Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2001

    Talking about something in hindsight can be very difficult. One of the reasons is that you are talking about stuff that are set in stone and you have to add the context about why that stuff existed in the first place. If you also trying to criticize that old stuff, you run into another beast altogether. Now you have to try and talk shit about stuff that has been calcified to the culture as a whole not just objective facts. That's why a lot of people love the idea of the "worst music ever" lists because it's a permission structure for people to mock older songs. When you stray from that canon and create your own path, that's when it gets interesting. And nothing will be straying from the canon than making your own worst list.

    2001 was definitely a transitional year for pop music. The leftover from the Y2K era are starting to get grating, Nu-Metal was on the brink of implosion, rock are turning inwards as post grunge and pop punk are fighting for dominant, and a whole lot of ballads from every genres. This was also the year where the chart were being challenged as to what counts as a "hit". Aaliyah's "Try Again" hit #1 on the Hot 100 just a year early only with airplay numbers, while kids are downloading music from piracy sites because they grew up with the idea that music is free after the MP3 revolution. The Hot 100 in 2001 were full with airplay singles mess and songs with high sales numbers from the older crowds. Leading the charts being the most sterile and sanitized that I've seen in contrast to what's really popular.

    Because of that, I also added the top 100 most streams songs of 2001 for my best and worst list. Honestly speaking this is the best case scenario to include songs that was popular mainly on the piracy media or on MTV. Turns out there are more shit to talk about here so yay I guess? Anyways here we count down!

Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2025

    10. Apparently this song was praised at the time because it was quite "revolutionary" and "forward thinking". I think one of the reasons why this song was a lot back then was indeed it sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time. Too bad this song aged like milk

10. He Loves U Not - Dream

    Dream was a one hit wonder girl group that was signed by Bad Boy Records (another thing that aged like milk considering the age they were scouted...yikes). This was one and their only big hit that was produced and written by Steve Kipner who was responsible for "Physical" by Olivia-Newton John and was recently made "Genie In A Bottle" by Christina Aguilera. Honestly I don't know what happened there because both of the songs I mentioned are stone cold pop classic while this is a jumbled up mess of a song that thinking busy production is equal genius.

    I know some people love tonal dissonance and sometimes I do, but it's not for top 40 hits and there's a reason why pop songs are very simple. Spoiler alert for the list but some of the songs that will be featured on the list are here because they have very bad production choices and this is one of them. The tapping percussion on this song is genuinely distracting while listening to it with headphones on. And the chorus melody is jacked from NSYNC one of their better songs "It's Gonna Be Me" and turned it into autotuned mush. The blaring synth actively clashing with the beat and it just doesn't register for me. The added melody and guitar is like giving someone with cavities chocolate candies. And the bridge with buzzy synth and tuneless guitar solo came out of nowhere and I wonder if the producer here wanna make a TRL pop or bad Nine Inch Nail demo. All of these created a mess of a song that can't even back up the emotionality of the lyrics because the percussion here actively distracting me. Sometimes being experimental doesn't result in greatness and this is one of them.

    9. Like I said in the beginning, a lot of the songs that people thought were hits aren't exactly that in terms of raw data of what was being bought and listened to on the radio. And one of the genres that suffered from that is nu-metal. nu-metal was absolutely huge but not a lot of songs that came from that genre were hits on the pop chart. The only nu-metal #1 song on Hot 100 is "Butterfly" by Crazy Town and as goofy as that song is, it's a fine tune and I would actually play it more than once at a party or something. Though thanks to the inclusion of the Spotify streams I was able to get a first impression of 2001 nu-metal scenes...and it wasn't good

9. Click Click Boom - Saliva

    At this year even though Hybrid Theory was just around the corner, nu-metal was on the serious downturn and on the brink of collapse. A lot of big acts from the genre didn't released jack shit and what did they released it was underwhelming. The year was dominated by P.O.D. and Linkin Park but it still didn't changed the fact that it was floundering both in quality and the chart performance. And also there's a sad case of Saliva who I would describe as Limp Bizkit but without the shitty lyrics and more annoying singer.

