YouSpeak: All Those Annoying Songs

Rebecca Black’s “Friday” worst song ever?

Watch this video on YouTube

You hear them, you hate them, but you can’t stop singing them—songs like Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” and Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” have annoyed audiences for years. However, those could pale in comparison to new YouTube sensation Rebecca Black’s song “Friday.”  Since being released on YouTube February 11, the song has gone super-viral, with more than 47 million views. Forbes magazine has estimated Black’s song could earn her $1 million from iTunes alone. Good news for Black, but bad news for those who get the song’s insipid lyrics (“It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday”) trapped in their head. Its inanity has earned the song the dubious honor of being “the worst song ever.”

In light of the nationwide infatuation with YouTube starlet Black, this week’s “YouSpeak” asks: “What’s the most annoying song to have gotten stuck in your head?”

“YouSpeak” appears each Monday.

If you have a suggestion for a question we should ask, post it in the comments section below.

Joseph Chan can be reached at joechan@bu.edu. Robin Berghaus can be reached at berghaus@bu.edu.

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YouSpeak: All Those Annoying Songs

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Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 22 comments on YouSpeak: All Those Annoying Songs

  1. You’re an absolute d-bag to compare this song to Hey Ya. One is an instant classic, the other is what happens when you allow a 13yr old to "sing" a song about the days of the week.

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  2. You were probably too young to realize this at the time, but “Hey Ya!” was universally loved at its release. It is one of the greatest pop confections of all time. Learn it.

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  4. While I appreciate the musical dissection of many of the people interviewed, the student at the end of the video is almost as airheaded and annoying as the song Friday. I believe she must have the cutoff point for “her generation” as a month or two before her birthday.

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  5. “…songs like Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” and Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” have annoyed audiences for years.”

    Any article in which a fantastic and catchy song like “Hey Ya!” is even remotely compared to something like “Friday” can only be an exercise in ignorance

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  10. I agree with their assessment of Outcast’s “Hey Ya.” I’d much rather listen to Chumbawamba than that song. I’ve never liked it, not when it was new and not since. So, yeah… it’s a personal thing, some people like that song, others, like me and obviously I’m not the only one, thinks that song’s horrible.

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  11. YouSpeak, imma let you finish, but Rebecca Black had one of the best videos of all time.

    but seriously, its good. and i don’t see any of you putting yourself out there. don’t hate in place of jealousy.

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  12. YouSpeak, imma let you finish, but Rebecca Black had one of the best videos of all time.

    but seriously, its good. and i don’t see any of you putting yourself out there. don’t hate in place of jealousy.

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  16. Via Wikipedia:

    Critical reception

    “Hey Ya!” received very positive reviews from music critics. PopMatters described the track as “brilliantly rousing” and “spazzy with electrifying multiplicity”.[8] Entertainment Weekly highlighted it as the catchiest song on the double album,[9] and Stylus Magazine identified it as one of the best songs in OutKast’s history.[10] “Hey Ya!” topped the 2003 Pazz & Jop list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by Robert Christgau, with 322 mentions, beating runner-up Beyoncé Knowles’ “Crazy in Love” by 119.[11] It was listed at number 15 on Blender’s 2005 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born”.[12]

    The song’s unusual arrangement drew comparisons to artists from a variety of genres. Pitchfork Media referred to it as the apex of the album and added that it successfully mixed Flaming Lips-style instrumentation with the energy of Prince’s 1983 single “Little Red Corvette”.[13] Subsequently, Pitchfork Media gave it the number two slot in its “The Top 100 Singles of 2000-2004” feature in January 2005, bested only by OutKast’s own “B.O.B.”.[14] Blender described it as a mix of soul music by Ike Turner and New Wave music by Devo[15] and later as an “electro/folk-rock/funk/power pop/hip-hop/neo-soul/kitchen sink rave-up”.[12] Rolling Stone compared André 3000’s vocals to those of “an indie-rock Little Richard” and the backing arrangement to The Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road,[16] later including the song in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[3] New York also likened it to The Beatles and found it to be one of the best singles of 2003.[17] Allmusic described it as an “incandescent” mix of electro, funk, and soul music.[18] NME likened trying to classify the song as “akin to trying to lasso water” and described it as “a monumental barney between the Camberwick Green brass band, a cruise-ship cabaret act, a cartoon gospel choir and a sucker MC hiccuping ‘Shake it like a polaroid pic-chaaaa!’ backed up by the cast of an amateur production of The Wizard of Oz. Sort of.”[19] This song was number four on Rolling Stone’s 2009 list of the 50 Best Songs of the Decade.[20]

    Definitely a terrible song.

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  17. lol people, the author just used “Hey Ya” as an example – the fact that people have different tastes in music is the reason for this discussion in the first place. Personally, I think “Hey Ya” is a meh song (though I don’t find it really annoying) while I like the Numa Numa song but can see why others would find it annoying.

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  18. Everyone has their own opinion about what makes a bad or annoying song. I’m sure there are people who actually like “Friday.” Too bad for you that Outkast’s “Hey Yay!” is unpopular with other people. It’s life.

    Don’t be a hater. Move on.

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  19. You have absolutely no business associating Rebecca Black’s “Friday” with “Tubthumping” and “Hey Ya.” Those were seriously the best examples you could come up with for annoying or hated songs?

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  22. I was so annoyed listening to “Hey Ya” on the radio today, that I googled “Hey Ya OUTKAST annoying” and landed here. I disagree with the defenders of Hey Ya and agree with the author of this article!!!!!

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