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The Worst Music Genres Ever (and Alternatives)
WARNING: The following is absolutely NOT intended to break FurAffinity's Terms of Service under any circumstances. Reader discretion is strongly advised for those not used to reading this.
1. Crunk (Three 6 Mafia, Lil John, Bravehearts, Ying Yang Twins, Trillville, Kurt Calhoun)
This genre is the reason why so many people view rap as dumbed down, misogynistic and disgusting. The most idiotic rap cliches ever (objectifying women, doing drugs, s** songs that are gross and criminal instead of s**y, being loud and obnoxious instead of being lyrical) are found in this genre. In fact, I would argue that crunk killed most good rap music; even though crunk has died out, it stayed popular enough to prove that rappers don’t need to put effort into their songs to be popular.
Crunkcore (3OH!3, Family Force 5, Brokencyde, Blood on the Dance Floor, Hollywood Undead)
Crunkcore is the most laughable, absurd and poorly executed genre of music in existence, much like its parent genre. It’s a combination of (tinny, metallic sounding) electropop, metalcore, emoviolence (erroneously referred to as screamo), dance and hardcore hip-hop, five styles that are already horrible in their own right. When combined, they create an abomination... like a demon from the lowest depths of hell. Nothing is good about it. In fact, crunkcore is downright terrible in every possible way. The worst genre of music I have ever heard in my life; it’s due to the bands that use it! BOTDF is, by far, the worst band of all time, due to Dahvie Vanity’s behavior and their style of music. It’s this genre I’m talking about here! People like them don’t deserve to be signed to a record label.
Alternatives: EDM (including hardcore), hardcore punk, scream/skramz, alternative hip hop
2. Goregrind (Intense Hammer Rage, General Surgery, Carcass, Gut, Hemorrhage, Last Days of Humanity)
Just by reading the lyrics of some goregrind songs, I feel really sick. There’s a band called Intense Hammer Rage and their lyrics are highly revolting, disgusting, repulsive, etc. The entire genre is so abysmal and morally shameful that it makes shock metal almost respectable. There’s absolutely nothing worse than goregrind or crunk. Nothing. Every song sounds like a crocodile gurgling water for 35 minutes.
Alternatives: Hardcore punk (most subgenres), death metal, heavy metal (Mercyful Fate, Dio, Motörhead, Diamond, Running Wild, Riot, Manilla Road, Queensrÿche, Savatage, Crimson Glory, Metal Church)
3. Gangster Hip Hop (1997-present)
What happened to this genre? Personally, I have no idea. Congratulations. You can produce shitty beats. At least try and edit your own rhymes. Maybe join a group, spend months practicing a new album, time all your sets and actually perform your songs and all their parts live. Alternatively, you could try to perform a duet where you take turns talking to a beat. I’m sorry if you like modern gangster rap or think Lil’ Wayne and Drake are better than The Notorious B.I.G. (rest in peace) and 2Pac (R.I.P.), but aside from lyrical effort, it takes little to no effort to perform or create. I mean no disrespect to anyone who enjoys rap, nor to any of the early rappers who talked about real problems in their lives. Modern gangster rap is hardly on-par with any other genre when it comes to effort and performance.
Alternatives: Jazz rap, abstract hip hop, conscious hip hop, funk, experimental hip hop, instrumental hip hop, political hip hop, neo-soul
4. Redneck Rap (Bubba Sparxxx, Upchurch, Moonshine Bandits, Cold Ford, Ghetto Cowboy, Jelly Roll, Uncle Kracker, Tom MacDonald, Kid Rock, Tim McGraw)
Also known as hick hop or redneck hip hop. OK, who thought mixing redneck and rap was a good idea? Well, it is an atrociously terrible idea. This is just a bunch of rednecks rapping with awful Southern accents about farms and how they’re the best people ever.
Alternative: Talking blues
5. Bro-Country (Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Randy Houser, Restless Heart, Blake Shelton, Jake Owen, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney)
Ever since Jason Aldean came out, I have believed my points have been proven. I’ve listened to him and looked; conservatives may defend his songs to death and I kind of get it. Hardcore Trump supporters need their patriotic redneck music too, but he literally sounds like every other artist of his era. This music is intended for teenagers who wear Realtree camo jackets all day and drive squatted trucks. I live in a rural town, but “country” does not, and should not, equal “redneck”. I’m sick of it. “Try That In A Small Town” is a testament to redneck music as we know it. Not even Restless Heart has any good songs.
Alternatives: Cowpunk, gothabilly, psychobilly, Southern soul
6. Redneck (Reba McEntire, Ashley McBride, Kelsea Ballerini, Blake Shelton, Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, Brothers Osborne, Carly Pearce, Zach Bryan, Luke Combs, Luke Bryan)
It’s truly a shame. When Mom and Dad were 9 and 11, respectively, they would look around in this retro record store in their small rural town. The owner acquired a multitude of country rock records from the 1970s and 1980s. I respect a lot of these bands (the non-classic rock ones like The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, mind you) and it’s better than all the redneck music available on the radio. This is not even country music; it’s radio-propositioning pop sludge in the strongest sense of the term. There are no tight harmonies or guitar melodies in redneck and there are no enhancements, which means there is no punch. I wish many redneck artists would depart from corporate labels, enabling more freedom and creativity within music. Even real country genres like Christian, honky-tonk, neo-traditional and truck-driving country—along with Cajun music, roots rock and the Bakersfield sound—are just as shallow.
Alternatives: Alt-country, country blues, folk music, gothic country, jamgrass, outlaw music/rock, progressive bluegrass, rock and roll, rockabilly
7. Electronicore (Electric Callboy, Asking Alexandria, I See Stars, Falling In Reverse, His Statue Falls, Palisides, Abandon All Ships, Enter Shikari, Attack Attack!)
Every band sounds like Fall Out Boy or Panic! at the Disco with more electronic influence and heavier riffs. The entire genre incorporates pop punk, electronic, glam rock, crunk, hair metal and all sorts of other shit that makes it sound worse than putting a cat in a blender. And if you’re going to be loud and noisy, then don’t just be loud and noisy for the sake of it.
Alternatives: Industrial rock, art rock, atmospheric black metal, dark ambient, dungeon synth, industrial metal, electro-industrial, noise rock
8. Pop Rock (The Bangles, Imagine Dragons, YLVIS, Knox, Olivia Rodrigo, Måneskin, Pat Benatar, Linda Ronstadt, Pink, Hayley Williams, Vanessa Carlton, John Mayer, Miley Cyrus, Sixpence)
I’m sick of people with almost no talent going live on TV and (formerly) letting MTV sponsor them via shows like Total Request Live, saying that they “just want to make music”. I’m sorry, but that is bull. They just want to make money, as do their record labels. If they really wanted to make music, they would be writing it instead of going on all these shows and heavily processing or pitching everything. Kids can easily play this music on the keyboard, drum kit or guitar after minimal lessons. In metal, it takes years to learn a basic song. In pop “rock”, the music just repeats itself. You need to have more than just one tune! The lyrics are either all about romance, fame, being rich and s** or they’re whiny and self-pitying. Pop “rockers” aren’t even famous for their music most of the time.
Since 2010, Hayley Williams’ egotism has led to her becoming a major headliner of pop rock and foraying into the territory. Commercial singles like “The Only Exception”, “Careful”, “Playing God”, “Now” “Still Into You”, “Daydreaming”, “Ain’t It Fun”, “Castles Crumbling”, “Simmer”, American hip-hop producer B.O.B.’s “Airplane”, “Leave It Alone” and “Roses” are now scene kid staples. Her work is not fun, earwormy in a good way or deep.
Alternatives: Art rock, baroque pop, singer-songwriter, funk rock, freakbeat, hard rock, jam band, indie pop, post-punk, psychedelia, space rock
Seriously, I definitely recommend them.
9.Post-grunge (Foo Fighters, Nickelback, Creed, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, Puddle of Mudd, Bush, Alanis Morrisette, Goo Goo Dolls, Candlebox, Collective Soul, Kelly Osbourne)
Post-grunge is the king of generic modern rock—which some treat as a standalone genre like me, mind you—that all sounds the same. Unlike dance-pop (see below), post-grunge is mostly forgotten and reviled, with only a very small handful of fans remaining. Nickelback, Foo Fighters, Three Days Grace, Creed, Puddle of Mudd, Staind, Live, Alanis Morrisette, Anouk, Avril Lavigne, Brad Sucks, Flyleaf, Hailstorm, Juliana Hatfield, Katy Rose, Kelly Clarkson, Lisa Loeb, Meredith Brooks, Michelle Branch, The Pretty Reckless, Kelly Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Tracy Bonham, The Verve Pipe, etc. are absolute trash and should have never put out any music.
Alternatives: Alternative metal, dream pop, emo, grunge, indie rock, noise rock, post-hardcore, punk rock, shoegaze, sludge metal, stoner metal
10. Dance-pop (Lady Gaga, Cher, Madonna, Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera, Spice Girls, Paula Abdul, J-pop, K-pop, synth-pop)
Dance-pop is shallow, meaningless and generic. There is no substance, no creativity, no art. It exists simply to be sold to as many mindless teenagers. It’s all about making money while providing absolutely nothing of value to the music community. Oh my God. The only reason dance-pop artists have any fame is because teen girls with fewer than 80 IQ points think they’re hot. Listen to some of Ross Lynch’s music and tell me those songs would be considered even remotely likable if he were average-looking. And the worst thing is, he is officially the worst musician ever.
Alternatives: Chiptune, funk (fusion genres included), EDM, hip-hop, alt-dance
11. Powerviolence (Infest, Capital Causalities, Spazz, AC x DC)
This entire subgenre is awful, horrible noise. Oh yeah, and it makes metalcore look good.
Alternative: Hardcore punk
12. Metalcore (Killswitch Engage, August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying, Parkway Drive, Woe Is Me, After the Burial, A Day to Remember, Silence, Emmure and Carnifex)
This is way worse than death metal; at least that has some complexity! In a metalcore song, there are about 10-20 breakdowns over the vocalist screaming as if he were having a heart attack… all while he pig squeals about how he wants to confront the school bully. Punk made by people who misunderstood punk. The lyrics aren’t as powerful and, quite often, you will find overproduced bands with clean vocals and whiny lyrics.