    No seriously I think Josey Scott is even worse at singing and rapping than Fred Durst is and you can tell. A lot of the nu-metal around this time have turned into curdled mess of machismo, bad productions, and shitty attitude and this is the prime example as to why. It's not as catchy as any Limp Bizkit songs up to that point. It's not that heavy like Slipknot. And even the sonic palette here can't compared to Papa Roach. It's just a song that relied on the machismo and the performance and I'm sorry Josey Scott, but you are not threatning or anything you sounded like you need inhaler. Look to all of my zoomers fellow that ironically romaticized nu-metal, there's a reason why this genre was dying because gunk like this was polluting the airwave and honestly we can leave this one behind like those old PCs in the landfills. 

    8. What I found fascinating about looking at the history of Billboard Hot 100 is that it always been rigged to favor the biggest artists. Honestly seeing people shocked about the tactics that some artists and their label used to game the system has always been my favorite knowing this chart's history with payola, the singles bundle, the weird rules surrounding singles eligibility in the mid to late 90s, and record industry trying to mitigate piracy. I'm saying all of that because this song shouldn't be a hit because the public clearly didn't want it and beside few re-release, not a lot of people wanna acknowledge this exist. But some of us want to set the record straight and why this is probably more embarrassing than her beef with Eminem.

8. Loverboy - Mariah Carey ft. Cameo

    First off, this song just sounds very horrible. It's very busy and very claustrophobic with that woo sounds clashed with Mariah's cooing under the beat that sampled heavily from Cameo's "Candy". That little guitar chops coming into that verse is also very horribly mixed that it sounded demonic. The mixing here is straight up non existent with the vocals actively clashing with the harmony and the percussion. Oh yeah the guy from Cameo here and he's weirdly panned on the left side which made this song even more cluttered. This song has no hook and Mariah strength as a singer is actively fighting with itself. How the hell does this song passed the demo stage?

    Well the story behind this song is kinda sad all things considered. Apparently Mariah wanted to sampled Yellow Magic Orchestra song "Firecracker" and the snippets of the song was used for the trailer of her godawful movie "Glitter". But after she ended her contract with Columbia, her ex-husband Tommy Motolla signed Jennifer Lopez and basically sabotage the released of the song by making a quick grab of the sampled and released it a month before this song was released (That song was "I'm Real" btw which barely missed this list). And after publicized meltdown and even hospitalization, she threw a quick re-recording of the song with a new samples instead. What we got here was a plea of desperation from a singer that was rapidly showing her paranoia of fame that when this song was underperforming on the radio, the label decided to put the singles on crazy discount to proppeled it to #2. I just hope for everyone's sake we also forget about this song existing too because this isn't very lovely.

    7. Okay this part of the list is what I called the dead zone. These three songs are probably the worst of the worst of the ballads that were ubiquitous on the Hot 100 in 2001. It's pretty simple as to why ballads took over the chart around this time because the sales for singles have been decimated by piracy sites, and who were still buying singles in a form of a CD? that's right moms. Well not all the moms but people who are definitely living in the suburbs and working. That really created an environment of the most tepid and insipid ballads would notch a year end spot. Let's start out with this one where a country artist trying to make her "My Heart Will Go On" and yet a sign of the decline that was imminent

7. There You'll Be - Faith Hill

    2001 was probably the turning point for country music. Not only that there were rift between the younger generations and the older generations of country artists with "Murder On Music Row", but also the impact of 9/11 really pushed a lot of women on the charts and instead became the central propaganda tool for the American government. The rise of Toby Keith while happened this year was accelerated by the war in Iraq. Meanwhile the older generations created more somber downright sappy music that while certainly good, definitely trying to ease the masses. "Have You Forgotten" by Darryl Worley was right around the corner while the group now known as The Chicks got blacklisted on Nashville radio just because they criticized George Bush (this is also why not a lot of anti-war songs aren't that popular during this time). 

    Now for Faith Hill though it was a different story. After a great year 2000 where she scored #1 on the Hot 100 Year End list, She steadily moving towards more sophisticated easy listening ballad akin to Celine Dion or the pop stuff like Shania Twain. But I feel like the former eventually won out because she was tasked to make a ballad soundtrack for Pearl Harbor. And the fact that she spectacularly failed at this task is kinda crazy. 

