My 10 Least Favorite Hit Songs of 2022

 Happy New Year everyone! The Jan-Dec Year End came out, so let's get into my yearly worst list for 2022! How was 2022 for popular music? Well my answer is complicated. The year was very boring to follow the charts, particularly the first half where there were hardly any big new releases, and a lot of late 2021 hits refusing to leave. New releases did happen more in the second half, but we still had to deal with songs lasting way too long on the charts. However, despite this, I actually thought on a quality level this year was pretty good, not as good as 2021 but I might put it above 2020, partly because, this year there were not that many songs I hated, or any I hated on the level of the worst of the last two years. Nothing here is as bad as Without You by The Kid Laroi or I Hope by Gabby Barrett, or even like The Good Ones or If The World Was Ending. And also this year had a lot of songs I enjoyed, not as many as 2021, but still a good selection of great songs, and even a decent amount of exceptional songs. Before we start, the rules. If you are new here, I use an alternate year end chart to Billboard that uses a different chart window that matches the calendar year, since I think it's stupid that they end their chart year halfway through November! That list for 2022: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3L47qrZfERuezBvRcJDsT7?si=2336bd4aed5d4580 

But I also allow songs that make the Billboard Year End list for 2022: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tsGGO4rewMHMjbvSUHHc7?si=fc51f338abcd4217

If a song made either of these lists and didn't make the Jan-Dec Year End for 2021, linked below, it is eligible for this list and my best list coming soon: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Fd4kqDvNJTBKmcpr3WFAh?si=f3f0d49ce0fb456

Before we get started, a reminder that this is all my opinion and music is subjective, if you like any of these songs, that's fine and I will respect your opinion as long as you do mine. 

10. 

The first of a few songs on this list by artists I usually like. From an album I think is great. 

10. Get Into It (Yuh) - Doja Cat (Peak #20, Billboard Year End: #68, Jan-Dec Year End: #66)

Planet Her is a great album as I said on my best list last year, I recently relistened to it to see what I thought now, and it still holds up. With the exception of Woman, a song I hated for a lot of this year, but now just find mid, and this song, which I hate. The beat is fine actually, but I just hate the way Doja's voice sounds on this song,  I find it really annoying. Doja is normally very charismatic in a way I like, heck she has a similar song on Planet Her that works for me in Ain't Shit, and while she is definitely charismatic here, it's in a way I find annoying. I get why some in this community like this song, but I am not one of them. Easily the worst song on Planet Her and her worst song I have heard, at least with her as the lead artist. 

9. 

Well this cooled on me hard. 

9. First Class - Jack Harlow (Peak #1, Billboard Year End: #6, Jan-Dec Year End: #4) 

First thing I'm gonna say is that, Glamorous by Fergie and Ludacris is one of the best hit songs of the 2000s in my opinion. Not gonna say much about it since I'm probably gonna do 2007 lists in the near future, but it's a 2000s classic with a beautiful and vibrant performance from Fergie. This song samples it, but takes away all the color of the original song, making it into a stiff, boring hook, and the new elements from Jack Harlow aren't any better. Come on dude, you just gave us a fantastic verse last year in Industry Baby, and now you're saying lines like "Pineapple juice, I give her sweet, sweet, sweet semen". I didn't listen to his album from this year Come Home The Kids Miss You, but I heard it sucked. In fact, I'm gonna bring on my friend Daniel (https://rateyourmusic.com/~Oshawott2), who did listen to it. 

Daniel: "Hey all! My name’s Daniel and I am Jack Harlow's number 1 hater. He’s basically Drake if you removed the fact that he’s a person of color and added a lot of corn.

First Class is basically the sample trend of 2022 going completely awry and he still doesn't try on this song with the only highlight being about his pineapple-flavored semen. I do have much more to say about the track, but believe me, it would get ugly. But about the album...

