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An oral history of "We Built This City," the worst song of all time (2016)
- spacechild1 2y agoHow can you go from 60s psychedelic rock to 80s coporate rock? It's a pretty bizarre transformation. (Well, the explanation is very likely "money".)
- atombender 2y agoIt's happened many times. Fleetwood Mac went from hard blues in the 1970s to straight pop in the 1980s. A surprising number of 1970s prog rock bands (Genesis, Yes, Rush, The Moody Blues) turned into 1980s synth pop bands.
- spacechild1 2y agoFleetwood Mac is a good example, actually. Regarding 1970s prog rock bands, their 80s work is for the most part still pretty original and musically honest. One notable outlier is Phil Collins whose solo stuff is truely aweful IMO. (How can you go from being the drummer of Genesis to writing "A Groovy Kind of Love"?)
- TheGRS 2y agoIts been awhile since I've seen it but Spinal Tap was making fun of a lot of bands like that, its part of their fictional band's backstory. They start out much like the Stones with some simple catchy early 60's tunes, turn into a hippie band, then quickly transform into metal in order to follow the money.
- iwanttocomment 2y agoFor some reason, this mention of Starship's "We Built This City" led me down a hole of Internet research on my own personal Mandala Effect rabbit hole. I remembered as a kid, the Residents - who I only knew at the time as a bunch of guys wearing eyeballs as their heads - being part of the video for "We Built This City". I later became a fan of the Residents, who hadn't mentioned this at all. No evidence of them appearing with Starship, including the video for "We Built this City". But I hadn't been able to shake this vision for decades. Did I imagine it? Tonight, digging deeper, I found it! I found the source. In 1984, just a year before "We Built this City", Jefferson Starship (the progenitor of Starship, we won't mention the Airplane here) released a video for their ostensible hit single "Layin' it on the Line". There they were! The Residents! In a terrible, terrible Jefferson Starship video! Sung by Grace Slick and, uh, that dude from Starship! Strangely, I'll be able to sleep deeply tonight knowing that this mystery that was knawing at my soul for so many years has finally been solved.
- f1shy 2y agoYou mean Mandela effect, don't you? If not, the name Mandala is yet another Mandela effect. :D
- gcr 2y agoAnd “gnawing,” not “knawing”! :)
- dvh 2y agoIt was always mandala effect. The fractal like nature of mandala characterize the wispy tenuous nature of ones memory.
- bena 2y agoNo, it's named for Nelson Mandela. Because when he died people falsely thought they remembered him dying a couple of decades before. But they likely conflated his release from prison with his death.
- morganf 2y agoBena, the post you are responding to was joking. "It always was something different" - gaslighting - is the entire point of the Mandela Effect. And well done, GP: I laughed outloud!
- bena 2y agoWhile possible, it’s also entirely likely that he was mistaken. And it’s a reasonable mistake, so that’s why I provided the context of the origin and didn’t try to shame him for not knowing.
- hinkley 2y agoThe Mandala effect is forgetting that the effect is about Nelson Mandela not a Buddhist exercise in impermanence.
- PrismCrystal 2y agoRight there in the first paragraph: “At the time, Starship's most famous member, singer Grace Slick, was 46.” Grace Slick was born in 1939, so she was among the oldest of her cohort already in the Sixties. She’s one of the strangest things about pop history for me, right up there with Debbie Harry being over thirty when Blondie hit it big, and Stuart Murdoch being accepted by Glasgow hipster circles well into his late 30s. Pop music is so youth-centered, and that youth audience has often been highly suspicious and deprecating of people much older than them, that it baffles me that these performers still flourished.
- JKCalhoun 2y agoPerhaps the exceptions that prove the rule then.
- jhbadger 2y agoA lot of the leaders of the hippies were actually older than that generation, despite the classic "don't trust anyone over 30" and "hope I die before I get old" sentiments of the movement. For example, both Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (who founded the "Youth International Party" or yippies, which mutated into hippies) were born in the 1930s, a decade or more older than most hippies.
