The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2020

The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2020

In the following few paragraphs, I take a look at a promising start to the 2020s for the Hot 100 and look at why some might be overrating the year.

Hey guys, welcome back to Fire's Flaming Hot Takes. Time for another top 10 list, today we’re examining the top 10 worst hit songs of 2020.

So it seems like the general cliché was that “2020 sucked, but the Hot 100 was really good”. And to an extent, I do agree with this...but more towards the biggest hits this year. The songs towards the upper echelons of the year-end tended to be better in my eyes - it might be because in lockdown I was listening to other songs I cared about more as opposed to the radio, so overplay really isn’t a factor in this list for once - outside of a select few that were overplayed at the beginning of 2020. And this is where my assertion that this year is getting a bit overrated for music comes into play. Because the worst of this year are downright atrocious songs. As I have said before, I don’t tend to examine the cultural damage a song will have, unless it’s a song I already absolutely despise - then the damage it inflicts makes it considerably worse. This year...I really don’t think any of these songs will have any cultural impact on the charts - except for a select few on my best list - because I feel that when you have experienced something as bad as 2020, the natural instinct would be to try and get the hell away from the year.

And with that I’m having a little bit of trouble analyzing the sound of this year. Country had its best showing on the Hot 100 in years - and there were plenty of gems to be found, trap had a good showing - including some legitimately monumental songs, and I would say pop was dominated by the throwback sound...but even then I’m not sure that’s the case. One thing I will say though is that the current world events definitely played a part in making some of these songs hits. So really, I don’t think much of the bad trends are going to be sticking around - and that has been proven because as of writing half of 2021 is already over, and not many of the worst trends present this year are that much of a thing in 2021.

So in short, 2020 is pretty overrated for the Hot 100. It’s still a good year, but I feel that many people are putting on rose colored glasses when taking a look at this year overall, and are only remembering the fantastic highs that are towards the top of the year-end, while ignoring all the lows. In total, there were 40 songs on this year-end - including 2019 repeats - that fell into “mediocre tier” or lower for me, which is honestly more than other years. But enough rambling, as a rule the songs had to debut on the 2020 Hot 100 year-end in order to qualify. So let’s untangle the worst of this messy anomaly of a year, starting with our dishonorable mentions.

DM #1: Chris Brown & Young Thug - Go Crazy (YE: #39, PEAK: #3)

It’s not the worst song I’ve heard from him, but that really isn’t saying much...because this song really is still horrible. I don’t like how Young Thug sounds on this song, and the piano against the trap beat is startling spare, this song sounds so unfinished. And somehow the radio picked it up and carried this over to 2021...and the fact that this spare nothingness of a song was Chris Brown’s biggest hit in years is just sad.

DM #2: Cardi B f/Megan Thee Stallion - WAP (YE: #24, PEAK: #1)

I’ll start off by saying I respect the impact that this song managed to have, but good god this song wasted its potential on a composition level. Megan Thee Stallion’s flow is legit good, and both her and Cardi have pretty good chemistry. But that beat, I’m sorry, the beat is awful, just a limp bass and a guy repeating the line “there’s some hoes in this house” over and over again and it wears out its welcome in record time. And watching people heavily overrate this song just further fueled my dislike for this.

DM #3: Young Thug f/Gunna & Travis Scott - Hot (YE: #72, PEAK: #11)

An unremarkable song down here thanks to that beat. And what is the god awful whistle sound effect?

DM #4: Pop Smoke f/Lil Baby & DaBaby - For The Night (YE: #49, PEAK: #6)

Okay look, I get the appeal of this song. It’s a very minimalist, more vibe-filled song that’s clearly able to suit its target audience. But that said, I liked Pop Smoke’s other songs that made the year-end list...however I often think he’s best when he’s on a drill production. So the best thing to do is take an acoustic guitar production, awkwardly placed twinkley keys, and trap beats and combine them together so they don’t mesh well and strip away any energy Pop Smoke has. The entire song feels super lifeless...and somehow this was the biggest of his posthumous releases over some of his actual bangers like “Dior”.

