In the last week of 2021, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis dropped their first new single in five years, and it was, unsurprisingly, greeted with universal silence, as the Grammy-winning rap duo’s credibility had cratered since their peak popularity. Yet the mere announcement of that song reminded us of their last actual hit, 2015’s “Downtown”, which went to #12 on the U.S. charts but had zero cultural impact. That got us thinking: now that we’re in the year 2022, what have been the worst pop hits of the new millennium?
We poured through some of the worst music you’ve ever heard to come up with this list, but a few criteria soon became obvious: it had to actually chart in some fashion (so congratulations, CeeLo Green’s “Robin Williams”, as you avoid this list entirely), and, ideally, was not a one-hit-wonder situation (thus ensuring the Shop Boyz’s 2007 ear-scraper “Party Like a Rock Star” got the chop). This list didn’t have to be year-by-year, so some years might have more duds than others (apologies to 2017).