- hinkley 2y agoAerosmith was about to call it quits, they did that duet with Run DMC and had another handful of platinum records afterward. Tyler was ~38 when Walk This Way charted the second time. Many of their greatest hits are from after they were old. And then there was Tom Petty, who had hits in three decades. Practically David Bowie levels of staying power.
- osmsucks 2y agoNonsense. The worst song of all time is "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney. (Don't believe me? Listen for yourself: https://youtu.be/94Ye-3C1FC8 https://youtu.be/94Ye-3C1FC8)
- jjulius 2y agoThat's actually tied with Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)". Listen carefully and you can hear Yoko Ono screeching incredibly far out of tune as the piece climaxes. It's not in the forefront of the song, but it's there, and it's stuck out so much to me ever since I first noticed it.
- deltarholamda 2y ago"Do They Know It's Christmas" usually makes the lists of terrible Christmas music as well. So much Christmas music is repetitive, but coloring outside the lines is a tough thing to do with Christmas music. The Pogues nailed it with "Fairytale of New York", but it largely appeals only to GenX and younger.
- rob74 2y agoYeah, I mean it's pretty silly to declare something "the worst song of all time" - everyone has their personal taste and their own personal songs they love to hate. For me, it's (of course) Wham's Last Christmas and I Will Always Love You (sorry Whitney, but back in the 90s when I was watching a lot of MTV, listening to a lot of radio, and ads for Bodyguard were all over the place, I seem to have developed an allergy to this song). And BTW, I wouldn't even call this the quintessential 80s song, for me that's Stevie Wonder's I Just Called to Say I Love You, with that cheapo synthesizer bleeping along in the background. Oh well, to quote Calvin Harris, it was "acceptable in the 80s"...
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoWow, the rare double penalty. Loss of 5 yards for stooping to a Christmas song for worst song of all time debate, loss of an additional 20 yards for going with a post-Beatles McCartney track. This may be internet bullshit, but by god we have rules. > (Don't believe me? Listen for yourself: https://youtu.be/94Ye-3C1FC8 https://youtu.be/94Ye-3C1FC8) This may not be a felony, but it should be. Have you no shame, sir? A child could accidentally click on that link.
- cynicalsecurity 2y agoI'm flagging it just because the website is not readable at all, even with an adblocker. The content is completely blocked with popups.
- deltarholamda 2y agoI didn't know Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to this song. Man, that's gotta sting. But if I was making a list of Awful, Terrible Songs, I'm not sure I would have even included this one, mostly because I wouldn't remember it existed. Maybe that's what makes it bad--it was in constant rotation in the 80s, but as soon as they stopped playing it regularly I just... forgot it existed. Looking at various lists of "Worst Songs" always confuses me. A lot of them are just really popular songs that got overplayed. Wikipedia's page says the Spandau Ballet's "True" is one, which is just nuts.
- JohnFen 2y ago> But if I was making a list of Awful, Terrible Songs, I'm not sure I would have even included this one I wouldn't. It's not a great song or anything, but I can easily come up with a lengthy list of songs that are far, far worse.
- sed_zeppelin 2y ago> I didn't know Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to this song. Man, that's gotta sting. It would Sting more if we were talking about a song like "Fields of Gold."
- macintux 2y agoPhil Collins and Sting both went from hard-rocking tunes to elevator music with very little warning. It’s hard to believe Sting went from The Police to the sublime Bring On The Night to Fields of Gold.
- cholantesh 2y agoI think there are songs that wear listeners out from being overplayed, some that require repeated listens to appreciate, but there are ones that start out bad and do not get redeemed either by repeated listens or context. Lift Yourself (https://youtu.be/8fbyfDbi-MI?t=117 https://youtu.be/8fbyfDbi-MI?t=117), Gucci Gang (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfJnj66HVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfJnj66HVQ), and Beautiful Things (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa_RSwwpPaA&pp=ygUQQmVhdXRpZnVsIHRoaW5ncw%3D%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa_RSwwpPaA&pp=ygUQQmVhdXRpZ...) all exist as examples of this, I think. All fairly recent, I'll confess.