13. Dubstep (TC, Knife Party, Flux Pavilion, Rusko, Skillrex, Excision, Bassnectar, Flux Pavillion, Magnetic Man, Nero)
I think it’s pretty easy to make a bad genre. I don’t think I would pay to listen. The only problem is that people who like the genre have an issue with admitting that there is very little variety. If it is original, it is probably because it isn’t like the songs that anybody likes. Therefore, most people dislike it.
Most of the popular songs (I said MOST) are very, very similar to a point where I am satisfied by one song, as there isn’t much else to hear other than breathtaking drops and bass. But they all have the same bass and the same drops, making it less qualified as a good music genre.
Brostep
Same as above.
Alternatives: 2-step, breakbeat, dub, grime, jungle, reggae, UK garage
K-pop (BTS, Blackpink, Exo, Twice, Blitzers, Seventeen, Jungkook, Stray Kids, Jimin, Ateez, J-pop, Le Sserafirm, NCT 127, RM, j-hope, Lisa, Tomorrow X Together)
K-pop refers to a specific production style.
The singers use heavy pitching and all they have to do is meet beauty standards to make it big. The industry can be discriminatory. Unless you’re extremely pale, you’re considered to have little worth. It’s all about image, which isn’t a good message for boys and girls to internalize. The artists cannot dance nor do they have any good songs. I find this an overrated genre. The music is extremely catchy, yet cheesy at the same time. Every song lacks meaningful content. To be honest, the genre feels overproduced and some artists only get famous for their looks. I now prefer rock music. Sorry.
Alternatives: Classical (w/vocals), electronica, folk, hip hop, Korean music, soul, vocal jazz
15. J-pop (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, Perfume, Speed, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ado, AKB48, Exile, Mrs. Green Apple)
Same as above.
Alternatives: Same as K-pop.
16. Synth-pop (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Heaven 17, Human League, Pet Shop Boys, A-ha, Alphaville, K-pop, Junior Boys, Fever Ray, Chromatics, Cascada. Ava Max)
Same as above, not to mention the dissonant, ringing, tinny-sounding keyboards (though the synth sounds vary from artist to artist).
17. Shock Metal (Cannibal Corpse, Demolition Hammer, Arizmenda, Accept, Saxon, Crytopsy, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P., GWAR, Anal Cunt, Cattle Decapitation and Quiet Riot)
Not only are the lyrics terrible and dangerous to one’s physical and mental health, but I can’t even hear the damn lyrics. They’re wailing on the guitars and screaming/belting so much that it goes up and down like a child trying to bang on the guitar. The end result is nothing but noise. There’s a big difference between pleasant music and noisy music; this genre and all of its bands are the most unintelligible. Keep banging your heads and hope that you won’t lose your heads.
18. Show tunes (SpongeBob, Elmopalooza, Disney, The Graduate, Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever, Superfly, The Bodyguard, Grease, Back to the Future: The Musical, Shrek the Musical)
The most popular songs on Broadway or in Hollywood (often ones featured in movie soundtracks; bonus points if the movie is a musical) can only be described as a series of nonsensical, bad choreography (which is all but excluded in cartoons and most romance, action or sci-fi movies). The music is repetitive and cheesy, with meaningless (or sometimes even childish) lyrics that make a typical pop song sound like Shakespeare. The entire genre is focused on a visual spectacle in lieu of any actual artistic integrity or musical proficiency. It’s like a cheap, third-rate circus show that everyone is forced to watch while their brain rots out of their ears. I don’t understand how people on Broadway or in modern Hollywood have the courage to even call them music industries. Seriously? It seems like a talentless bunch saying “I’m happy for the sake of it” or “your eyes, your face, our love, our marriage” over and over again in every song. Plus, there’s no production quality at all. Everything is derivative. Broadway and Hollywood are just commercials made to sell noise to a billion people with no taste, with zero clue as to what music is. And then there’s some random, so-called “rapper” who shows up when the movie or whatever needs him; it always consists of “get on the floor, yeah, groove it, yeah, yo, yo, move it”.
19. Latin Music (Juan Gabriel, José Jiménez, David Záizar, Teodora Blanco, Roberto Ruiz, Selena, La Mafia, Ram Herrera, La Sombra, Santana)
Also known as Hispanic music or Latin folk. Age-old debates about Latin music being inferior to the rest of the music world are brought up constantly. Despite there being no set answer to the age-long question, my personal opinion is that Latin music is bad. Many people may disagree with me, but I stand by my belief for several reasons. For one, Latin songs use the exact same 3–4 instruments: violins, trumpets, synthesizers and accordions. Such repetition of instruments does not allow for much variety over a non-rock genre and any edge whatsoever is mellowed out by the production. The constant reuse of the one Latin folk tune always leaves me, as well as many others, feeling annoyed. Then you have the song topics—all of which are sappy and many songs of which revolve around the same old stuff.
Alternative: African music (and most international music in general)
20. Easy Listening (AIR, Orinoco Flow, Mort Garison, John Zorn, Haruomi Hosono, The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las, Dick Gaughan, Alan Stivell, Naked Flames, BT, Way Out West, Armin van Burren, standards, smooth jazz)
Easy listening is a subgenre that mostly refers to “international” or “world” music, exotica and traditional folk–as long as they fall more into the North American and British pop traditions. Such genres are better off being classified as “easy listening” or standalone genres. This is primarily instrumental (sometimes vocal-heavy) music designed to be soothing and relaxing, yet it slips into the background instead of demanding your utmost attention. This is the very reason many critics and listeners dismissed the music as disposable noise.
Easy listening includes bossa nova, Brill Building, downtempo, exotica, lounge, Celtic new age, Cuban, Latin music, polka, salsa, Scottish folk, space age pop, soft trance, zydeco, klezmer and many other genres whose primary characteristic is to be purely inoffensive and bland; in other words, pleasant on the ears for the sake of it.
21. Trap [EDM] (RL Grime, Alison Wonderland, TNGHT, Flosstradmus, Bro Safari, Diplo, Baauer, DJ Snake, Godlands, Ekali, Yellow Claw, Loudpvck, GTA)
Not to be confused with the hip hop genre of the same name, which is even worse. Trap music has some of the most repetitive beats of any genre. It’s based around a simple 4/4 drum pattern, with almost every song sounding exactly the same. The synths are monotone and they lack any emotion or expression. All in all, generic, unoriginal, derivative and completely meaningless. It’s a lousy excuse for music. It’s a genre full of beats that all sound the same. 99% of the artists and producers can’t make music to save their lives. It takes absolutely no intellectual effort to produce trap and the arrangements are nonsensical jargon. This genre needs to die.
22. R&B (Alicia Keys, Boyz II Men, Rihanna, Tony, The Gap Band, Usher, Groove Theory, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Janet Jackson, Ginuwine, Paula Abdul)
Soulless, just plain soulless. I don’t know about anyone else, but listening to someone explain how much s** they’ve had/how obsessed they are with someone is like being hung by my anatomy off the edge of the Empire State Building. It’s why pop music is awful and why I listen to the better genres like rock. Because let’s be honest, rock is the best. Contemporary R&B is today’s music genre; it’s not the same as rhythm and blues/soul. Basically, R&B is about s** and/or idealistic love; the singer brags about how “smooth” they are and it’s not good. R&B has nothing to do with proper “rhythm and blues” like Ray Charles or The Rolling Stones. R&B is just manufactured pop music with a hip hop beat. Everything that comes out is boring, repetitive and takes almost no intellect to make. Occasionally, someone might make a good R&B song (often a jazz hip hop, smooth funk or acid jazz one), but most of the time, the genre is pure trash.
23. “Emo” (Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, All-Time Low, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, Dashboard Confessional, Used, Glassjaw, Coldplay)
Weak-but-passable at best, the most irritating creation known to humankind at worst. Also known as emo pop, fake/false emo, McEmo or Eat Me Out.
First off, a majority of fake emo is whiny and stuff, but Midwest emo and emocore were a lot different. In fact, the former was a happy type of music. Both were called emo because of the emotion and/or aggression the musicians put into their music, unlike pop rock singers who sing what they are told to such as Avril Lavigne and Brendon Urie. Each artist has one to three weak/passable songs, but the abomination songs outnumber those. Sunny Day Real Estate was true emo. Listen to their music and look at the actual band members. None of them have dyed their hair; they never wore eyeliner or anything like that. Fake emo can be annoying, but if I’m going to discuss a music genre, I make sure I’m clear about it. The entire genre (along with powerviolence) is for soft, whiny teenagers who think they’re misunderstood but are just annoying. They lack the strength of character to solve anything but their non-existent parental or relationship issues. In adulthood, a war has generally been fought for a relationship; wars have also been fought for land, religion, political/ideological control and control of resources. Unfortunately, many wars are waged with firearms, bombs, satellites and various forms of artillery mounted on a number of different weapon platforms. Unlike in post-hardcore and indie rock, there is no aggression. The violence is either heavily toned down or forced and inexplicable. The relationships are not even wars between the narrator and his girlfriend, nor do the lyrics relay the illusion of war or similar global issues. Fake emo is a big self-pity fest. The bands don’t go through the same emotions as real people do or have done in their lives. Eat Me Out albums are only made to appeal to sadness, anger, angst, rage, love, “loss” and frustration (and even then, the songs lack most of these descriptors and don’t have anything to support them). Every song has a clichéd “bombastic ending” and never breathes completely new life into it. It’s just wallowing in angst and self-pity rather than jagged, beautiful, cathartic art. Even songs that try to be beautiful end up failing. The humor is terrible. The melodies are cheesy, non-abrasive and unimaginative, so they almost never express any emotion (whether positive or negative) or truly get it.