    Part of why "My Heart Will Go On" worked so well is the structure of the song, the emotionality where it's universal while also being personal, and iconic choice in instruments like the flute. None of that appeared on this song which is played very universally but lack any kinds of emotionality because well Faith Hill is cleaner more sanitized than Celine Dion. I'm shocked that Trevor Horn produced this song because it's probably one of the most safe choice for a ballad tied to a movie. The only notable thing here is that acoustic guitar that showed "hey she's still country" despite the fact that this is a Hollywood Record song. And there's the lyrics where of course Diane Warren wrote it and it showed with the bland and forgettable lyrics. After this got modestly successful, she then went on and made "Cry" which Todd In The Shadow covered it as one of the biggest bomb in pop country history. After that she made one top 20 hit in 2006 and that was that. Speaking of country star.

    6. I have evaluating a lot about recent success of country music in the mainstream. 2020s is definitely the decade that country establishment figured out streaming and since then even third stringer like Dylan Scott have a song with more than 100 million streams. Country music have always ebb and flow when it comes to popularity. Some of it are actually the charts doing but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. In early 2000s it was still in the 90s golden age stuff but 2001 was a very muted year for the chart...with one big exception which solidified why this era needed to end

6. I'm Already There - Lonestar

    Fun fact, Lonestar was the last country act that gone to #1 on Hot 100 with their big hit "Amazed" before Morgan Wallen arrived. Now that song is actually pretty decent if unremarkable, so why not remaking that song but replaced even any interesting thing about the song. Even though this song was released long before the twin towers, it still embodied the worst kind of tribute to the military who are out in the battlefield. This is a song where a guy on military duty called his wife and when he heard his children, he said to them that "he's already there". He's very much omnipresent to their lives that everything surrounding them are very much him. I know it's hypocrite for me to say this because I'm in a long distance relationship going on 6 years now, but this is too cheesy even for me.

    Now that cheesy subject matter should be paired with more of a grandiose productions to really highlighted the emotionality of the ballad itself. But they seems to found the cheat codes on how to make a successful ballad without any personality because this sounded very dated. The sappy piano, the strings that hinted that they are still country, and the guitar that's so badly mixed it's almost like parody. This really sounded like late 80s ballad more than anything and a badly made one at that. At least Amazed had that steel guitar and better lyrics than this dirge. And while on the subject of ballads

    5. Okay I'm actually gonna praised one ballad here to get my point across. "Never Had  A Dream Come True" by S Club 7 is a good ballad because it knows how to played with the universality while still have some lyrics that would tug your heart strings. I know it supposed to be like that because it was a charity singles, but when the melody and the key changes are this good I can't complained. My point is that there are good ballads that played with the basics. And this is how NSYNC failed with that task.

5. This I Promise You - NSYNC

    Honestly speaking here, this is on this list so high because it's very emblematic of the chart and how it can be very bullshitted. No Strings Attached was one of the last major album that was huge in sales. It was music industries' last hurrah before the industry still trying their best to grapple with the fact that to a lot of people, music is worth for free. And with that there has been a gap between what the listening public want versus what the record industry what you to listen to. 

    This I Promise You is one of the most boring boyband ballads and most of them are very boring but this take the cake. All the singers here sounded so homogenous even Justin Timberlake here. The productions here is beyond basic that even easy listening radio of the early 90s wouldn't touched. And the lyrics are beyond manipulative that I don't think there's any sense of awareness that made Little Things sounded sincere. But what made this song so high on this list is definitely the way how this was successful and yeah I can admit that. The music industry was on its way of dying and you put up this on the pedestal instead of y'know propped up better songs on the album. It's just infuriating to hear and the fact that it hasn't changed till this day showed you how late stage capitalism is failing.

    4. Okay thank goodness we out of the ballads hell but we still not done with bad songs. This song is one of those deaths by thousand cuts where each and every elements piled up on each others to pissed me off. Also probably one of the worst example of autotune usage this year. 

4. No More (Baby I'ma Do Right) - 3LW

    This group has an interesting history. At one point Alicia Keys was considered being part of the group can you imagine that happening. And then the group drama happened and afterwards two of the members here went on and made The Cheetah Girls which became Disney's first project in this larger project of making musical stars. It's kinda funny in hindsight that this was the song that created this history considering that it's one of the worst RnB hits of the 2000s.