- GoofballJones 2y agoSpoiler alert: It's not the worst song of all time. There is no one single "worst song", just as there's no one single "best song". It may be one of the worst, sure. But when doing something this subjective, there's no way everyone in the world universally agrees on everything...including "worst" and "best". I don't care how many "experts" they asked or whatever, it's not the worst song. It always bugs the heck out of me when I see clickbait crap like this. If they think "We Built This City" is worst than...say..."My Pal Foot-Foot" by The Shaggs, then it just means this writer is full of shit.
- Veen 2y agoEveryone already knows there is no objectively worse song, and the writer knows everyone knows. It's hyperbole to emphasize the writer's opinion that it's a really bad song, an inconsequential rhetorical flourish no reasonable person takes seriously.
- amiga386 2y agoOn this side-topic, Wikipedia has trouble writing e.g. "worst X of all time", because that can't ever be an objective fact... so instead it has articles named "List of X considered the worst" and "List of X notable for negative reception", to which things like "Worst X of all time" redirect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automobiles_known_for_negative_reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automobiles_known_for_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_considered_the_worst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_considered_the_w... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_considered_the_worst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_considered_the_w... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_shows_notable_for_negative_reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_shows_notab... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sitcoms_known_for_negative_reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sitcoms_known_for_nega... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_notable_for_negative_reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_notable_fo... In each category, it picks criteria like press reviews or user ratings that mark a work for being considered "worst"
- JKCalhoun 2y agoThe Shags rule. You just don't get them.
- bongodongobob 2y agoI don't know why people rag on this song so much. It's catchy as hell and has interesting changes. I've always liked it.
- vundercind 2y agoIt was a favorite of mine as a kid. I can still sing the whole thing, including the radio DJ part. But I also liked Styx. So. I probably would have liked Rush then too, but wasn’t really exposed to them until later, so they remain in the pile of culture-things I’ll simply never understand.
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoPeople bond over mutual hatred even if they didn't come to that hatred on their own. Seems like for this song, it was during slow news period when a list of worst songs came out, and it went viral. Soon it became one of those things that everyone just repeated uncritically, like your mattress doubling in weight due to dead mites. There have been many lists of worst songs before that list and many since, but once "We Built This City" took hold in the collective cultural consciousness as being the worst, there was little that could be done to change the dominate opinion.
- jmyeet 2y agoThere's a lot of weird revisionism when it comes to judging 1980s music (eg [1]). It actually feels like a lot of 90s kids just being haters. There's been analysis that you basically like whatever was popular when you were 14 [2]. Additionally, it seems like more modern music just isn't enduring [3] in the same way music from the 1950s to 1980s was. Just the fact that people today know about "We Built this City" nearly 40 years after it was released tells you something. I honestly think that unless you grow up in the 2000s you could go and play the music from 2000 to 2010 (as an example) and it would overall be much less recognizable than music from the 1960s and 1970s is. Anyway, it seems silly to call this the "worst song of all time". It's recognizable. People know it. It has a vibe. Millenials who grew up on 90s grunge may see it differently but that doesn't really mean anything. [1]: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-worst-songs-of-the-1980s-20488/1-starship-we-built-this-city-17392/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-... [2]: https://archive.is/zM4xq https://archive.is/zM4xq [3]: https://stereomonosunday.com/2019/03/23/why-modern-music-is-so-awful/ https://stereomonosunday.com/2019/03/23/why-modern-music-is-...
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago> Anyway, it seems silly to call this the "worst song of all time". There may be other contenders, but if this song doesn't make the short list for you, I can't explain it. I doubt I could pay anyone to make such an outrageous claim.
- bongodongobob 2y agoIt seems like this entire thread is a counterargument to your claim.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoIt's not a counterargument at all. It's just someone who assumes that there is this great counterargument they haven't bothered to make while whining "there are other bad songs too". Your comment here indicates that you're just too young to have heard it every single day, twice a day, throughout your childhood as it inexplicably got constant airtime. The long ride to and from school on the schoolbus, my first experience with torture. At least on sundays you could turn Solid Gold off. This is like saying "Vietnam wasn't that bad" because you watched a war movie once.
