100 worse songs than We Built This City (2 Viewers)

[guidomerkinsrules]

Hey, when I hear Friday come up on the radio, I don't think "this sucks, but at least she didn't make as much money as We Built This City so I guess it's okay." It's an objectively worse song

John Carter lost more money than any other movie ever made. That doesn't make it the worst movie.

I’d rather listen to Friday than the worst song of all time WBTCoRR 100 times out of 100

 

[Arathrael]

I'm glad you said this, because it establishes a perfect analogy to explain why you're wrong.

What's happening is the Albert Pujols fans are watching him hit .250 - .300 every year, until 2021 comes long and he hits .198. And everyone is saying it's the worst season any baseball player has ever hit just because they're used to his .250+ When the reality is that it still wasn't as bad as basically every year of Mario Mendoza, Rougie Odor, and a lot of other players' entire careers.

I'm with you on this. A good song doesn't become a bad song because the artist has done better songs.

E.g. Bowie's Little Wonder is fine for the genre and type of song it is, it doesn't suddenly become terrible because it isn't Life on Mars.

 

[DCSaints_Fan]

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... the '80s was full of "disposable" music.

Maybe, but it was fun, and there was plenty that wasn't disposable.

79-83 I think was one of the better four year periods. You had the early new wave / synth pop stuff, while big names from the 60s/70s e,.g. the Stones, the Who were still producing quality.

And EVH at his peak.

The mid to late 80s, not so much.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I'm with you on this. A good song doesn't become a bad song because the artist has done better songs.

E.g. Bowie's Little Wonder is fine for the genre and type of song it is, it doesn't suddenly become terrible because it isn't Life on Mars.

That’s a backwards metric
Godfather 3 is way way worse than many ‘just’ bad movies bc it’s compared to two of the best movies of alltime

 

[DCSaints_Fan]

In an effort not to offend Guido, I hereby change my nomination to Foreigner's "Juke Box Hero."

I thought



Was much worse.

It literally makes my ears hurt

 

[Arathrael]

That’s a backwards metric
Godfather 3 is way way worse than many ‘just’ bad movies bc it’s compared to two of the best movies of alltime

But it's a sequel. It's directly related to the previous two movies. We Built This City isn't a sequel to White Rabbit, it's a separate thing entirely.

That argument is more like like saying Bram Stoker's Dracula was terrible because Godfather was great.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

But it's a sequel. It's directly related to the previous two movies. We Built This City isn't a sequel to White Rabbit, it's a separate thing entirely.

That argument is more like like saying Bram Stoker's Dracula was terrible because Godfather was great.

Disagree- that it’s a sequel makes it even worser
Songs typically don’t have sequels it’s hard to draw that particular comparison
What’s more pertinent is the excitement/anticipation based on knowing that quality that a creator can produce

Put it this way
You have two kids
One usually gets Ds in Math and the other gets As
The D kid brings home an F
The A kid brings home a C
The C grade is worse even though the F grade is lower

 

[tenordas]

I thought



Was much worse.

It literally makes my ears hurt

I agree, but then again to me, everything Foreigner recorded is absolutely awful.

 

[tenordas]

As for the argument on once good bands recording drek, I give you Genesis prior to the release of Duke in 1980 and Genesis from that point forward.
The junk on the album Duke and everything that follows is probably "acceptable" junk pop music except that the people recording it previously were recording albums like "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," "Trick of the Tail," etc. There's simply no comparison to the well-composed and intricate music of Genesis of the 60s/70s and the formula crap they put out in the 80s until they stopped recording.

As such, I can see the argument for why WBTC is so bad. However, I would argue that all the songs by "Starship" are terrible, which is why Paul Kantner made them remove "Jefferson" from their name (and the two records before he did that were also full of pop rock junk as well).

My older brother used to refer to the various "pop rock" 80s bands as "Foreign Van Journeyship." It was pretty accurate description as they all (not just those four) follow the same formula writing and sound very much alike.

 

[GW93]

I can think of worse songs, but they are still Starship songs: "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now."

 

[DaveXA]

I can think of worse songs, but they are still Starship songs: "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now."

Lol, I actually like those songs, .

 

[Cage1]

I can think of worse songs, but they are still Starship songs: "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now."

Exactly. You're really exploring the rich tapestry of songs that are worse than WBTC.

 

[DCSaints_Fan]

I can think of worse songs, but they are still Starship songs: "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now."

The synth lead/intro into "Sara" is pretty wicked, but I can see why you think the song is cheese

Disagree- that it’s a sequel makes it even worser
Songs typically don’t have sequels it’s hard to draw that particular comparison
What’s more pertinent is the excitement/anticipation based on knowing that quality that a creator can produce

Put it this way
You have two kids
One usually gets Ds in Math and the other gets As
The D kid brings home an F
The A kid brings home a C
The C grade is worse even though the F grade is lower

I must have soft spot for ignoring the crap that even great artists have produced. As great as VH was, "Balance" was an utter load of horseshirt. But I recognized that the "scene" had changed by the time it was released '95, it was kinda hard for them to have the same sound that they did before.

The 80s was cocaine. The 90s was heroin. EVH and the gang just couldn't be heroin.

 

[Bill]

As bad as “We Built This City” is, anything in the Hip Hop or Rap category would certainly qualify for the list that the OP is looking for.

I can’t even stomach going to a Pels game because of that noise.

Of course everyone has their own opinion about what qualifies as real music.
Mine just happens to be right.

 

[Saintman2884]

Maybe, but it was fun, and there was plenty that wasn't disposable.

79-83 I think was one of the better four year periods. You had the early new wave / synth pop stuff, while big names from the 60s/70s e,.g. the Stones, the Who were still producing quality.

And EVH at his peak.

The mid to late 80s, not so much.

I think even in the early 80’s, some of the more exciting, daring, elaborate and creative musical trends, ideas that had dominated and defined the AOR-FM dominated radio and long, often amazing concept albums from Yes, ELP, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, still retained a lot of prevalence and this mixed cohesion led to some great, classic albums in the early 80’s by Def Leopard, Van Halen, Depeche Mode, AC/DC, Queen in 1980 and 81.


By the mid-to-late 80’s, “MTV effect” of watering-down, over-commercializing, and frankly, hyping up bands that didn’t deserve or had legitimate musical credentials to be widely successful but were very “telegenic”—they had strong, viable visual appeal via MTV, but had limited musical strength/substance.


Even by the early 80’s, I think most rock critics, observers and fans would admit that The Rolling Stones weren’t for kids and teenagers anymore as their original, dedicated hardcore fan bases in the 60’s and 70’s were now middle-aged yuppies with young kids of their own. That’s not to say the Stones, Who, Pink Floyd (although by 1982/83, the band itself was on its last legs due to deep, vicious disagreements on conceptual, musical content/concepts in a follow-up to The Wall), weren’t attracting newer, younger fans but they were still far fewer in number then the newer, more exciting bands that emerged in the late 70’s with the punk, new wave movements. As far as the 1980’s, Rolling Stones highest and biggest creative peak was in 1981 when they had by-then, their largest, biggest most commercially successful tour in their history (if not, rock history). It was during the Stones 1981 US tours that the famous 81,000 fans showed up for their Superdome show (and for 6 years, set the world’s largest, indoor attendance record.) After that, the band didn’t do or accomplish very much except release two, mediocre albums, Mick and Keith got into a near-decade long feud, and Charlie Watts developed a pretty nasty, nearly fatal heroin addiction.