DM #5: Rod Wave f/ATR Son Son - Rags2Riches (YE: #90, PEAK: #12)

I’ll be honest, I’m not all that big of a fan of Rod Wave. I see the appeal in him, but he is just not for me. That said, this song is very unremarkable, Rod Wave’s soulful delivery isn’t enough to save the rest of the song which in all honesty is very forgettable, it’s just a piano melody mixed with a trap beat. And also, who the hell is ATR Son Son? This lands here based on disappointment for me, because I see how it possibly could’ve worked better.

DM #6: Morgan Wallen - More Than My Hometown (YE: #96, PEAK: #15)

There’s really not much to say about this other than that it’s an otherwise very unremarkable and generic song that’s plummeted here by Morgan Wallen’s voice.

DM #7: Lil Baby - Sum 2 Prove (YE: #79, PEAK: #16)

This song is very forgettable and only remembered for its bad aspects - I’m looking at that awful synth - very bad sign. And honestly that’s the story of most of the dishonorable mentions - go figure.

Alright, now for the list proper...

10...It took me a while to truly come around to disliking this song. When I first heard it toward the beginning of 2020, I didn’t like it, but it never really bothered me. Yet it only wore on me more and more as the year progressed, since on the rare occasion I would turn on the radio for the rare occasion I’d get in the car this would always be the song to play, so after a few months this grated on me big time. And I can see this being an adult contemporary staple for many, many, many years...just fuck everything...

10. Gabby Barrett f/Charlie Puth - I Hope (YE: #12, PEAK: #3)

In this messy anomaly of a year, there were many artists who released remixes of songs to get to the top of the Hot 100, and the problem is that many of them could’ve ended up being a big part of a song’s chart run. So to keep things simple, I am only considering the versions that ended up being credited on the Hot 100 year-end list - so the “Say So” remix with Nicki Minaj will not count - and trust me if it were to count it would’ve definitely been a contender for this list - but the Charlie Puth remix of “I Hope” will count. Even without Charlie Puth, though, my opinion on this song doesn’t change at all. I’m not gonna bring Gabby's political side into this conversation...because is it even necessary given how awful “I Hope” is? It tries to be “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood - a song that is still utterly overplayed to ridiculous levels on adult contemporary stations to this day - but it completely fails at that. Gabby’s vocals are not mixed in well, the guitars are gutless and soulless, the percussion is ugly, if anything it sounds like they were trying to recreate Pink’s “Just Like Fire” on a production level, and that song was on my worst list for 2016! And look, I would say Charlie Puth improves this song, and while he doesn’t make it any worse, I can’t even say he makes it better either because he goes into his melodic tone and falsetto which may have worked on songs like “One Call Away” but absolutely does not work here! He has no intensity and no resentment in his voice at all. This brings me back to my point about “Just Like Fire”, and similar to that song, “I Hope” thinks that an ugly production can pass off as intensity, but in reality just makes for an utterly painful listen. And I already know that this is going to receive ungodly overplay levels in the years to come, so give me like 5 years and this song could probably be even higher on this list.

9...So I went through and listened to all the songs that made the year-end Hot 100 for 2020 back in December. It was when the earliest seeds of making the best and worst hits for a year were planted, via me finding YouTube critics' best and worst lists, and I had participated in a rankdown via Pulse Music Board so I knew all these songs beforehand. This next song originally wasn’t this low, I still thought it was awful, but it was awful in a way that it made me laugh. But that said, when the hilarity of a song fades away after a few more listens, and is just replaced with annoyance...

9. Luke Bryan - One Margarita (YE: #70, PEAK: #19)

There’s one part of this song that utterly kills this for me. The guitar tuning is fine, nothing special, but fine. But aside from that, this is just a lazy attempt at trying to resurrect at this point the dead corpse that is bro-country. What kills this for me is that chorus. Good god, the counting of “one margarita, two margarita, three margarita” is super cringey, and why are Luke Bryan’s vocals so processed? This is another bro-country song that thinks it’s fun - and it’s not the worst song I’ve heard in this subgenre by any means - but in reality it’s generic and annoying. Also, this is a literal ode to alcohol abuse. Let’s count how many times Luke Bryan mentions drinking in this song. “Sipping on a frozen drink”, “one margarita two margarita three margarita shot”, “one more barefoot round, one last chance to say”, “a salt and a Buffet song”, “one margarita two margarita three margarita” - that’s 8 drinks and 2 shots in that part alone. In total, Luke Bryan consumes 22 drinks and 6 shots, which is about 75 ounces of alcohol, and Luke Bryan is reportedly 200 pounds. Luke Bryan is fucking dead after this song, about as dead as bro-country rightfully is.