- danesparza 2y agoI strongly object that "We built this city" is the worst song of all time. Especially when we live in a world where "Sweet Caroline" (specifically sung by Neil Diamond) is a thing.
- devilbunny 2y agoLooking Glass: "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" occupies that space in my brain.
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoThe Muzak system at a retail job I worked played it all the time and we came to despise the song. It became a bit of a proto-Rickroll for those of us who worked there to trick others into hearing it. But the song became much more interesting once I learned about the urban legend connecting it to Mary Ellis. That the writer of the song says there's no connection just makes it that much more enticing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellis_grave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellis_grave
- JKCalhoun 2y agoNot "Total Eclipse of the Heart"? Or "Ghostbusters" (sorry, Ray, loved your earlier stuff)? Or Huey Lewis and the News entire catalog?
- bongodongobob 2y agoTotal eclipse of the heart is a fuckin banger.
- mindcrime 2y agoAs a self-identified metalhead who hated 80's pop in the 80's, I have to agree. Over the years I've gained a newfound respect for a lot of that stuff. So much great music by Bonnie Tyler, Belinda Carlisle, Meatloaf, Bryan Adams, REO Speedwagon, Carly Simon, The Eurythmics, The Bangles, etc. etc. I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to that stuff in 1989 (my metalhead friends would have crucified me, although I did manage to sneak in liking Madonna all along), but these days I dig quite a bit of that stuff.
- amiga386 2y agoThis 2016 article (posted on the song's 30th anniversary... we're now coming up for its 40th anniversary) is too old to note the LadBaby cover: We Built This City on Sausage Rolls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iEB8bfP7wE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iEB8bfP7wE "Worst Song of All Time" or not, it's still an immensely popular song. If you want to poke fun at the 80s and their obsession with synths, poke fun at Scritti Politi instead! (e.g. Boom! There She Was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QmDUkxAHgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QmDUkxAHgQ) Meanwhile, the feeling of that 80s synth sound has been reimagined by modern composers, giving us synthwave and all its spinoff genres, and music videos made with an AfterEffects "VHS" plugin, like Turbo Killer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g
- taylorius 2y agoIn what universe is "We built this City" the worst song ever? I love that song. Awesome bit of 80s power pop. I'd rather hear We built this City 10 times in a row than any 10 songs of Taylor Swift's. How about that?
- ajross 2y agoI think you're missing the point. WBtC is a "bad" song in exactly the same way that Swift's songs are "bad". It's unashamedly pop, aimed at tastes that sophisticated listeners try to escape, and critically: is so good that those sophisticated listeners find themselves listening to it anyway. It's basically a bouncing, bopping reminder that we aren't as smart as we think we are.
- bongodongobob 2y agoYeah, if you're looking at it from a composition/music theory angle, it's not your typical 4 chord pop song. There are thirds in the bass all over place that provide interesting contrary motion to the chords, and the verse and chorus are technically in different keys. It's not genius writing but it's definitely not lazy.
- billpg 2y ago"We build this city on rock..." "That's a good place to build a city." "... and roll." "We're doomed!"
- PhasmaFelis 2y agoThis song gave Settlers of Catan players the opportunity to spend ore and (exchanged) lumber to buy a city, and then burst into "We Built This City on Rock and Wood." So it can't be all bad.
- drewcoo 2y agoBoardgame filk versions might make it worse.
- isk517 2y agoI'm honestly glad we don't live in the universe where Bryan Danielson chose 'We Built The City' as his Ring of Honor entrance music.
- fortran77 2y ago[dead]
- throw4847285 2y agoThe idea of a worst song of all time is silly, but I want to use this as an excuse to juxtapose We Built this City with another Starship hit: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. The latter is just as fluffy and corny, but instead of generic corporate rock it's a soaring silly power ballad duet. I think the secret sauce is Diane Warren. It's the same reason I love belting out I Don't Want to Miss a Thing at karaoke, or listening to If I Could Turn Back Time on a loop while working. This post has been sponsored by the Committee to Get Diane Warren into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (CGDWRRHF).