But I must admit, “Losing Grip” and “Unwanted” by Lavigne are two of the greatest songs the genre could ever have; the heavy rock sound and nu metal elements are why, if you were wondering. “I’m with You” is hit-or-miss; it’s definitely better than everything else she did, but the songwriting and her vocals are still terrible—not to mention the ballad blatantly promoting clinginess (or worse, stalking).
Dishonorable mentions include any knock-off of Radiohead or The Smashing Pumpkins; a few examples of this are Oasis, Travis, Stereophonics, The Verve Pipe and Manic Preachers.
24. Pop Punk (Green Day, Blink-182, Sum 41, The Story So Far, The Offspring, MXPX, The Maine, Less Than Jake, Plain White T’s, Go Radio)
Seriously, I have heard this before in some way, shape or form. I hate listening to it because it sounds cheap. It’s overplayed by individuals who think they can be energized by pop music instead of something like EDM. The singing is out-of-hand and the amped guitars sound like thousands of loud overdrive farts. If people are so happy about these sounds blowing up on their speakers, how about they stop spreading anger and quit playing this trash? An awful genre and a terrible crossover one as well. Childish lyrics, extremely whiny vocals (which are clearly influenced by modern rock but are nowhere near as competent as the best singers), sappy melodies and mawkish production make for an excoriating time. The music is released almost exclusively on major labels and is done by bands who are manufactured to appeal to mainstream audiences. There are a variety of reasons for that, but more common examples would be the slick, non-abrasive sound or the professional production. These bands are considered power pop or pop punk because of their overly mainstream sound.
25. Power Pop (Fountains of Wayne, Bowling for Soup, Big Star, Weezer, Teenage Fanclub, All-American Rejects, The Cab, The Summer Set, Sugarcult)
Same as above.
Power Pop [Indie Rock] (Car Seat Headrest, Built to Spill, Broken Social Scene, Jim O‘Rourke, 12 Rods, The National, Origami Angel, Blue Screen Life)
Yes, I like a lot of indie music, don’t get me wrong; for example, Vampire Weekend and Cage the Elephant. Nevertheless, this is easy-to-play, bourgeois crap for “rebelling”, pseudo-intellectual assholes. There is no rebellion here. I’m talking about these bands from an otherwise great genre of music known as indie rock. Power pop is not only ridiculous for the same reasons as pop punk (read what I said about it at #19), but it’s a ridiculous category that is now being attached to certain indie bands (often guitar-based ones) and doesn’t have a clear definition. Bands like Car Seat Headrest and Built to Spill are boring and bland; they don’t make you want to dance; they don’t have all the general indie or emo essentials; they don’t have any meaning (but they try to). This is pretentious music for people who want something that adheres to the same general composition formats and structures of all mainstream music from the past 65+ years. Followed closely by yuppies, soccer moms, overly preppy girls and anybody who’s scene.
26. Techno (The Prodigy, Plastikman, Moby, Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Juan Atkins, Gigi D’Agostino, Dune, Dave Clark, Kyle Craig, Derrick May, Eiffel 65, Avicii)
Techno artists like Moby, Joey Beltram, MK and Jeff Mills lack any emotion, creativity or expression. It’s a monotonous beat with no depth or substance. The lyrics, if there are any, are generic and meaningless. This is pure noise, music for the sake of it at the most. There is no passion or meaning. It’s the equivalent of a computer algorithm pumping out formulaic, boring crap. Techno is the musical equivalent of white bread.
27. Gospel (Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Caesar, Mary Mary, Fred Hammond, CeCe Winans, James Cleveland, John P. Kee)
Why Dad (R.I.P.) used to listen to a lot of gospel music and liked it, I will never know. I don’t. All these people need to get it right with God; the rapture is coming where they will be. I also want to say that when they like such lowest-common-denominator trash, liking it should not be right. Annoying bastards who think God is everything. Music for people who think everything good has something to do with God and everything bad has to do with the devil. I hate gospel so much.
28. Rap Metal (Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, P.O.D., Body Count, Biohazard, Reveille, Papa Roach, Kush, Crazy Town)
Dear God, I hate rap “metal”. It is a bastardization of hip hop and metal that replaces the poetry and flow of rap with yelling and screaming. This is a gimmick played out by mediocre bands that can’t find their voice or style, so they resort to yelling and distorting their vocals to make up for the lack of creativity. It’s a shallow, insubstantial style that lacks any real musical or lyrical value.
29. Hair Metal (Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Poison, Twisted Sister, RATT, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Warrant, Hanoi Rocks, Night Ranger, Quiet Riot, Dokken, Cinderella, FireHouse)
In my perception, this genre was largely a commercial bandwagon based on image and fashion. The music consisted of essentially cheesy pop songs with amped guitars and too much reverb on the drums. There might be a gimmicky, technical guitar solo thrown in as a saving grace to an otherwise bland, predictable song. The genre is incredibly cliché, slickly produced and about nothing more than either a glorified rock star lifestyle or relationships. When they weren’t producing power ballads meant to woo the female demographic, they churned out dumb party songs. Basically a marketing gimmick for a bunch of bands who allowed themselves to be turned into a stereotype. Some industry executives in suits decided at the time that this was the thing to replicate and it quickly became a cookie-cutter genre.
30. AOR/Melodic Rock (Alien, post-grunge, Boston, Cars, FM, Foreigner, Heart, Journey, Kansas, Loverboy, Nazareth, Pride of Lions, REO Speedwagon, Starship, Streets, Styx, Survivor, Toto)
Same reasons as hair metal. Bonus points for being highly inseparable/interchangeable with post-grunge and generic modern rock.
Other AOR bands include Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, UFO, Scorpions, Alice Cooper and Manfred Mann.
31. Adult Contemporary (Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Neil Diamond, Mariah Carey, The Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Barbra Streisand, Vanessa Williams, Billy Joel)
One thing that you may notice about adult contemporary music is that they emulate a lot of the sounds that bands and artists such as Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Chicago (mainly the songs with only Bill Champlin singing) and America adopted. This is not the kind of music that I would like to hear after going through rough times… just as bad as most of today’s radio music. Artificial, edgeless, sanitized, soulless, unoriginal.
Alternatives: Art pop, folk rock, classic hip hop, house, jazz fusion, quiet storm, rock and roll, soul
32. “Country Pop”/Jangle Pop (Mazzy Star, Gin Blossoms, Carrie Underwood Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, The Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Billy Ray Cyrus)
An oxymoron and the worst musical combination imaginable. This is part of the reason why people don’t like country and mislabel this as such. Instead, not only would I call it hillbilly/redneck/trailer park music or jangle pop (with many soft rock qualities and no modern rock ones), but I’d call it shit. No one with a music career in Nashville is ever given the creative freedom in playing whatever music they want to; they’re all forced to do generic “arena pop” or AC rock songs a la Matchbox Twenty and Nickelback. That makes them a prime example of musical degeneracy. Yes, the artists are so dull and lifeless, they can’t be distinguished from either band. They just seamlessly blend to create a wave of uncreative, unoriginal white noise.
Alternatives: Beat, garage rock, indie pop, post-punk, new wave, rockabilly, surf rock, lo-fi
33. Pop Rap (Soulja Boy, B.O.B, T-Pain, French Montana, Ludacris, Silento, Ultramagnetic MCs, L’Trimm, Drake, Lil’ Wayne, Azelia Banks, Nicki Minaj, Nelly, V.I.C.)
This is the crap. Annoying, overproduced, Beyoncé-style, meaningless hip hop songs made for dancing.
Alternative: Standard hip hop
34. Bubblegum Pop (Britney Spears, The Banana Splits, The 1910 Fruit Company, J-pop, power pop, K-pop, boy bands, synth-pop)
Disposable, manufactured, corporate garbage. Music targeted to failing middle school girls and feminine guys. The bands/session musicians don’t know how to play their guitars and some of them sing like shit.
35. Dishonorable Mention: Children’s Music (Super Simple Songs, Barney & Friends, Dora the Explorer, The Gigglebellies, The Wiggles, The Doodlebops, Daniel Tiger, The Backyardigans)
No comment.
36. Starbucks (Belle and Sebastian, Florence and the Machine, Lana Del Rey, Lykke Li, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Postal Service, Norah Jones, Kenny G, Peter Sandberg)
For those who don’t understand Starbucks, it is music that’s heard inside the coffee shop of the same name. Just because you don’t appeal to teeny boppers or office drones doesn’t mean your music is good or isn’t popular. All I can understand is someone with a high vocal range and an acoustic guitar or saxophone, singing about something that doesn’t matter. It sounds boring. It’s not my cup of tea.
36. Contemporary Christian (Amy Grant, Casting Crowns, for KING & COUNTRY, Anne Wilson, CeCe Winans, Danny Gokey, Michael W. Smith, MercyMe, Anne Murray)
Ridiculously repetitive and predictable chord progressions, overproduction, repetitive subject matter, no songwriting effort, sporadic-at-best unique or decent moments. As a whole, this is a very vapid genre.
Alternative: Any music with subtle Christian themes or Christian-ish songs by non-Christian artists (e.g. spiritual jazz)
37. Christian Rock (Creed, Thousand Foot Krutch, Skillet, Audio Adrenaline, Needtobreathe, Relient K, Jars of Clay, Anberlin, Red, Third Day)
Same as above. Most Christian “rock” isn’t even actually rock music, just inoffensive pop in disguise. It has done well the Christian market, but it’s also formulaic as we’re told, a pop façade, an imitation of a great music genre.
Christian Death Metal (Incubus, Extol, Mortification, Woe of Tyrants)
To conservative Christian leaders who still think rock music is loud, brash and harmful to the spirit or that it’s a questionable genre, think again. This lifeless, flaccid excuse for music has a closer resemblance to eternal torment and agony than any sort of salvation or euphoria. Rock and metal, like most forms of music, are meant to be grand and emotional. They are meant to fire you up and get you all energized. You’re meant to feel strongly towards whatever feeling the song calls upon: happy, sad, serious, funny. But Christian death metal is a watered down form of, well, death metal. Conservatism should not be allowed in rock and metal nor should it “equal” Christianity. It is, by its very nature, damned to an eternity of treading the same topics over and over. This is musical antimatter.