    The reason why this song is so bad are multitude. First off the lyrics of this song is basically a pissy breakup song which by 2001 standard are pretty limp. You can tell that teenagers wrote this...except it isn't since guys wrote this one and you can really tell here. The production here is a mess with that shuffling drum, that knock sound that clipping the mix, the harmonies barely there, and the bass is underpowered as hell. But the worst part of this song is the usage of autotune especially the first verse by Kiely Williams. The autotune actively making her sounds like she's having a lisp and repeated listens only making it so grating. Which I don't understand since the chorus don't have that and it's still fine if a bit cluttered. There are worse usage of autotune especially in the 2000s, but this one is sneaky with its awfulness and that's why it went so high up here.

    3. You know a lot of songs that I put on my worst list rarely giving me that disappointed feeling hard enough to put it on my list. At most those disappointing songs from an artist I liked or usually respect are only on the dishonorable mentions at best. But when you trying to played down on your talent to what was popular at the time. And also making your production stiff enough to not registered at all. And also bringin nepotism into your song that failed spectacularly but just enough to be remembered as one of your biggest dud. Yeah this deserved the spot on this list.

3. Oochie Wally - Nas ft. Bravehearts

    Look, there's a lot of people that lost respect on Nas. Mark from Spectrum Pulse has said that he doesn't want to review any Nas album on his channel because of what happened with Kelis and what he has said since. I also think that beside Illmatic, his album you can pick and choose. But even with my apathy towards Nas I do believe that excluding him from hip hop history would be a mistake and he does have a place in hip hop pantheon. Heck J Cole basically changed his career trajectory begging forgiveness from Nas when he didn't like "Work Out". But I think Nas should apologize for this song because it's dreadful.

    This song would be bad enough to be performed by Fat Joe or even The Ying Yang Twins because at least with those two I have lower expectation. This sort of middle eastern inspired productions is so Scott Storch but then I remembered this song was worked on in the year 2000. Oh speaking of The Ying Yang Twins this song naturally is about sex. Now I do like me some sex rap heavy song I mean I like Megan Thee Stallion. But this song is probably trying way too hard but also trying less in terms of making it work. Oochie Wally being the sound of your sex is goofy as hell. The rest of the song is just as bad. Referencing "Gin n Juice", a much better song, then making Who Wants To Be A Millionaire reference from Nas. I know the show is popular but I don't think that's a sex jam fodder. The other rappers here just making sex references for the hell of it. Oh and also it's five minutes long! Yeah I think that's all I can really say here. Nas then have one other hit with sampling Beethoven and that's about it. By the way how's your buddy P Diddy Nas? Wonder if you gonna pay a visit.

    2. Like I said on my best list, 2001 was the year of debuts where a lot of artists that would shaped the 2000s debuted this year. Most of the songs from debuting artists this year left a very good to great impression that would lasted for at least one or more albums. Now this isn't really a debut since he got some hit singles on the chart beforehand last year, but it's fitting that Ja Rule's first Top 10 appearance was with this song because holy shit this one is so bad.

2. Put It On Me - Ja Rule ft. Vita

    Ja Rule aka Fyre Festival spokeman was once a popular rapper. Shocker I know but it's interesting how there's no nostalgia for Ja Rule nowadays as DMX took the place of gruff sounding rapper. Even despite Ja Rule have some #1 hits on his belt, he's just a one note rapper with gruff voice and nothing else. A lot of his hits are either ruff and tuff rap cut or the pop rap where he got or featured with a pop star. It goes to show the differences between Ja Rule and DMX here because I believe in what DMX is saying meanwhile Ja Rule is just show. And out of all of his show this one is probably the worst one.

    Words can't described how bad this song is and the fact that this is his first big hit that crossed over is baffling. Well I can talk about how it's another cheating song where Ja Rule cheated on Vita but because Vita is so loyal to Ja Rule that she would take the bullet rather than leave him. I still don't get about this sentiments because cheating isn't just a hardship in a relationship, it's breaking trust and the fact that this is the best part of the song is saying something. There's no mincing word here the beat to this one is incoherent. That Casio keyboard legit don't match with any of the melody and the rapping behind this bargain barrel beat. The record scratch actively clashed with the beat. So this is what people of 2001 wanted? At the end of the day here, Ja Rule is now known for being part of Fyre Festival and it's apt for his career as a whole. Once Ludacris and especially 50 Cent became popular, it was over for Ja Rule. Good riddance.

