education to unrestrain internet access), Jessie Murph just confirmed that theory because this song center piece is that she's trying to blackmail her ex because he's dating a sex worker. That's the worst aspect of the song and why this song is the worst of the year. Just because she's working in an environment that has no protection that doesn't mean you have to berate her. What if she's enjoy her job as a stripper? It's not only anti sex work, but also misogynistic as well because a woman's value shouldn't be tied to their work. That's how this song is the worst of the year. And honestly I'm glad that the backlash will continue for my arch nemesis Jessie Murph.

Well that's the end of the worst list. Hopefully you are entertained with this one. Next up is the best list hopefully I can make one. Anyways see you soon!