8...It’s always a shame when a song with the potential to be great ends up horrible instead...

8. Lil Baby & 42 Dugg - We Paid (YE: #57, PEAK: #10)

I dig the heavy bass on this. That’s where my praise for this ends though, because this is another really unremarkable song only remembered for its bad qualities. The whistle at the beginning is awkward. 42 Dugg completely ruins this, his vocals are autotuned to an excruciating level. The song is just 3 minutes long but it feels like it goes on for an eternity. Both rappers here sound bored throughout the song, it’s just completely lifeless. Look, to land on this list, you don’t need to be offensive or anything, if you make an unremarkable song that I only remember for the really bad aspects, that can be enough.

7...The most boring “dance” song I think I’ve ever heard...

7. Drake - Toosie Slide (YE: #32, PEAK: #1)

I think it’s safe to say that after this was released it was clear that Drake was simply just not trying anymore. The entire central idea of the song is that it’s supposed to be a dance song. But it’s absolutely boring and impossible to dance to at all. The trap high hats are too limp to have any catchiness to it and the melodic chorus is so dreadful and abstract that even as a slow song it doesn’t give me anything worthwhile. Say what you want about “In My Feelings”, that song’s production might have been messy but at least the melodic chorus was catchy and the jarring swtichups actually kept my attention - “Toosie Slide” is so boringly one note and doesn’t give anything for the listener to pay attention to. And somehow this sparked a viral dance challenge on Tik Tok...yeah there was a reason that “In My Feelings” was 10-week #1 and not this.

6...zzzzzzzzzzz...

6. YNW Melly f/Juice WRLD - Suicidal (YE: #75, PEAK: #20)

One boring song right into another. Now, unlike “Toosie Slide”, at least this isn’t meant to be a dance song, but it’s still super dreadful. One thing I can say is that Juice WRLD prevented this from landing higher, he actually sounded pretty good on this. But that said, the entire production just feels so downturned and sour and dreadful. This is probably the point of the song but YNW Melly just can’t sell anything. His deep, monotone voice is so lifeless and when he tries to sing in his upper register, good god it sounds so bad. So as opposed to “Toosie Slide”, which tried to be a dance song but turned out dreadfully boring instead, this song tried to be emotional and heartbreaking and depressing but in reality it’s a dreadful, boring, emotionless song that is an utter slog to sit through. Next!

5...And the boring shit just won’t stop!!

5. StaySolidRocky - Party Girl (YE: #64, PEAK: #21)

This song is basically hand made for Tik Tok, and it’s a bad song built for Tik Tok as well. It’s just a dreadful piano line with a trap beat along with StaySolidRocky heavily autotuning his voice which sucks any energy away...and would you look at that, another lifeless, limp, awful, and forgettable trap song! This isn’t fun, it’s dreadful - wow I’m sensing a theme here. The lack of any energy or just any life in this song is absolutely painful.

4...So as I said, I went through this list back in December of 2020 because that’s when I first started to have the desire to create best and worst lists and because of me participating in a Pulse Music Board rankdown of the year-end for 2020. This was originally only going to be a dishonorable mention, but then I found out about its lyrical content, and it’s absolutely despicable...

4. Jason Aldean - Got What I Got (YE: #60, PEAK: #16)

This song might be the worst song of Jason Aldean’s career. This song was directed as a love song to Aldean’s current wife, but we’re going to continue with the theme of dreadful and lifeless everybody! The guitar is sour, the drums don’t pick up enough, and Jason Aldean sounds as miserable as the song does. But that’s not the despicable part of the song. Jason Aldean said that this is his wife’s favorite song on his album reportedly because she doesn’t like country and prefers the hip hop vibe of the song - which is obvious bullshit since there isn’t even a single trace of hip hop in this entire song - but in reality it’s a dedication to his current wife. Now here’s where the despicable part comes in. The hook says “when I got what I got, I don’t miss what I had, the old me before you belongs to the past”. What Jason Aldean had was his previous wife and his kids. Jason cheated on his previous wife with his current wife, and now is married to his current wife, thus deserting his previous wife and his kids. He isn’t even active in the lives of said kids. This song is absolutely fucking putrid, disgusting, atrocious, repulsive garbage. Fuck you Jason Aldean, you’re a disgusting human being and I truly cannot wait until your career completely flames out - because it was clear that this garbage was not enough - you and your generic ass music will not be missed in the slightest at all. You disgust me.