38. Country Folk (Waylon Jennings, Harry McClintok, John Prine, Kate Wolf, Mumford and Sons and Nanci Griffith)
Anything that comes under folk country, upon which I feel like falling asleep or hitting my head against a brick wall, is so boring. I’d rather listen to a meditation CD filled with whale sounds to fall asleep to than this genre!
I have been patiently trying to get on with my life after the 2017 death of Chris Cornell and the disbandment of Soundgarden that happened less than a year later… but at this point, I don’t think I can take it anymore. Bring back Soundgarden, dear God. Anything is better than country folk.
39. Eurobeat (2 Unlimited, Kate Ryan, Vengaboys, Cascada, Real McCoy, Corona, La Bouche, Dave Rodgers, Max Coveri, Mega NRG Man, Haddaway, Whigfield)
Better known as “Eurodance”, “Eruopop” or “Euro-trance”.
Noise… just noise. That’s all it is.
Alternatives: Electronic “rock”, Italian music, new wave, trance, European music
40. Progressive House (Gat Décor, Swedish House Mafia, Guy Gerber, Alesso, Deadmau5, Armin van Buuren, Sasha, Eric Prydz, Calvin Harris, Axwell, Digweed, Garrix)
So annoying. This is to electronic music what horrorcore is to hip hop. I swear, I’m not exaggerating when I say it sounds cheesy and outdated. I can’t think of anybody who’d enjoy it. This is just pulsating, cheesy synths and beats that haven’t aged well. It might as well be noise.
41. Disco (The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Chic, The Trammps, Gloria Gaynor, KC and the Sunshine Band, Sister Sledge, A Taste of Honey, ABBA)
Screw disco with the might of a thousand suns. This genre was only popular from 1975 to 1981, spending its first four years in the mainstream as just disco, but evolving into post-disco/boogie in 1979/1980. During this time, disco was heavily ridiculed. Furthermore, it’s a terrible music genre with many flaws. It embodied the ‘70s for all the wrong reasons. Every song is bombastic and over-the-top, with way too many strings and synths.
42. Pop Blues (Ink Spots, Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Danny & the Juniors, The Andrews Sisters, The Banzai Predicament, Eric Clapton, J.J. Cale)
Watered-down blues that old men listen to for some reason. I hate it when they don’t listen to anything else. They think their taste is so awesome and call anyone who doesn’t like straight blues or this shitty fusion genre “ignorant”. Don’t get me wrong, I love the blues, considering the genres I like are derived from it. But “pop blues” is nothing more than a suffix for “Ruining a great genre of music by making it as corporate and unimaginative as possible.” The blues are important; without them, we
wouldn’t have rock music. Pop blues isn’t.
43. Jazz Pop (Sade, Fiona Apple, Arthur Verocai, Bruno Pernadas, Nina Semone, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzergald, Nina Semone, Cortex, Steely Dan)
Jesus H. Christ, this music is boring. I know jazz comes close to being for everyone but isn’t always for everyone; I love it. At least it isn’t loud, obnoxious, safe and uncomfortable to listen to like redneck, pop or rap. Unfortunately for me, “jazz pop” is sleep-inducing at best (or worst). It doesn’t lower my blood pressure. Also, I personally don’t care for lyrics when listening to music, so jazz works wonderful for me personally. I will say, even though I love jazz, I don’t like jazz pop. It’s a universal fault, however, in a lot of music. TL;DR: jazz pop is stupid. I can understand why some people like it. I can understand why others don’t. It produces the opposite effect of what most jazzmen and women, whether old or new, produce. It more closely resembles the music produced by most radio musicians and pop stars like Nat King Cole and Carly Simon.
44. Pop Funk (Maroon 5, Rick James, Jessie Ware, Janelle Monae, Masayoshi Takanaka, Clarence Clarity, Silk Sonic, Shuggie Oatis, Kali Uchis, Tim Maia, Donald Fagen, Third Eye Blind, Kool and the Gang, Justin Timberlake, Do the Bartman)
Ah, pop funk. Where do we begin? Half of this music is basically random African American or white people spouting misogynistic, childishly hedonistic lyrics about screwing women, drugs, weed and/or alcohol; unlike regular funk music, this has no good (let alone intentional) humor or comic value whatsoever and its songs outright glorify these subjects. Some tunes are about love, heartbreak, nostalgia and “SFW” partying instead, but I don’t care. This genre is shallow. I guess you already know very well why this genre is garbage. No, I’m not stereotypically saying that all whites or African Americans are obsessed with these songs. However, many of my friends and familiars just love this genre. The most annoying part is that you can’t escape it. It plays on the radio every morning and it drives me crazy. Whenever I used to stay with Ms. Echo after high school, they would play this (often in the library or the gym) every moment they got a chance to. A bunch of girls would cheerlead to a mashup of this garbage and several post-Golden Age hip hop songs. The music videos aren’t any better either, just partying and s** hidden under plain sight (on top of the lyrics, which are only worse).
45. Happy Hardcore (Force and Styles, Bang, Dune, Interactive, Toytown, Euphony, Sy & Demo, Tiny Tot, Styles & Breeze, DJ Paul)
Essentially sweaty, generic, coke-fueled electropop with chibi vocals, “uplifting” piano riffs, space-like atmospheres and way-faster-than-usual beats—all played at an even louder volume. This music is so loud and noisy, it makes my ears bleed.
46. A capella (Bobby McFerrin, Apator, Pentatonix, Straight No Chaser, Naturally 7, Home Free, The Real Group, Peter Hollens)
A capella is music based purely on vocal performances with little to no musical accompaniment. Some a capella songs (e.g. “Cups” by Anna Kendrick) have self-important lyrics with either lazy beats or lazy vocals. Or both. I don’t really need to keep explaining why I don’t like this, do I? A capella is like oil and water for me; it just does not mix. Passes over me like a stale fart caught in a breeze. All I know for sure is, if I’m ever in public and hear a group of tweens singing with no musical accompaniment, I’ll know who I have to thank.
Oh yeah, and Björk made an a capella album called Medúlla that helped turn her into a hollow shell of what she used to be in the 1990s.
47. Hyperpop (100 gecs, A.G. Cook, Laura Les, Charli XCX, Jane Remover, Underscores, Dorian Electra, ericdoa, Slayyyter, Midwxst, Sophie)
Taking metal, electronic, hip hop, avant-garde and all their subgenres, watering them down and feeding them to the masses is almost never a good idea. Add a dash of pop music and lyrics that are either whiny and spoiled or the equivalent of shitting rainbows. I swear, the lyrics could have been written by a nine-year-old who just learned his first few swear words. Of course, teen girls with IQs under 75 love this genre, but it’s more about the looks. They scream for this music, because it’s just a cute genre with such cute artists, isn’t it? It’s fine by me if you’re a teen who doesn’t know any better listening to artists like that, but if you’re well in your twenties, you lack creativity/character.
48. Tropical House (Gabriel Rios, Duke Dumont, Klingade, Kygo, Robin Schulz, Jonas Blue, Sam Feldt)
Cheesy and annoying. I don’t hate house, but this is the one of my least favorites. In fact, most of the EDM way back 2016/2017 sounded like it all had these generic tropical beats.
49. Pop Soul (Dione Warwick, Amy Winehouse, Minnie Riperton, Dusty Springfield, Laura Nyro, Four Tops, George Michael, Sister Sledge, Evelyn King, Deniece Williams)
Pure torture. Most of the time, it just sounds like a man or woman who’s trodden on a pin and it always whinges on for hours! There’s nothing catchy about it; it sounds out of date and conservative. Conservatism is never a good thing, especially with music. Do the posh people who listen to it not know about good music?
There’s nothing amazing about someone yelling and making horrible noise for 3-10 minutes straight. How the actual hell does this even exist?
Girl Group (The Ronettes, The Supremes, The Angels, The Shangri-Las, Martha and the Vandellas)
Same as above; bonus points for combining elements of classic R&B and rock and roll with disposable bubblegum/traditional pop.
50. National Socialist Black Metal
The lyrical themes are not good. If you’re easily offended like me, avoid it. If you don’t care, don’t even bother rummaging through metal archives for any good NSBM albums; there are none.
51. Horrorcore (Eminem, Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch Hung, Gravediggaz, Insane Clown Posse)
Anything and everything horror-related doesn’t belong in rap. Terrible rappers singing about hell and death. That’s all it is. It’s horrible.
52. Serbian Turbo-folk (Cece, Aca Lukas, Milan Stanković, Seka Aleksić)
Absolutely awful. Thank God it’s only known in Serbian and not around anymore. The synths and guitars have got to be the worst I’ve ever heard in my life. Each note that comes out sends shivers down my spine. Stupid lyrics, mentioning of names, negative impacts on people via the stupid lyrics, too much personification, always talks about love, s** and weddings, etc.
53. Wizard Rock (Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, Ministry of Magic, The Parselmouths)
Novelty garbage. Literally just rock music about Harry Potter. Nothing else.
54. Pop Reggae (Magic, Big Mountain, Steel Pulse, Peter Tosh, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Doe Maar, Lily Allen, UB40, Claude Fontaine)
An insult to reggae music and a hollow shell of what such legends as Bob Marley and the Wailers were. The most boring, uninteresting genre in the world.
55. Schlager (Helen Fischer, Andrea Berg, Matthias Reim, Kristina Bach, Heintje Simons, Rudi Schuricke, Lale Andersen, Olivados, Die Paldauer, Peter Orloff)
Ugh, this is terrible. Terrible lyrics, terrible music, terrible everything. Schalger is obviously the worst and most sickeningly sweet thing Germans invented.
56. Educational Music (Ms. Robinson, Marshall McLuhan, McGruff, Bill Cosby, Marlo Thomas and Friends)
Education equals boredom, entertainment equals fun.
57. Christmas Music
Corporate garbage for the masses. There, I said it. Don’t waste your goddamn time listening to this crud. Always the same 30+ covers by obscure/popular artists of about 5-10 Christmas songs. Absolute torture for anyone who has to work a retail job.