- superfrank 2y agoI agree that a "worst song of all time" is a bit silly, but if someone was trying to make the worst song of all time that would still get regular radio play and you asked me for ideas, "put a traffic report in the middle of the song" would be pretty high on my ideas list. I say that with love as I absolutely love the We Built This City (and Starship for that matter)
- endgame 2y agoI know your description includes "still get regular radio play", but one of my favourite pieces of troll music is "The Most Unwanted Song". They surveyed people to find the things they liked least in music and put it all together. I don't want to spoil just how creatively awful it is or what's in there, so I'll just drop the link and go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPuH1yeZ08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPuH1yeZ08
- fzzzy 2y agoI unironically enjoy this, along with The Most Wanted Song.
- iggldiggl 2y agoPersonally I find The Most Wanted Song rather bland, though. Whereas the Most Unwanted Song has some genuinely annoying bits, but other bits are quite listenable and interesting, so all in all I much prefer it over the "Wanted" song.
- snapetom 2y agoFor those complaining that it's not "the worst song of all time," yes, we all know it's not the worst song. This includes the clickbaiters who claim it is. It's cheesy, it's simple, Grace Slick hates it. All those factors make it fashionable to hate it, and it's been like that for a long time. However, it's also catchy, fun, and the lyrics are easy to remember. It's a karaoke staple for all those reasons, good and bad. I mean, how can this song be the worst song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRE-LYqwAi8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRE-LYqwAi8
- pastureofplenty 2y agoI have an idea for a parody of that song called "We Bilked This City" about the non-profit industrial complex.
- jdougan 2y agoWrite it!
- jandrese 2y ago"We bilked this city of all its dough"
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoIt would also work if it were about professional sports stadiums.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kev009 2y agoDefinitely commercial 80s cheese and mastered for a mono clock radio like most 80s soft rock but it seems a bit of hipster stretch to call this the worst or even bad. The synth and processed drums sit in the mix reasonably well for the time frame. There are some comical 80s songs in the same time frame where the synth really doesn't sit in the mix at all but somehow it remains endearing like Europe's "Final Countdown" or even Don Henley's "Sunset Grill" or Van Halen's "Jump" all of which are rescued by other musical and production value.
- nineteen999 2y agoGiven that Van Halen was primarily a guitar player and just starting to mess with synths in his own home studio where 1984 was recorded, im gonna cut him some slack here. Not disagreeing with your assessment though, the synths on that track are cheesy and a little overwhelming.
- mixmastamyk 2y agoEVH was an competition-winning piano player in his youth, and also played the drums for a bit before handing them off to Alex. Their dad was a classical musician.
- ludicrousdispla 2y agoClearly no one here has ever heard the song "Marching around the Number Wheel" by Hap Palmer. It's best on loop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K75cj0FmGHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K75cj0FmGHM
- Hunpeter 2y agoObviously, the worst song of all time is "The Most Unwanted Song" by Dave Soldier.
- smitelli 2y agoI genuinely thought I was the only person on the planet who remembered that one.
- jfengel 2y agoOK, I get that satire is hard, but is there really nobody capable of it besides The Onion? This article was based on a decade-old meme when it was written. That meme didn't particularly need elaboration in 2016, and here in 2024 it has been completely forgotten. I don't think of GQ as being a great literary magazine, but I thought it had at least some pretension to it. This is weak internet-grade satire.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- akira2501 2y agoThis is ridiculous clap trap. Why did you submit this here?
- spacechild1 2y agoI first heard this song a few month ago in a Japanese mall. It fit quite well I have to say.
- pvaldes 2y agoBloodhound gang enters the room. Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTeSkg-YIWI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTeSkg-YIWI
- smitty1e 2y agoI made it as far as "your toilet parts". Still not as vapid as Rebecca Black, though https://youtu.be/kfVsfOSbJY0?si=ruKslHtaZuKrBMP- https://youtu.be/kfVsfOSbJY0?si=ruKslHtaZuKrBMP-
- recursive 2y agoHow did I never know about this?!?!