3...Okay, is there a worst of 2020 list where this song isn’t on it at all?

3. Justin Bieber - Yummy (YE: #58, PEAK: #2)

I think this song being released was an omen to how terrible 2020 would really be. I could get the obvious out of the way, trying to use a childish word like “yummy” as a sexy compliment from a vocalist completely devoid of any personality is an utterly terrible idea. It’s almost laughable, except the production is, wait till you hear it, lifeless, what a surprise! The ringing keys, the minimalist trap beat, this is a sloppily written, boringly sung, generic R&B sex song. Really, everybody has torn this song to shreds that there’s really not much left to talk about. That said, it's atrocious, next!

2...I think I pretended to like this song at the end of 2019, when it was first starting to get huge. But at some point I snapped out of it because of the radio overplay at the beginning of the year and the song would just not go the fuck away...

2. Tones And I - Dance Monkey (YE: #14, PEAK: #4)

I’ve seen the defenders of this song - it’s upbeat, it’s fun, it’s unique. Well let me respond to them all. Yes, I won’t deny that this song is upbeat, but it sure as hell is pretty generic and it drags out painfully after about a minute. And the “fun” and the “unique” - well just because a song is unique doesn’t make it any good. Tones And I’s signature vocals are absolutely horrendous, she belts out in the most obnoxious squeaks possible and it kills any “fun” I get out of it. The general public did turn on this song rather quickly due to the overplay in early 2020, it took them too long. This isn’t Tones And I’s worst song by any means - “Bad Child” and “Ur So Fucking Cool” in particular would battled hard for my top spot - but this is still up there. We could’ve had “Never Seen The Rain” - probably her only decent song - become the US crossover hit. Instead, we got this. This is utter garbage. And for a while, this would’ve easily been my #1. Nothing could’ve irritated me more or genuinely made me as angry as this song did to seize the top spot...right?

1...Look, I get this song’s intentions. I know it’s supposed to be a shot of fun and carefree that a year as depressing as 2020 needed. But at the same time this song nauseates me beyond words, and this song is rather annoying than fun. I guess you could say that this song puts me at my Sunday worst...

1. Surfaces - Sunday Best (YE: #61, PEAK: #19)

I mean, I could start off with the elephant in the room...the song sounds like shit. The piano doesn’t fit the guitar at all in addition to the trap beats that sound so shoehorned in that it’s not a good fit at all. Then there’s my biggest problem with this song - the vocals. I know I criticized other artists on this list for their excessive use of autotune, but this song is on the other end of the spectrum, there’s zero autotune and neither of the duo even try to sing on key. If anything they sound like they’re singing karaoke in the car while drunk. And that in turn could come across as them mocking the listener, which is about the last thing you wanna do in a song about feeling good. And if that was supposed to give off a laid back and chill vibe, it doesn’t work at all, it practically never works. And with all that, there’s nothing that could save the corny lyrics, you can’t give your feet gravity. Overall, this song is just unlistenable for me, it’s a song that thinks it’s spreading positivity in a dark time but instead is just one brag-filled ego trip. Hey this reminds me of something…”Me Too” by Meghan Trainor and “Pretty Girl Rock” by Keri Hilson. But you know what neither “Pretty Girl Rock” nor “Sunday Best” have a production as god awful as “Me Too”’s was to at least laugh at, and at least “Pretty Girl Rock”’s production - while awkward as hell and definitely thoroughly mediocre - is not the worst thing in the world. “Sunday Best” is atrocious lyrically, musically, and especially vocally. It’s a complete lie of a song, almost encapsulating the worst of 2020 if anything. And with all that said, “Sunday Best” by Surfaces is the worst hit song of 2020. And all I’m thinking now is “thank god none of this is a thing in 2021”.

So yeah, I’ve dug into the absolute garbage from 2020 and discussed why people are overrating this year for the Hot 100. But that’s not to say that 2020 didn’t have a single song worth your time, in fact the highs from this year are actually excellent. My best list for 2020 will be up shortly.