58. Indietronica
Praised by indie-heads beyond all belief and overrated as hell. All you need to do to write an indietronica song is pull up a cheap software application and add a loop for a synth (both treble and bass) and a beat sequencer.
59. Cybercore
Only one track ever got labeled as this; very high-pitched, screeching basslines and chugging guitars make for an unpleasant combo.
60. Soft Rock (Stephen Bishop, Barry Manilow, Rod Stewart, Dan Byrd, Bay City Rollers, Hanson, Hilary Duff, Jesse McCartney, The Jonas Brothers, Tiffany, Westlife)
This is just incredibly annoying. All of the old people who think soft “rock” is by far the best are close-minded idiots. Now keep in mind that I’m not stereotyping old people. Some people say that today’s music is really Auto-Tuned and that’s true. Dad’s bus driver in seventh and eighth grade ALWAYS seemed to play this music every day.
If you tell me you like this genre, I’ll literally write an essay on everything bad about soft “rock”, including the fact that it has an over-reliance on love songs or power ballads. It fails as a genre and it fails as an umbrella term for the softest, most “adult-oriented” (though some artists are marketed to teenagers instead) music that pop has to offer. This is an oxymoron. It’s not how rock sounds or should be.
61. Banda/Mariachi (Sergio Vega, Valentín Elizalde, Banda MS, Los Tucanes)
Sappiest, most manufactured crap ever. I hope it doesn’t get even more popular than it already is because it’s just noise.
62. Soca (Farmer Nappy, Kes, Machel Montano, Destra Garcia, Nadia Batson, Kerwin Du Bois)
This genre is a slap in the face. Just listen to this garbage; the lyrics are terrible, to be honest. The lyrics are just a couple sentences about love and s** on an endless loop. Add that with the nasty vocals and horrible sounds and Soca is by far the worst genre there is. This music does not make me want to wine my bottom.
63. Cumbia (Bomba Estero, Los Temerarios, Selena, El Gran Silencio, Celso Piña)
Just as bad as turbo-folk, banda/mariachi and Latin music. But I have some respect for Selena…
UPDATE: I hate Tom McDonald. I misunderstood what I said when I liked him in the past. I promise not to say that I like this bastard. Ever.
WARNING: The following is absolutely NOT intended to break FurAffinity's Terms of Service under any circumstances. Reader discretion is strongly advised for those not used to reading this.
1. Crunk (Three 6 Mafia, Lil John, Bravehearts, Ying Yang Twins, Trillville, Kurt Calhoun)
This genre is the reason why so many people view rap as dumbed down, misogynistic and disgusting. The most idiotic rap cliches ever (objectifying women, doing drugs, s** songs that are gross and criminal instead of s**y, being loud and obnoxious instead of being lyrical) are found in this genre. In fact, I would argue that crunk killed most good rap music; even though crunk has died out, it stayed popular enough to prove that rappers don’t need to put effort into their songs to be popular.
Crunkcore (3OH!3, Family Force 5, Brokencyde, Blood on the Dance Floor, Hollywood Undead)
Crunkcore is the most laughable, absurd and poorly executed genre of music in existence, much like its parent genre. It’s a combination of (tinny, metallic sounding) electropop, metalcore, emoviolence (erroneously referred to as screamo), dance and hardcore hip-hop, five styles that are already horrible in their own right. When combined, they create an abomination... like a demon from the lowest depths of hell. Nothing is good about it. In fact, crunkcore is downright terrible in every possible way. The worst genre of music I have ever heard in my life; it’s due to the bands that use it! BOTDF is, by far, the worst band of all time, due to Dahvie Vanity’s behavior and their style of music. It’s this genre I’m talking about here! People like them don’t deserve to be signed to a record label.
Alternatives: EDM (including hardcore), hardcore punk, scream/skramz, alternative hip hop
2. Goregrind (Intense Hammer Rage, General Surgery, Carcass, Gut, Hemorrhage, Last Days of Humanity)
Just by reading the lyrics of some goregrind songs, I feel really sick. There’s a band called Intense Hammer Rage and their lyrics are highly revolting, disgusting, repulsive, etc. The entire genre is so abysmal and morally shameful that it makes shock metal almost respectable. There’s absolutely nothing worse than goregrind or crunk. Nothing. Every song sounds like a crocodile gurgling water for 35 minutes.
Alternatives: Hardcore punk (most subgenres), death metal, heavy metal (Mercyful Fate, Dio, Motörhead, Diamond, Running Wild, Riot, Manilla Road, Queensrÿche, Savatage, Crimson Glory, Metal Church)
3. Gangster Hip Hop (1997-present)
What happened to this genre? Personally, I have no idea. Congratulations. You can produce shitty beats. At least try and edit your own rhymes. Maybe join a group, spend months practicing a new album, time all your sets and actually perform your songs and all their parts live. Alternatively, you could try to perform a duet where you take turns talking to a beat. I’m sorry if you like modern gangster rap or think Lil’ Wayne and Drake are better than The Notorious B.I.G. (rest in peace) and 2Pac (R.I.P.), but aside from lyrical effort, it takes little to no effort to perform or create. I mean no disrespect to anyone who enjoys rap, nor to any of the early rappers who talked about real problems in their lives. Modern gangster rap is hardly on-par with any other genre when it comes to effort and performance.
Alternatives: Jazz rap, abstract hip hop, conscious hip hop, funk, experimental hip hop, instrumental hip hop, political hip hop, neo-soul
4. Redneck Rap (Bubba Sparxxx, Upchurch, Moonshine Bandits, Cold Ford, Ghetto Cowboy, Jelly Roll, Uncle Kracker, Tom MacDonald, Kid Rock, Tim McGraw)
Also known as hick hop or redneck hip hop. OK, who thought mixing redneck and rap was a good idea? Well, it is an atrociously terrible idea. This is just a bunch of rednecks rapping with awful Southern accents about farms and how they’re the best people ever.
Alternative: Talking blues
5. Bro-Country (Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Randy Houser, Restless Heart, Blake Shelton, Jake Owen, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney)
Ever since Jason Aldean came out, I have believed my points have been proven. I’ve listened to him and looked; conservatives may defend his songs to death and I kind of get it. Hardcore Trump supporters need their patriotic redneck music too, but he literally sounds like every other artist of his era. This music is intended for teenagers who wear Realtree camo jackets all day and drive squatted trucks. I live in a rural town, but “country” does not, and should not, equal “redneck”. I’m sick of it. “Try That In A Small Town” is a testament to redneck music as we know it. Not even Restless Heart has any good songs.
Alternatives: Cowpunk, gothabilly, psychobilly, Southern soul
6. Redneck (Reba McEntire, Ashley McBride, Kelsea Ballerini, Blake Shelton, Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, Brothers Osborne, Carly Pearce, Zach Bryan, Luke Combs, Luke Bryan)
It’s truly a shame. When Mom and Dad were 9 and 11, respectively, they would look around in this retro record store in their small rural town. The owner acquired a multitude of country rock records from the 1970s and 1980s. I respect a lot of these bands (the non-classic rock ones like The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, mind you) and it’s better than all the redneck music available on the radio. This is not even country music; it’s radio-propositioning pop sludge in the strongest sense of the term. There are no tight harmonies or guitar melodies in redneck and there are no enhancements, which means there is no punch. I wish many redneck artists would depart from corporate labels, enabling more freedom and creativity within music. Even real country genres like Christian, honky-tonk, neo-traditional and truck-driving country—along with Cajun music, roots rock and the Bakersfield sound—are just as shallow.
Alternatives: Alt-country, country blues, folk music, gothic country, jamgrass, outlaw music/rock, progressive bluegrass, rock and roll, rockabilly
7. Electronicore (Electric Callboy, Asking Alexandria, I See Stars, Falling In Reverse, His Statue Falls, Palisides, Abandon All Ships, Enter Shikari, Attack Attack!)
Every band sounds like Fall Out Boy or Panic! at the Disco with more electronic influence and heavier riffs. The entire genre incorporates pop punk, electronic, glam rock, crunk, hair metal and all sorts of other shit that makes it sound worse than putting a cat in a blender. And if you’re going to be loud and noisy, then don’t just be loud and noisy for the sake of it.
Alternatives: Industrial rock, art rock, atmospheric black metal, dark ambient, dungeon synth, industrial metal, electro-industrial, noise rock
8. Pop Rock (The Bangles, Imagine Dragons, YLVIS, Knox, Olivia Rodrigo, Måneskin, Pat Benatar, Linda Ronstadt, Pink, Hayley Williams, Vanessa Carlton, John Mayer, Miley Cyrus, Sixpence)
I’m sick of people with almost no talent going live on TV and (formerly) letting MTV sponsor them via shows like Total Request Live, saying that they “just want to make music”. I’m sorry, but that is bull. They just want to make money, as do their record labels. If they really wanted to make music, they would be writing it instead of going on all these shows and heavily processing or pitching everything. Kids can easily play this music on the keyboard, drum kit or guitar after minimal lessons. In metal, it takes years to learn a basic song. In pop “rock”, the music just repeats itself. You need to have more than just one tune! The lyrics are either all about romance, fame, being rich and s** or they’re whiny and self-pitying. Pop “rockers” aren’t even famous for their music most of the time.
Since 2010, Hayley Williams’ egotism has led to her becoming a major headliner of pop rock and foraying into the territory. Commercial singles like “The Only Exception”, “Careful”, “Playing God”, “Now” “Still Into You”, “Daydreaming”, “Ain’t It Fun”, “Castles Crumbling”, “Simmer”, American hip-hop producer B.O.B.’s “Airplane”, “Leave It Alone” and “Roses” are now scene kid staples. Her work is not fun, earwormy in a good way or deep.
Alternatives: Art rock, baroque pop, singer-songwriter, funk rock, freakbeat, hard rock, jam band, indie pop, post-punk, psychedelia, space rock
Seriously, I definitely recommend them.