    Before I reveal the worst song from this mediocre year, let's get through some dishonorable mentions

Jaded - Aerosmith

    I would've put it on the list if it wasn't for decently written lyrics and the hooks. Other than that this is just a bloated mess that only coasted on their name and name alone. Congrats Aerosmith, you are now the 2000s version of The Rolling Stones hope the country pivot didn't hurt you as much.

Uptown Girl - Westlife

    You know the song is cheesy enough as it is (in a good way), why you wanna make it more cheesy by covering it with a boyband that was emblematic of the UK's pop stagnation. Also the fact that they still make this song sounded cheaper than the original is astounding.

It's Been Awhile - Staind

    I've been curious about this for a while now, but why a lot of artists that debuted in the 2000s are now pro Trump? Oh wait I know why, because they only saw Trump on the TV shows and they saw glitz and glamour and not the ugly underneath. Just like this song really. No teeth no bite just petulance. No wonder he would make conservative jingoism anthem twenty years later.

All or Nothing - O-Zone 

    More boring ballads from the TRL era. This only barely left out of the list because the singing is actually better and the harmony is better too. Other than that this is the quintessential bad ballads and let's move on before I go to sleep.

I'm Real (Murder Remix) - Jennifer Lopez ft. Ja Rule

    Remember when J-Lo said the n word in this song? Also this was the song that swooped in with the samples and basically wrecked Loverboy. Also why there are a lot of songs with one female singer and big gruffy male rappers in this era?

I Wish - R Kelly

    This was a tribute song by R Kelly to commemorate Aaliyah...Need I say more here?

My Baby - Lil Romeo

    I mean you have ears here?

Now we got to

    #1. If there's one thing I learned about 2001 is that sometimes being edgy is the way to go. Yes the mainstream is very tepid and insipid, but outside of that the populous really want something dumb, ironic, and have an edge on it even if it's not revolutionary. This was the era where saying the r word seems to be mandatory, the peak of comedy was Tom Green, and there was no difference between ironic detachment and actual sincere action. This created a really toxic culture that we seemed to bring back so this place is a cautionary tale for my generation at least. And just like Ritt Momney after him, Just because you are making a cover of a beloved classic doesn't mean it's automatically good. Sometimes making a cover version of a beloved classic is enough for me to put it this high, especially with a notorious person such as this guy.

1. Tainted Love - Marilyn Manson

    What's really annoying about making this worst list is how you have to hype up your worst songs pick more and more as if one thing is worse than the next. It really makes me and a lot of writers tend to overexaggerates a song's quality when in reality it's just sucks. What I just did in the preamble was one of those cases of me trying to paint this song as something worse than any of the songs here. All arts are performative so does writing about arts. So keep this in mind when I'm saying this song fucking sucks.

    One way I could describe this song is making something more for less in a negative way. Sure you make the Soft Cell version of Tainted Love and turned it into industrial rock. But, after that what else you wanna do with it? That has been the key limitation for Marilyn Manson is that as much artifice and ironic detachment that he put on, there's no bite to it and it's just edgy for the sake of being edgy. The worst part is that if Nine Inch Nails made this kind of songs, I believe it would worked. Because Nine Inch Nails have the productions to back it up and also not trying too hard. 

    But the worst part of this song is just the culture around it because whether you like it or not, this was one of the cultural lexicon that represented Y2K era. We looked back at the Y2K era as this glitz and glamour year full of whimsy and fun and futuristic, when in reality it can be dumb, edgy, and trying way too hard to be intimidated while still espouse cowardice. This song reflected that and really as a zoomers I have seen that attitude coming back in full force and I don't know how to feel about that. All I know is that Marilyn Manson ain't nothing new, but a cycle of abuse and shitty behavior that we allowed to prosper since it made money prying off of the most vulnerable populations. What a cautionary tale indeed.

    Thank you everyone for reading this one that last song was something I need to get out of my chest and yeah the worst songs here are very depressing to talk about. So what's next on the docket?

    Huh welp this will be interesting...oh fuck there's so many discourse in this year oh god. Well see you on the next one then.