- dessimus 2y agoI mean... objectively "10 Coolest Things about New Jersey" is a worse song, but let's not pretend Bloodhound Gang's music is meant to be taken seriously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk8hFuDoYq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk8hFuDoYq8
- bena 2y agoAnd let's be doubly fair, 'Screwing You on a Beach at Night' is a perfectly serviceable techno/dance beat. And a lot of their music is that, perfectly competent. But then they pair it with the stupidest fucking lyrics as possible. Often describing the very themes of most songs in the most crass way possible. I mean, one of the lyrics is literally "Echo" as it echos. He's just describing the song.
- dessimus 2y ago[dead]
- nobody9999 2y agoThat's got nothing on "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats. Ugh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4okRvCg2g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4okRvCg2g
- fluorinerocket 2y agoWell we wouldn't have Opie and Anthony's parody of it without the original. It made it all worth it
- aidenn0 2y agoThe song I wish the radio would stop playing today is "Murder on the Dance Floor" Something about the way the singer sings it just feels unusually soulless. After listening to it, I am completely convinced that if the DJ did kill the groove, Ellis-Baxter wouldn't give a shit.
- auto 2y agoThe comments here are pretty funny, and do almost nothing for me more so than highlight the subjectivity of musical taste. I'd never claim to be an authority on music, but as the child of a professional musician and with chops of my own that I'd describe as "good enough to entertain myself and others at times", I love so many of the songs people are ragging on here, "We Built This City" included. Sure, there's plenty of stuff that I don't go out of my way to listen to, and again, subjective, but man, fluffy pop? Corny Christmas Music? Lewd Comedies/Parodies? It's all got it's time and place. But that's just like, my opinion, man.
- TheGRS 2y agoTearing into a popular piece of media is just really, really cathartic, and much more so if a group of people agrees with you. And if we're gonna be honest its punching up most of the time, so it seems fairly harmless. Someone brought up Nickelback, its not like they've been shoved aside from relevancy, they were super popular the entire time people tore up their music critically. If someone puts them on at karaoke (or if someone puts on Starship for that matter) I'm sure most of the place is going to sing along.
- jim-jim-jim 2y agoI didn't coin the term and I forget who did, but "meta rock" songs are almost universally awful: rock songs about how much rock rocks.
- senderista 2y agoIsn't that Tenacious D's whole premise?
- soylentcola 2y agoMostly. But they're also doing it as a gag, so you're expected to understand the joke is two ostensible "losers" claiming rock greatness (and doing it with a capable example of the stereotypical bombast you'd expect from the music being parodied/paid homage).
- BurningFrog 2y agoI've honestly always thought that song is weirdly bad considering how popular it is. Glad to know I'm not alone.
- TheGRS 2y agoMost of the comments here are going to predictably call out that "We Built This City" is not the worst song of all time and offer up an example that's ostensibly worse. But I think a very important caveat missing from the article and all of the comments here is that Blender/VH1 never said it was the worse song of all time. They said it was the most "awesomely bad" song of all time. To which I 100% agree with. Its not worst songs, its good catchy songs that are also objectively bad. And I think "awesomely bad" is just a great way to title it. We can all agree "We Built This City" is a catchy ear worm you can rock out to in the car, it lifts my spirits whenever it gets played. It stands on the pantheon of terrible but awesome hits like "Ice Ice Baby", "She Bangs", and the Ghostbusters theme song. Nobody is saying you shouldn't listen to "We Built This City". Its a guilty pleasure. Crank that mother up on your car ride home alone and rock the fuck out.
- RiverCrochet 2y agoIt's a brilliant song for this reason: Read the lyrics to the song. It's a song about what they now call gentrifcation. The video and song are in the post-corporatized/gentified world where once true rock reigned. It's supposed to sound phony as hell.