9.Post-grunge (Foo Fighters, Nickelback, Creed, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, Puddle of Mudd, Bush, Alanis Morrisette, Goo Goo Dolls, Candlebox, Collective Soul, Kelly Osbourne)
Post-grunge is the king of generic modern rock—which some treat as a standalone genre like me, mind you—that all sounds the same. Unlike dance-pop (see below), post-grunge is mostly forgotten and reviled, with only a very small handful of fans remaining. Nickelback, Foo Fighters, Three Days Grace, Creed, Puddle of Mudd, Staind, Live, Alanis Morrisette, Anouk, Avril Lavigne, Brad Sucks, Flyleaf, Hailstorm, Juliana Hatfield, Katy Rose, Kelly Clarkson, Lisa Loeb, Meredith Brooks, Michelle Branch, The Pretty Reckless, Kelly Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Tracy Bonham, The Verve Pipe, etc. are absolute trash and should have never put out any music.
Alternatives: Alternative metal, dream pop, emo, grunge, indie rock, noise rock, post-hardcore, punk rock, shoegaze, sludge metal, stoner metal
10. Dance-pop (Lady Gaga, Cher, Madonna, Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera, Spice Girls, Paula Abdul, J-pop, K-pop, synth-pop)
Dance-pop is shallow, meaningless and generic. There is no substance, no creativity, no art. It exists simply to be sold to as many mindless teenagers. It’s all about making money while providing absolutely nothing of value to the music community. Oh my God. The only reason dance-pop artists have any fame is because teen girls with fewer than 80 IQ points think they’re hot. Listen to some of Ross Lynch’s music and tell me those songs would be considered even remotely likable if he were average-looking. And the worst thing is, he is officially the worst musician ever.
Alternatives: Chiptune, funk (fusion genres included), EDM, hip-hop, alt-dance
11. Powerviolence (Infest, Capital Causalities, Spazz, AC x DC)
This entire subgenre is awful, horrible noise. Oh yeah, and it makes metalcore look good.
Alternative: Hardcore punk
12. Metalcore (Killswitch Engage, August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying, Parkway Drive, Woe Is Me, After the Burial, A Day to Remember, Silence, Emmure and Carnifex)
This is way worse than death metal; at least that has some complexity! In a metalcore song, there are about 10-20 breakdowns over the vocalist screaming as if he were having a heart attack… all while he pig squeals about how he wants to confront the school bully. Punk made by people who misunderstood punk. The lyrics aren’t as powerful and, quite often, you will find overproduced bands with clean vocals and whiny lyrics.
13. Dubstep (TC, Knife Party, Flux Pavilion, Rusko, Skillrex, Excision, Bassnectar, Flux Pavillion, Magnetic Man, Nero)
I think it’s pretty easy to make a bad genre. I don’t think I would pay to listen. The only problem is that people who like the genre have an issue with admitting that there is very little variety. If it is original, it is probably because it isn’t like the songs that anybody likes. Therefore, most people dislike it.
Most of the popular songs (I said MOST) are very, very similar to a point where I am satisfied by one song, as there isn’t much else to hear other than breathtaking drops and bass. But they all have the same bass and the same drops, making it less qualified as a good music genre.
Brostep
Same as above.
Alternatives: 2-step, breakbeat, dub, grime, jungle, reggae, UK garage
K-pop (BTS, Blackpink, Exo, Twice, Blitzers, Seventeen, Jungkook, Stray Kids, Jimin, Ateez, J-pop, Le Sserafirm, NCT 127, RM, j-hope, Lisa, Tomorrow X Together)
K-pop refers to a specific production style.
The singers use heavy pitching and all they have to do is meet beauty standards to make it big. The industry can be discriminatory. Unless you’re extremely pale, you’re considered to have little worth. It’s all about image, which isn’t a good message for boys and girls to internalize. The artists cannot dance nor do they have any good songs. I find this an overrated genre. The music is extremely catchy, yet cheesy at the same time. Every song lacks meaningful content. To be honest, the genre feels overproduced and some artists only get famous for their looks. I now prefer rock music. Sorry.
Alternatives: Classical (w/vocals), electronica, folk, hip hop, Korean music, soul, vocal jazz
15. J-pop (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, Perfume, Speed, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ado, AKB48, Exile, Mrs. Green Apple)
Same as above.
Alternatives: Same as K-pop.
16. Synth-pop (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Heaven 17, Human League, Pet Shop Boys, A-ha, Alphaville, K-pop, Junior Boys, Fever Ray, Chromatics, Cascada. Ava Max)
Same as above, not to mention the dissonant, ringing, tinny-sounding keyboards (though the synth sounds vary from artist to artist).
17. Shock Metal (Cannibal Corpse, Demolition Hammer, Arizmenda, Accept, Saxon, Crytopsy, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P., GWAR, Anal Cunt, Cattle Decapitation and Quiet Riot)
Not only are the lyrics terrible and dangerous to one’s physical and mental health, but I can’t even hear the damn lyrics. They’re wailing on the guitars and screaming/belting so much that it goes up and down like a child trying to bang on the guitar. The end result is nothing but noise. There’s a big difference between pleasant music and noisy music; this genre and all of its bands are the most unintelligible. Keep banging your heads and hope that you won’t lose your heads.
18. Show tunes (SpongeBob, Elmopalooza, Disney, The Graduate, Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever, Superfly, The Bodyguard, Grease, Back to the Future: The Musical, Shrek the Musical)
The most popular songs on Broadway or in Hollywood (often ones featured in movie soundtracks; bonus points if the movie is a musical) can only be described as a series of nonsensical, bad choreography (which is all but excluded in cartoons and most romance, action or sci-fi movies). The music is repetitive and cheesy, with meaningless (or sometimes even childish) lyrics that make a typical pop song sound like Shakespeare. The entire genre is focused on a visual spectacle in lieu of any actual artistic integrity or musical proficiency. It’s like a cheap, third-rate circus show that everyone is forced to watch while their brain rots out of their ears. I don’t understand how people on Broadway or in modern Hollywood have the courage to even call them music industries. Seriously? It seems like a talentless bunch saying “I’m happy for the sake of it” or “your eyes, your face, our love, our marriage” over and over again in every song. Plus, there’s no production quality at all. Everything is derivative. Broadway and Hollywood are just commercials made to sell noise to a billion people with no taste, with zero clue as to what music is. And then there’s some random, so-called “rapper” who shows up when the movie or whatever needs him; it always consists of “get on the floor, yeah, groove it, yeah, yo, yo, move it”.
19. Latin Music (Juan Gabriel, José Jiménez, David Záizar, Teodora Blanco, Roberto Ruiz, Selena, La Mafia, Ram Herrera, La Sombra, Santana)
Also known as Hispanic music or Latin folk. Age-old debates about Latin music being inferior to the rest of the music world are brought up constantly. Despite there being no set answer to the age-long question, my personal opinion is that Latin music is bad. Many people may disagree with me, but I stand by my belief for several reasons. For one, Latin songs use the exact same 3–4 instruments: violins, trumpets, synthesizers and accordions. Such repetition of instruments does not allow for much variety over a non-rock genre and any edge whatsoever is mellowed out by the production. The constant reuse of the one Latin folk tune always leaves me, as well as many others, feeling annoyed. Then you have the song topics—all of which are sappy and many songs of which revolve around the same old stuff.
Alternative: African music (and most international music in general)
20. Easy Listening (AIR, Orinoco Flow, Mort Garison, John Zorn, Haruomi Hosono, The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las, Dick Gaughan, Alan Stivell, Naked Flames, BT, Way Out West, Armin van Burren, standards, smooth jazz)
Easy listening is a subgenre that mostly refers to “international” or “world” music, exotica and traditional folk–as long as they fall more into the North American and British pop traditions. Such genres are better off being classified as “easy listening” or standalone genres. This is primarily instrumental (sometimes vocal-heavy) music designed to be soothing and relaxing, yet it slips into the background instead of demanding your utmost attention. This is the very reason many critics and listeners dismissed the music as disposable noise.
Easy listening includes bossa nova, Brill Building, downtempo, exotica, lounge, Celtic new age, Cuban, Latin music, polka, salsa, Scottish folk, space age pop, soft trance, zydeco, klezmer and many other genres whose primary characteristic is to be purely inoffensive and bland; in other words, pleasant on the ears for the sake of it.
21. Trap [EDM] (RL Grime, Alison Wonderland, TNGHT, Flosstradmus, Bro Safari, Diplo, Baauer, DJ Snake, Godlands, Ekali, Yellow Claw, Loudpvck, GTA)
Not to be confused with the hip hop genre of the same name, which is even worse. Trap music has some of the most repetitive beats of any genre. It’s based around a simple 4/4 drum pattern, with almost every song sounding exactly the same. The synths are monotone and they lack any emotion or expression. All in all, generic, unoriginal, derivative and completely meaningless. It’s a lousy excuse for music. It’s a genre full of beats that all sound the same. 99% of the artists and producers can’t make music to save their lives. It takes absolutely no intellectual effort to produce trap and the arrangements are nonsensical jargon. This genre needs to die.
22. R&B (Alicia Keys, Boyz II Men, Rihanna, Tony, The Gap Band, Usher, Groove Theory, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Janet Jackson, Ginuwine, Paula Abdul)
Soulless, just plain soulless. I don’t know about anyone else, but listening to someone explain how much s** they’ve had/how obsessed they are with someone is like being hung by my anatomy off the edge of the Empire State Building. It’s why pop music is awful and why I listen to the better genres like rock. Because let’s be honest, rock is the best. Contemporary R&B is today’s music genre; it’s not the same as rhythm and blues/soul. Basically, R&B is about s** and/or idealistic love; the singer brags about how “smooth” they are and it’s not good. R&B has nothing to do with proper “rhythm and blues” like Ray Charles or The Rolling Stones. R&B is just manufactured pop music with a hip hop beat. Everything that comes out is boring, repetitive and takes almost no intellect to make. Occasionally, someone might make a good R&B song (often a jazz hip hop, smooth funk or acid jazz one), but most of the time, the genre is pure trash.