Throughout the album, it sounds like he just doesn’t care at all. The whole thing is just a void of nothingness whilst Jack does the same thing. There are very few highlights and it makes this the most exhausting listen I’ve ever had. Nothing in this album seems to have care and actual artistic vision in it. It just seems like he decided to deliver an overblown load of mid. There’s no substance, no bars, the most you’re gonna get is a cringeworthy line or the cure to insomnia. Jack doesn’t have the wit or prowess to deliver a performance worth remembering. Let’s compare this with Drake who also released something hated last year with Honestly Nevermind. I know it’s a house album, but a lot of people have a problem with the album as well because of how effortless it sounds. In his defense, at least the instrumentals are interesting. I can name a handful of tracks from the album that I like and while Drakes voice can be a hindrance (Falling Back is a good example of this,) but the instrumentals are enough to keep it interesting in my opinion. Drake actually performs well in some of the tracks. Massive is a strong contender for one of my favorite songs of the year and he actually holds his own on Jimmy Cooks. Those may sound like the obvious tracks but I’m even willing to defend Calling My Name and Currents. There is nothing in Jacks album to defend and Drake himself had to show up just to make a track salvageable. Yet despite his best efforts Drake alone can’t make an album this long, this derivative, and this boring anything salvageable. This is probably the cause of oversaturation or maybe something being overhyped, but no matter the cause, this album is still a black hole of anything interesting. In my opinion, the album gets a 0/10, and Drake, you are lucky you didn’t listen to it."

Drake: Just an awful song that ruined one of my favorite 2000s hits. 

8. 

With Meghan Trainor having a big hit on the charts right now for the first time since 2016, if you haven't seen my lists before, you might be expecting Made You Look to make this list. One, it wasn't eligible, and two I like Meghan Trainor actually. Made You Look isn't her best song admittedly, but Lips Are Movin and Dear Future Husband are huge bops that I've praised before, and all her other hits are good to great too, including All About That Bass. Doesn't mean I can't hate body positive songs like the last one. Like this one. 

8. Victoria's Secret - Jax (Peak #35, Billboard Year End: N/A, Jan-Dec Year End: #84)

Before you ask, I'm not gonna defend Victoria's Secret or hate on the message, which is not a bad one. If this song helps you feel more comfortable in your body I'm glad it exists for your sake, but I can't stand this song. Jax's voice is horrible, she's sounds like she's straining to hit these basic notes, the awful pop punk instrumentation trying to be Good 4 U and ending up like something even MGK would cut. All I really have to say about this one. 

7. 

If I had heard this at a low point comparable to the low point of late 2020 early 2021, this would have  been a trigger song for me 100 percent and easily topped this list. Luckily, I didn't hear this song until recently, and in a pretty decent time for my life, so it's only here. 

7. Fall In Love - Bailey Zimmerman (Peak #29, Billboard Year End: #54, Jan-Dec Year End: #41) 

Bailey Zimmerman was one of the big new artists of the year. And while some others in this community liked him as a "better Morgan Wallen", I didn't. He sounds like a combination of The Kid Laroi and Morgan Wallen. Maybe not as awful as either artist usually, but still really bad. I don't hate the lyrics actually, but musically this is like a country version of Without You, but more tolerable since it doesn't have awful memories attached to it. Still awful though. Bailey's voice makes me want to jump off a bridge, and while the instrumental is better than the Kid Laroi song I mentioned, it's still not any good. 

6. 

Round two of songs on this list by artists I usually like. From an album I still haven't listened to. 

6. I Like You (A Happier Song) - Post Malone, Doja Cat (Peak #3, Billboard Year End: #26, Jan-Dec Year End: #17

I haven't listened to either Stoney or Twelve Carat Toothache (the album this is from) so this may change, but right now this is the worst Post Malone song I have heard as well as the worst song I have heard Doja Cat on. The song just feels plastic, generic in a way that isn't enjoyable in a safe way, but just hollow and annoying, awful sounding. It feels like something the label forced Post to make because the album didn't have the radio singles that his last few have, and they panicked. Even if Post did genuinely want to make this song, which is possible, it doesn't sound like it to me. He sounds incredibly bored here, and so does Doja. One of the most annoying songs of the year. 

5. 

What the fuck am I supposed to say about this next one?

5. To The Moon - Jnr Choi, Sam Thompson (Peak #38, Billboard Year End: #97, Jan-Dec Year End: #98)

This song feels like something you'd find on one of those websites that have AI generated random music. It doesn't feel like something made by humans. The fucking awful pitch shifting, the pathetic stiff attempts at a drill beat, to the lyrics that don't make sense to me. I don't have much to say about this fucking nothing of a song because it gives me barely anything to work with. We could have had the far superior, actual drill song AHHH HA as the Year End hit instead of this. I hope you're happy crypto bros.

4. 