- spacechild1 2y ago> It's supposed to sound phony as hell. It makes sense in hindsight, but I'm pretty sure it was not intentional :)
- JohnFen 2y ago> good catchy songs that are also objectively bad "Objectively bad"? What are the "objective criteria" they're using? I'd argue that no art can be "objectively bad". That's not how art works.
- TheGRS 2y agoYou've seen bad art at some point in your life. Don't lie.
- 2y ago
- glokta 2y agoI assume everyone who thinks We Built This City is the worst song of all time has repressed the memory of Achy-Breaky Heart, which got at least as much radio play.
- kwertyoowiyop 2y agoYou weren’t around for the summer of “Bette Davis Eyes”…you don’t know what it was like, cuz you weren’t there, man!!
- mixmastamyk 2y agoLoved that one... Achy Breaky? ((hurl))
- mixmastamyk 2y agoIt's not the worst—it's the greatest bad song of all time. :-D Just remembered "Rico Suave," gonna nominate that one as well.
- zoklet-enjoyer 2y agoJefferson Airplane was amazing. They should have quit while they were ahead.
- jkuli 2y agoFocusing on the "worst ever" is sociopathic. These people do not want entertainment at all, they have a completely foreign agenda.
- rsynnott 2y agoI... kind of like it, honestly.
- ilamont 2y agoThis reminds me of Caillou making the top 10 most hated TV characters of all time, along with Jeffery Baratheon and Livia Soprano: https://www.reddit.com/r/caillouhate/comments/182g93j/caillou_is_one_of_the_top_10_most_hated_tv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/caillouhate/comments/182g93j/caillo... Why all the hate for Caillou? I personally think it's the Caillou theme song which ranks up there with "We Built This City" for irritating earworms. But there's another theory: "Bitch Caillou" There are two "seasons" or personalities of Caillou. I'm not 100% positive which one came first, only that my kids grew up watching the kind Caillou. The other Caillou season or personality is "Bitch Caillou." Kind Caillou was a staple of the Sprout channel on cable TV and all three of my kinds were able to enjoy this Caillou. About a year ago, PBS Kids expanded the Caillou episodes (because if you've seen Caillou, you've seen the Magnetman episode 100 fucking times) and started playing "Bitch Caillou" episodes as well. Kind Caillou is a little four year old who learns the easy way and the hard way how to be a better sibling and about the world around him. He learns how to be nice to kids who aren't nice to him, how to clean up, try new foods, and how much fun magnets are. He also goes to an apple orchard and I love apples. Bitch Caillou complains, cries, and is generally a little asshole of a kid you'd probably trip if he was running around the supermarket. He is rude to his sister, a smart mouth to his parents, and doesn't know a single fucking thing about sharing his toys. I think that the Bitch Caillou episodes were the originals because everyone I know with older kids wants to kill the little bald headed brat (and the overall look is a little more simple and silly) but everyone I know with comparable aged children to my own- have seen Caillou's good side. https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2mzfyj/why_does_everyone_hate_caillou/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2mzfyj/why_do... So, kind Caillou/bitch Caillou is basically like Jefferson Airplane giving us "White Rabbit," and Jefferson Starship delivering "We Built This City."
- jeegsy 2y agoOh puhleassee.....culture gatekeepers really need to lighten up a little. The worst song ever? Heck no. I love that song. Corporation games indeed!
- bwanab 2y agoThe fact that this song (and this incarnation of this group) has any association with "After Bathing At Baxters", "Surrealistic Pillow", "Crown of Creation" or "Blows Against the Empire" is somewhat tragic.
- kazinator 2y agoSweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) is worse, and way overplayed by FM radio in my town.
- mrangle 2y agoI like the song, while simultaneously have a lengthy history of enthusiastically enjoying truly intolerable indie music. The too-cool-for-hit-pop shtick has been over for at least a decade. Hipster snark is stale, itself deeply uncool, and low IQ. I'm unsurprised that this is a GQ article. Cultural media is in a fully-terminal tailspin. In summary, We Built This City is a great American song. Catch me at the next karaoke night.
- nullsmack 2y agoLove Shack is objectively the worst song of all time.