23. “Emo” (Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, All-Time Low, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, Dashboard Confessional, Used, Glassjaw, Coldplay)
Weak-but-passable at best, the most irritating creation known to humankind at worst. Also known as emo pop, fake/false emo, McEmo or Eat Me Out.
First off, a majority of fake emo is whiny and stuff, but Midwest emo and emocore were a lot different. In fact, the former was a happy type of music. Both were called emo because of the emotion and/or aggression the musicians put into their music, unlike pop rock singers who sing what they are told to such as Avril Lavigne and Brendon Urie. Each artist has one to three weak/passable songs, but the abomination songs outnumber those. Sunny Day Real Estate was true emo. Listen to their music and look at the actual band members. None of them have dyed their hair; they never wore eyeliner or anything like that. Fake emo can be annoying, but if I’m going to discuss a music genre, I make sure I’m clear about it. The entire genre (along with powerviolence) is for soft, whiny teenagers who think they’re misunderstood but are just annoying. They lack the strength of character to solve anything but their non-existent parental or relationship issues. In adulthood, a war has generally been fought for a relationship; wars have also been fought for land, religion, political/ideological control and control of resources. Unfortunately, many wars are waged with firearms, bombs, satellites and various forms of artillery mounted on a number of different weapon platforms. Unlike in post-hardcore and indie rock, there is no aggression. The violence is either heavily toned down or forced and inexplicable. The relationships are not even wars between the narrator and his girlfriend, nor do the lyrics relay the illusion of war or similar global issues. Fake emo is a big self-pity fest. The bands don’t go through the same emotions as real people do or have done in their lives. Eat Me Out albums are only made to appeal to sadness, anger, angst, rage, love, “loss” and frustration (and even then, the songs lack most of these descriptors and don’t have anything to support them). Every song has a clichéd “bombastic ending” and never breathes completely new life into it. It’s just wallowing in angst and self-pity rather than jagged, beautiful, cathartic art. Even songs that try to be beautiful end up failing. The humor is terrible. The melodies are cheesy, non-abrasive and unimaginative, so they almost never express any emotion (whether positive or negative) or truly get it.
But I must admit, “Losing Grip” and “Unwanted” by Lavigne are two of the greatest songs the genre could ever have; the heavy rock sound and nu metal elements are why, if you were wondering. “I’m with You” is hit-or-miss; it’s definitely better than everything else she did, but the songwriting and her vocals are still terrible—not to mention the ballad blatantly promoting clinginess (or worse, stalking).
Dishonorable mentions include any knock-off of Radiohead or The Smashing Pumpkins; a few examples of this are Oasis, Travis, Stereophonics, The Verve Pipe and Manic Preachers.
24. Pop Punk (Green Day, Blink-182, Sum 41, The Story So Far, The Offspring, MXPX, The Maine, Less Than Jake, Plain White T’s, Go Radio)
Seriously, I have heard this before in some way, shape or form. I hate listening to it because it sounds cheap. It’s overplayed by individuals who think they can be energized by pop music instead of something like EDM. The singing is out-of-hand and the amped guitars sound like thousands of loud overdrive farts. If people are so happy about these sounds blowing up on their speakers, how about they stop spreading anger and quit playing this trash? An awful genre and a terrible crossover one as well. Childish lyrics, extremely whiny vocals (which are clearly influenced by modern rock but are nowhere near as competent as the best singers), sappy melodies and mawkish production make for an excoriating time. The music is released almost exclusively on major labels and is done by bands who are manufactured to appeal to mainstream audiences. There are a variety of reasons for that, but more common examples would be the slick, non-abrasive sound or the professional production. These bands are considered power pop or pop punk because of their overly mainstream sound.
25. Power Pop (Fountains of Wayne, Bowling for Soup, Big Star, Weezer, Teenage Fanclub, All-American Rejects, The Cab, The Summer Set, Sugarcult)
Same as above.
Power Pop [Indie Rock] (Car Seat Headrest, Built to Spill, Broken Social Scene, Jim O‘Rourke, 12 Rods, The National, Origami Angel, Blue Screen Life)
Yes, I like a lot of indie music, don’t get me wrong; for example, Vampire Weekend and Cage the Elephant. Nevertheless, this is easy-to-play, bourgeois crap for “rebelling”, pseudo-intellectual assholes. There is no rebellion here. I’m talking about these bands from an otherwise great genre of music known as indie rock. Power pop is not only ridiculous for the same reasons as pop punk (read what I said about it at #19), but it’s a ridiculous category that is now being attached to certain indie bands (often guitar-based ones) and doesn’t have a clear definition. Bands like Car Seat Headrest and Built to Spill are boring and bland; they don’t make you want to dance; they don’t have all the general indie or emo essentials; they don’t have any meaning (but they try to). This is pretentious music for people who want something that adheres to the same general composition formats and structures of all mainstream music from the past 65+ years. Followed closely by yuppies, soccer moms, overly preppy girls and anybody who’s scene.
26. Techno (The Prodigy, Plastikman, Moby, Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Juan Atkins, Gigi D’Agostino, Dune, Dave Clark, Kyle Craig, Derrick May, Eiffel 65, Avicii)
Techno artists like Moby, Joey Beltram, MK and Jeff Mills lack any emotion, creativity or expression. It’s a monotonous beat with no depth or substance. The lyrics, if there are any, are generic and meaningless. This is pure noise, music for the sake of it at the most. There is no passion or meaning. It’s the equivalent of a computer algorithm pumping out formulaic, boring crap. Techno is the musical equivalent of white bread.
27. Gospel (Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Caesar, Mary Mary, Fred Hammond, CeCe Winans, James Cleveland, John P. Kee)
Why Dad (R.I.P.) used to listen to a lot of gospel music and liked it, I will never know. I don’t. All these people need to get it right with God; the rapture is coming where they will be. I also want to say that when they like such lowest-common-denominator trash, liking it should not be right. Annoying bastards who think God is everything. Music for people who think everything good has something to do with God and everything bad has to do with the devil. I hate gospel so much.
28. Rap Metal (Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, P.O.D., Body Count, Biohazard, Reveille, Papa Roach, Kush, Crazy Town)
Dear God, I hate rap “metal”. It is a bastardization of hip hop and metal that replaces the poetry and flow of rap with yelling and screaming. This is a gimmick played out by mediocre bands that can’t find their voice or style, so they resort to yelling and distorting their vocals to make up for the lack of creativity. It’s a shallow, insubstantial style that lacks any real musical or lyrical value.
29. Hair Metal (Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Poison, Twisted Sister, RATT, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Warrant, Hanoi Rocks, Night Ranger, Quiet Riot, Dokken, Cinderella, FireHouse)
In my perception, this genre was largely a commercial bandwagon based on image and fashion. The music consisted of essentially cheesy pop songs with amped guitars and too much reverb on the drums. There might be a gimmicky, technical guitar solo thrown in as a saving grace to an otherwise bland, predictable song. The genre is incredibly cliché, slickly produced and about nothing more than either a glorified rock star lifestyle or relationships. When they weren’t producing power ballads meant to woo the female demographic, they churned out dumb party songs. Basically a marketing gimmick for a bunch of bands who allowed themselves to be turned into a stereotype. Some industry executives in suits decided at the time that this was the thing to replicate and it quickly became a cookie-cutter genre.
30. AOR/Melodic Rock (Alien, post-grunge, Boston, Cars, FM, Foreigner, Heart, Journey, Kansas, Loverboy, Nazareth, Pride of Lions, REO Speedwagon, Starship, Streets, Styx, Survivor, Toto)
Same reasons as hair metal. Bonus points for being highly inseparable/interchangeable with post-grunge and generic modern rock.
Other AOR bands include Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, UFO, Scorpions, Alice Cooper and Manfred Mann.
31. Adult Contemporary (Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Neil Diamond, Mariah Carey, The Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Barbra Streisand, Vanessa Williams, Billy Joel)
One thing that you may notice about adult contemporary music is that they emulate a lot of the sounds that bands and artists such as Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Chicago (mainly the songs with only Bill Champlin singing) and America adopted. This is not the kind of music that I would like to hear after going through rough times… just as bad as most of today’s radio music. Artificial, edgeless, sanitized, soulless, unoriginal.
Alternatives: Art pop, folk rock, classic hip hop, house, jazz fusion, quiet storm, rock and roll, soul
32. “Country Pop”/Jangle Pop (Mazzy Star, Gin Blossoms, Carrie Underwood Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, The Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Billy Ray Cyrus)
An oxymoron and the worst musical combination imaginable. This is part of the reason why people don’t like country and mislabel this as such. Instead, not only would I call it hillbilly/redneck/trailer park music or jangle pop (with many soft rock qualities and no modern rock ones), but I’d call it shit. No one with a music career in Nashville is ever given the creative freedom in playing whatever music they want to; they’re all forced to do generic “arena pop” or AC rock songs a la Matchbox Twenty and Nickelback. That makes them a prime example of musical degeneracy. Yes, the artists are so dull and lifeless, they can’t be distinguished from either band. They just seamlessly blend to create a wave of uncreative, unoriginal white noise.
Alternatives: Beat, garage rock, indie pop, post-punk, new wave, rockabilly, surf rock, lo-fi
33. Pop Rap (Soulja Boy, B.O.B, T-Pain, French Montana, Ludacris, Silento, Ultramagnetic MCs, L’Trimm, Drake, Lil’ Wayne, Azelia Banks, Nicki Minaj, Nelly, V.I.C.)
This is the crap. Annoying, overproduced, Beyoncé-style, meaningless hip hop songs made for dancing.
Alternative: Standard hip hop
34. Bubblegum Pop (Britney Spears, The Banana Splits, The 1910 Fruit Company, J-pop, power pop, K-pop, boy bands, synth-pop)
Disposable, manufactured, corporate garbage. Music targeted to failing middle school girls and feminine guys. The bands/session musicians don’t know how to play their guitars and some of them sing like shit.
35. Dishonorable Mention: Children’s Music (Super Simple Songs, Barney & Friends, Dora the Explorer, The Gigglebellies, The Wiggles, The Doodlebops, Daniel Tiger, The Backyardigans)
No comment.