I mean, you knew this was coming after my #7 segment. But which of his songs? 

Yes. 

4. Morgan Wallen

I hated Morgan Wallen before it was cool. Ever since I heard Whiskey Glasses for the first time I've hated this guy's music. Not a single one of his lead artist year end hits has been even passable for me. I hate his voice. And now I find out last year that he's racist and says the n word in public. Which made me despise him even more. All of his songs on this year end list were awful outside of Flower Shops by Ernest featuring him, which I find passable, so I'm gonna talk about each of them a bit, in order from least bad to worst. 

4a. You Proof - Morgan Wallen (Peak #5, Billboard Year End: #27, Jan-Dec Year End: #14) 

Bad country trap with generic country drinking song lyrics. At least it isn't as bad as his other songs on this year end list. 

4b. Wasted On You - Morgan Wallen (Peak #9, Billboard Year End: #19, Jan-Dec Year End: #12)

This one is a bit better lyrically, and I get the appeal of it. Shame it sounds like absolute garbage and considerably worse than the last song. I remember last year really hoping this song would miss the year end list and being so relieved that it missed, thinking I'd dodged the bullet. Sigh

4c. Sand In My Boots - Morgan Wallen (Peak #30, Billboard Year End: #58, Jan-Dec #77)

This one technically wasn't eligible for this list since it barely made last year's Jan-Dec list. But I didn't hate the song then, and I decided to count it for this. And unpopular opinion I know, but this is my least favorite of his solo songs on this list. Lyrically it is the best, and I get the appeal of this one the most of any of his songs I've heard besides maybe 7 Summers (his only song I'd defend). But it's also the worst musically in my opinion . Morgan's voice is at it's absolute worst here, trying to sound haunted and depressed and it just makes me want to drive off a bridge every time I hear the fucking "Oh but now I'm dodging potholes". Abysmal fucking song. But it wasn't the worst song he was on on this year end list. That one is a song featuring him by an artist who I've praised once before on this very list. Sigh

4d. Broadway Girls - Lil Durk, Morgan Wallen (Peak #14, Billboard Year End: #81, Jan-Dec Year End: #80) 

Once again, we could have had the amazing AHHH HA on this year end and not this shit. I remember when I first saw that Morgan Wallen was gonna be collabing with Lil Durk. I was like "oh my god this is the start of the music industry trying to improve his rep by having him work with a black rapper to try and make people think the black community has forgiven him" And then I listened to it and my ears wanted to die. He SOMEHOW sounds even worse on this song than on Sand In My Boots. "ThErE'S TwO ThInGs ThAt yOu'Re gOnNa fInD oUt". THAT FUCKING HOOK!  Lil Durk isn't good here either. Worst rap song I heard this year. 

3. 

This year I watched the most recent Scooby Doo show, called Scooby Doo and Guess Who. In each episode of it they have a celebrity guest. And I have to say, seeing my favorite cartoon feature this next artist in an episode (even if this was before Music) made me angrier than I can put into words. 

3. Unstoppable - Sia (Peak #28, Billboard Year End: N/A, Jan-Dec Year End: #93)

I'm not gonna talk about Sia and what she's done, because I could rant about it for a while, and you can find the info on that on the internet if you look. Just know she's an ableist and as someone who is autistic myself, seeing Sia come back this year with a song from 2016 becoming viral and then getting a radio push, made me so goddamn mad. Especially with the worst song I've heard from her. Like at least with Chandelier it is so over the top that in the right mood it can work, Elastic Heart is still a good song (heck Elastic Heart is just this song but good), and Cheap Thrills as much as I hate it, it at least has Sean Paul. This has nothing good. Awful singing with Sia sounding on autopilot, the most basic empowerment lyrics I think I have ever heard in a song, godawful mixing. If this had been big back in 2016 it would have been one of the absolute worst hit songs of that year, just like it is here. Fuck this song and fuck Sia. 

2. 

The top two songs are both huge examples of disappointments, songs by artists I have defended a lot more than most people in this community, and who have each made one of my favorite songs I've ever heard. And I have to say I was excited when I saw this band charting again. And then I heard the song. And wanted to punch Ryan Tedder in the face. 

