42. Jason Derulo - Watcha Say
This song is the perfect example of how NOT to use samples. This song samples a well known part of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek". Even though this sample was already kind of made a joke by the TV show "The O.C." and a skit on SNL (which still makes me laugh) this really didn't help things. The original song by Imogen Heap was a very personal and sad song to the creator, dealing with the topic of broken homes. It's kind of sad when such a personal song by Imogen gets turned into a joke.
Jason Derulo's song here is about how he cheated on his girl and that he feels bad about it, probably. The reason this song doesn't work is that Jason doesn't sound sad or remorseful in any way on the song. If you are writing an apology song, why is it so upbeat and happy? Add the fact that the song butchers the Imogen Heap sample with a terrible beat and doesn't use it appropriately and you get a really bad song. The fact that Jason Derulo isn't a good singer and requires the use of auto-tune to even sound decent makes things even worst. This was one of his first big hits and since this he's continued to get multiple hits despite his lack of talent. On a side note, listening to the first few seconds of the song with headphones on is very annoying. Go ahead try it... I dare you.
BTW here's the SNL skit. Oldie but goodie.
44. Ellie Goulding - Lights
I've always found Ellie Goulding to be a pretty dull artist, but there was always one song that I enjoyed by her, and that song is Lights. The soft background music backed with the heavy bass works really well, in my opinion, and the build to the louder and stronger chorus is pretty great. The song is about a simple subject, the fear of sleeping in the dark. I find it really cool that Ellie was open enough to write a song about this and be open about this fear, which a lot of people could be embarrassed by. The lights give her comfort and make her feel at home, being surrounded by loved ones. As a pop song, it works really well because it's catchy and the music does a good job at supporting the vocals, lyrics and the theme of the song.
Special thanks for whoever wrote this gem of a song description on the Genius site. Brilliant.
45. Nickelback - Far Away
Nickelback writes generic love song, generic love song becomes one of the best selling songs of all time, Nickelback becomes rich or something. Is this song good? No. Is this song bad? No. This song is about as average as a song can be, and that's exactly the kind of thing that general audiences are looking for. With a song like this, it can be played in Rock stations, pop stations and maybe even country stations because it's so generic and safe. This song really is the perfect template for writing a safe pop song. Be sure to make the lyrics vague enough that anybody can use the song for their significant others.
46. Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry
Fergie basically makes a whole song to use the whole "It's not you it's me" break up reason. Honestly though, out of all of Fergie's solo songs, this one is probably the best one (of course her last big single was a song call "MILF" so the competition was't exactly fierce). Personally, I've never been a fan of Fergie's vocals, but the fact that she sounds a lot more sincere and "personal" helps make this song a lot easier to listen to than any of her other songs. The music is simple, but works well with the subject matter. The light guitars and strings in the background are a nice touch, along with the standard generic drum beats. At the end of the day though, this doesn't really feel like Fergie, this song could have been performed by any female pop star at the time like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera.
47. Chris Brown - Run It!?
16 year old Chris Brown tries to convince a girl that, despite his age, he still has more game and better moves than her boyfriend. I don't know much about girls, but I have to assume nothing turns them on more than a 16 year old boy bragging about how great his dance moves are and how much better he is than your boyfriend. It's strange that he doesn't mention the fact that he can legally drive now and how his mom let's him borrow the mini-van on the weekends. I mean sure, he has to bring his little brother along, but it's still a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Whatever you do though, don't make little Chris mad or he'll-
48. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
Ra Ra Ah Ah Ah. No matter what the song may be, Lady Gaga always brings lots of personality to her music. The lyrics aren't always the best, but Gaga's vocals and her personality always elevate any material she has to work with. She can make a bad song good and a good song great. I feel like a song like this wouldn't work with anyone else but Gaga behind it. Her personality just kinda shines through the mostly dated/annoying late 00's music this song has. The chorus is powerfully catchy and makes the song instantly memorable. I would imagine a song like this would work better in a live setting though, with Gaga's personality and stage presence to elevate it from being just a decent radio song.
49. Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble.
In a lot of ways, Taylor Swift might just be the opposite of Lady Gaga. There's a lot less personality and Swift is a lot less interesting as an artist than Gaga. That being said, this song is still very catchy and pretty fun to listen to. I never much minded Swift's music, at least not until last year's mess. What keeps this from being better though is the weak chorus that drops from the catchy simple guitar/keys and drum combo to a generic pop mess. Lyrically it's your standard Taylor Swift boy problem song, with nothing really interesting to say. Still, the melodies are catchy and the vocals are what you would expect from most Taylor Swift songs, usually good. The innocent charm that Taylor used to have were still strong on this album, this is actually her last album that really had that.
50. All-American Rejects - Gives You Hell
I really hate this song. The crappy crunchy guitars, the stupid lyrics, the annoying chorus, the most depressing guitar solo of all time and the annoying vocals. The sad part is I really liked this band at one point. Their first two albums were good and they still hold up in my opinion. They found huge success after their second album with some pretty big hits like "Move Along" and "Dirty Little Secret". Those two songs are fun pop-rock songs that are just fun to listen to, nothing amazing, but catchy ear-worms. "Gives You Hell" basically gets rid of all that, and what we're left with is a heartless song that seems to be trying too hard to be "edgy" for a younger audience. There's just something about this song that rubs me the wrong way...
52. Hoobastank - The Reason
Generic songwriting at the height of it's powers. Here the band Hoobastank make a song that is about everything and also about nothing at the same exact time. He's found a reason to change, and the reason if you. He's not a perfect person, he has many flaws, but we'll never know what those flaws are. He's done some bad things to you, but we'll never know what those things are. I get that a song like this is easy to put yourself into, but it just makes the songwriters look so terrible. It just feels like a robot is writing this song to try to convince the world that it's human and also goes through human emotions. "I AM NOT PERFECT", "YOU MAKE ME WANT TO CHANGE", "I'M SORRY I HURT YOU". This is a glimpse of what our music is going to be like in the future. I mean, is it really that hard to give some examples or go into a more personal and vulnerable place to really help the listener understand what all of this means to you. Who is song directed to? I NEED ANSWERS! TELL ME SOMETHING! I still love this song.
53. Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
Yes, this song is about drugs, speed to exact. I've always loved this song from the moment I first heard it back in the late 90's to today, it's still one of my favorite songs of all time. There's something about the mix of the upbeat music with the darker lyrics that always draws me in every single time I listen to it. It's one of the catchiest songs ever made in my opinion, but it's really more than just the catchy song that it looks to be on the outside. The lyrics can actually be quite sad, as well as clever in the way he describes the relationship between drugs and himself. How aware he is of how bad it is for him, but how he knows he doesn't want to stop. He uses some great metaphors to go along with the type of drug he's addicted to like "The sky was gold, it was rose and I was taking sips of it through my nose" and "Chop another line like a coda with a curse". That's why this song works so well for me, because the upbeat music and vocals matches the high he gets from the drugs, but the lyrics show that even in this addiction to getting high, he understands that he should want more from his life than that. It just gets everything right from beginning to end, I love every single part of this song.
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