2. I Ain't Worried - One Republic (Peak #6, Billboard Year End: #37, Jan-Dec Year End: #30)

I still love almost all of One Republic's hits from the late 2000s and early 2010s, with the exception of Stop And Stare which I find mid, and Love Runs Out which I still hate (lol). Apologize and Counting Stars are classics, All The Right Moves is one of my favorite songs I've ever heard, Secrets and Good Life are amazing. This is absolutely ABYSMAL! It feels like if Feel It Still was made for military use by drill sergeants, and every time I hear this fucking song I get the image of a army drill sergeant forcing people to do overwhelming tasks to train for battle, something I don't want to be thinking of. It also just sounds godawful in general, the absolute worst kind of radio music. I may have liked Feel It Still and Sucker (And still do) but this is just something else, and I am dreading the next incarnation of this. And yet there was one song I hated more. Before I get there, some Dishonorable Mentions real quick. 

DM. Abcdefu - Gayle

I used to like this one, but it really wore out it's welcome. 

DM. Me Porto Bonito - Bad Bunny, Chencho Corleone

Bad Bunny is an artist who I want to like, but who just hasn't clicked for me outside of Dakiti (a song that has grown on me a lot since my best list last year). There were hits I enjoyed from Un Verano Sin Ti, but this was not one. And yes it's all because of Chencho Corleone's incredibly annoying voice. Outside of him the song is okay. 

DM. Love Nwantiti - C'kay

I have yet to find an afrobeat song that impresses me, and this song is one of the worst ones. Really annoying vocals. 

DM. Sweetest Pie - Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa

Disappointing collab, even with Dua cooling on me a fair amount since this dropped. 

DM. Rock And A Hard Place - Bailey Zimmerman 

More tolerable than Fall In Love but still really bad. 

DM. One Right Now - Post Malone, The Weeknd

Disappointing collab, even with Posty cooling on me a fair amount since this dropped. 

DM. Trouble With A Heartbreak - Jason Aldean 

Jason Aldean. 

DM. She Likes It - Russell Dickerson, Jake Scott 

This might have made the list if I didn't refuse to acknowledge it as a hit song. IT PEAKED AT 63!!!! Songs should have to peak top 40 to make the Year End change my mind. 

DM. She's All I Wanna Be - Tate McRae

I know some in this community like or even love this song, and I get it, believe me I do. I just fucking hate Tate McRae and even on one of her more tolerable songs I hate her voice. 

DM. Rich Flex - Drake, 21 Savage 

I refuse to listen to Her Loss given what I've heard about it, and hearing this song did nothing to change my mind. 

DM. Under The Influence - Chris Brown

The most album filler-y hit of Chris Brown's career is the one that went viral years after it came out? Really? 

And

1. 

This band once made one of my top 10 favorite songs I have ever heard in my life. And while this isn't their worst song, what the fuck happened?

1. Enemy - Imagine Dragons, JID (Peak #5, Billboard Year End: #15, Jan-Dec Year End: #20)

Granted this wasn't as surprising as with One Republic, as Imagine Dragons have been declining in quality in a while, where the last I'd heard from One Republic was stuff I liked. Heck this isn't even Imagine Dragons's worst song, that being Cutthroat. But still, THIS BAND ONCE MADE DEMONS! One of my top 10 favorite songs I have ever heard. And Night Visions is a fantastic album in general (outside of On Top Of The World). But yeah this song has the worst hook of the year, that feels like a smack in the face for once defending this band. The fucking awful autotune, shit mixing, uneasy atmosphere that is unpleasant to listen to, the deathly hook. Outside of one part, this song is uncomfortable to listen to and just unlistenable. That one part is the only redeeming part. JID. His verse here is admittedly okay, and the only tolerable part of the song. But it's like temporarily taking shelter from the storm, and the rest is just painful. And I heard JID's album from this year The Forever Story and it was great and full of way better rapping from him so while his part gives a reprieve from the rest of the song, if I want JID, I'll listen to something from The Forever Story thank you very much. And really that's what made me pick this as the worst hit of the year beyond the godawful hook and uncomofrtable atmosphere. A waste of potential. Imagine Dragons have all this potential, as shown by their early days and even the occasional newer song like Rise Up or Whatever It Takes, and JID has a lot of talent as shown by The Forever Story, and yet it wasn't used in their collab that should have been so much better than it was. Enemy by Imagine Dragons (and yes JID)! My pick for the Worst Hit Song of 2022!

Thanks for reading! Best list coming soon hopefully! Urtar Reviews signing out! I'll see you next time.