36. Starbucks (Belle and Sebastian, Florence and the Machine, Lana Del Rey, Lykke Li, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Postal Service, Norah Jones, Kenny G, Peter Sandberg)
For those who don’t understand Starbucks, it is music that’s heard inside the coffee shop of the same name. Just because you don’t appeal to teeny boppers or office drones doesn’t mean your music is good or isn’t popular. All I can understand is someone with a high vocal range and an acoustic guitar or saxophone, singing about something that doesn’t matter. It sounds boring. It’s not my cup of tea.
36. Contemporary Christian (Amy Grant, Casting Crowns, for KING & COUNTRY, Anne Wilson, CeCe Winans, Danny Gokey, Michael W. Smith, MercyMe, Anne Murray)
Ridiculously repetitive and predictable chord progressions, overproduction, repetitive subject matter, no songwriting effort, sporadic-at-best unique or decent moments. As a whole, this is a very vapid genre.
Alternative: Any music with subtle Christian themes or Christian-ish songs by non-Christian artists (e.g. spiritual jazz)
37. Christian Rock (Creed, Thousand Foot Krutch, Skillet, Audio Adrenaline, Needtobreathe, Relient K, Jars of Clay, Anberlin, Red, Third Day)
Same as above. Most Christian “rock” isn’t even actually rock music, just inoffensive pop in disguise. It has done well the Christian market, but it’s also formulaic as we’re told, a pop façade, an imitation of a great music genre.
Christian Death Metal (Incubus, Extol, Mortification, Woe of Tyrants)
To conservative Christian leaders who still think rock music is loud, brash and harmful to the spirit or that it’s a questionable genre, think again. This lifeless, flaccid excuse for music has a closer resemblance to eternal torment and agony than any sort of salvation or euphoria. Rock and metal, like most forms of music, are meant to be grand and emotional. They are meant to fire you up and get you all energized. You’re meant to feel strongly towards whatever feeling the song calls upon: happy, sad, serious, funny. But Christian death metal is a watered down form of, well, death metal. Conservatism should not be allowed in rock and metal nor should it “equal” Christianity. It is, by its very nature, damned to an eternity of treading the same topics over and over. This is musical antimatter.
38. Country Folk (Waylon Jennings, Harry McClintok, John Prine, Kate Wolf, Mumford and Sons and Nanci Griffith)
Anything that comes under folk country, upon which I feel like falling asleep or hitting my head against a brick wall, is so boring. I’d rather listen to a meditation CD filled with whale sounds to fall asleep to than this genre!
I have been patiently trying to get on with my life after the 2017 death of Chris Cornell and the disbandment of Soundgarden that happened less than a year later… but at this point, I don’t think I can take it anymore. Bring back Soundgarden, dear God. Anything is better than country folk.
39. Eurobeat (2 Unlimited, Kate Ryan, Vengaboys, Cascada, Real McCoy, Corona, La Bouche, Dave Rodgers, Max Coveri, Mega NRG Man, Haddaway, Whigfield)
Better known as “Eurodance”, “Eruopop” or “Euro-trance”.
Noise… just noise. That’s all it is.
Alternatives: Electronic “rock”, Italian music, new wave, trance, European music
40. Progressive House (Gat Décor, Swedish House Mafia, Guy Gerber, Alesso, Deadmau5, Armin van Buuren, Sasha, Eric Prydz, Calvin Harris, Axwell, Digweed, Garrix)
So annoying. This is to electronic music what horrorcore is to hip hop. I swear, I’m not exaggerating when I say it sounds cheesy and outdated. I can’t think of anybody who’d enjoy it. This is just pulsating, cheesy synths and beats that haven’t aged well. It might as well be noise.
41. Disco (The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Chic, The Trammps, Gloria Gaynor, KC and the Sunshine Band, Sister Sledge, A Taste of Honey, ABBA)
Screw disco with the might of a thousand suns. This genre was only popular from 1975 to 1981, spending its first four years in the mainstream as just disco, but evolving into post-disco/boogie in 1979/1980. During this time, disco was heavily ridiculed. Furthermore, it’s a terrible music genre with many flaws. It embodied the ‘70s for all the wrong reasons. Every song is bombastic and over-the-top, with way too many strings and synths.
42. Pop Blues (Ink Spots, Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Danny & the Juniors, The Andrews Sisters, The Banzai Predicament, Eric Clapton, J.J. Cale)
Watered-down blues that old men listen to for some reason. I hate it when they don’t listen to anything else. They think their taste is so awesome and call anyone who doesn’t like straight blues or this shitty fusion genre “ignorant”. Don’t get me wrong, I love the blues, considering the genres I like are derived from it. But “pop blues” is nothing more than a suffix for “Ruining a great genre of music by making it as corporate and unimaginative as possible.” The blues are important; without them, we
wouldn’t have rock music. Pop blues isn’t.
43. Jazz Pop (Sade, Fiona Apple, Arthur Verocai, Bruno Pernadas, Nina Semone, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzergald, Nina Semone, Cortex, Steely Dan)
Jesus H. Christ, this music is boring. I know jazz comes close to being for everyone but isn’t always for everyone; I love it. At least it isn’t loud, obnoxious, safe and uncomfortable to listen to like redneck, pop or rap. Unfortunately for me, “jazz pop” is sleep-inducing at best (or worst). It doesn’t lower my blood pressure. Also, I personally don’t care for lyrics when listening to music, so jazz works wonderful for me personally. I will say, even though I love jazz, I don’t like jazz pop. It’s a universal fault, however, in a lot of music. TL;DR: jazz pop is stupid. I can understand why some people like it. I can understand why others don’t. It produces the opposite effect of what most jazzmen and women, whether old or new, produce. It more closely resembles the music produced by most radio musicians and pop stars like Nat King Cole and Carly Simon.
44. Pop Funk (Maroon 5, Rick James, Jessie Ware, Janelle Monae, Masayoshi Takanaka, Clarence Clarity, Silk Sonic, Shuggie Oatis, Kali Uchis, Tim Maia, Donald Fagen, Third Eye Blind, Kool and the Gang, Justin Timberlake, Do the Bartman)
Ah, pop funk. Where do we begin? Half of this music is basically random African American or white people spouting misogynistic, childishly hedonistic lyrics about screwing women, drugs, weed and/or alcohol; unlike regular funk music, this has no good (let alone intentional) humor or comic value whatsoever and its songs outright glorify these subjects. Some tunes are about love, heartbreak, nostalgia and “SFW” partying instead, but I don’t care. This genre is shallow. I guess you already know very well why this genre is garbage. No, I’m not stereotypically saying that all whites or African Americans are obsessed with these songs. However, many of my friends and familiars just love this genre. The most annoying part is that you can’t escape it. It plays on the radio every morning and it drives me crazy. Whenever I used to stay with Ms. Echo after high school, they would play this (often in the library or the gym) every moment they got a chance to. A bunch of girls would cheerlead to a mashup of this garbage and several post-Golden Age hip hop songs. The music videos aren’t any better either, just partying and s** hidden under plain sight (on top of the lyrics, which are only worse).
45. Happy Hardcore (Force and Styles, Bang, Dune, Interactive, Toytown, Euphony, Sy & Demo, Tiny Tot, Styles & Breeze, DJ Paul)
Essentially sweaty, generic, coke-fueled electropop with chibi vocals, “uplifting” piano riffs, space-like atmospheres and way-faster-than-usual beats—all played at an even louder volume. This music is so loud and noisy, it makes my ears bleed.
46. A capella (Bobby McFerrin, Apator, Pentatonix, Straight No Chaser, Naturally 7, Home Free, The Real Group, Peter Hollens)
A capella is music based purely on vocal performances with little to no musical accompaniment. Some a capella songs (e.g. “Cups” by Anna Kendrick) have self-important lyrics with either lazy beats or lazy vocals. Or both. I don’t really need to keep explaining why I don’t like this, do I? A capella is like oil and water for me; it just does not mix. Passes over me like a stale fart caught in a breeze. All I know for sure is, if I’m ever in public and hear a group of tweens singing with no musical accompaniment, I’ll know who I have to thank.
Oh yeah, and Björk made an a capella album called Medúlla that helped turn her into a hollow shell of what she used to be in the 1990s.
47. Hyperpop (100 gecs, A.G. Cook, Laura Les, Charli XCX, Jane Remover, Underscores, Dorian Electra, ericdoa, Slayyyter, Midwxst, Sophie)
Taking metal, electronic, hip hop, avant-garde and all their subgenres, watering them down and feeding them to the masses is almost never a good idea. Add a dash of pop music and lyrics that are either whiny and spoiled or the equivalent of shitting rainbows. I swear, the lyrics could have been written by a nine-year-old who just learned his first few swear words. Of course, teen girls with IQs under 75 love this genre, but it’s more about the looks. They scream for this music, because it’s just a cute genre with such cute artists, isn’t it? It’s fine by me if you’re a teen who doesn’t know any better listening to artists like that, but if you’re well in your twenties, you lack creativity/character.
48. Tropical House (Gabriel Rios, Duke Dumont, Klingade, Kygo, Robin Schulz, Jonas Blue, Sam Feldt)
Cheesy and annoying. I don’t hate house, but this is the one of my least favorites. In fact, most of the EDM way back 2016/2017 sounded like it all had these generic tropical beats.
49. Pop Soul (Dione Warwick, Amy Winehouse, Minnie Riperton, Dusty Springfield, Laura Nyro, Four Tops, George Michael, Sister Sledge, Evelyn King, Deniece Williams)
Pure torture. Most of the time, it just sounds like a man or woman who’s trodden on a pin and it always whinges on for hours! There’s nothing catchy about it; it sounds out of date and conservative. Conservatism is never a good thing, especially with music. Do the posh people who listen to it not know about good music?
There’s nothing amazing about someone yelling and making horrible noise for 3-10 minutes straight. How the actual hell does this even exist?
Girl Group (The Ronettes, The Supremes, The Angels, The Shangri-Las, Martha and the Vandellas)
Same as above; bonus points for combining elements of classic R&B and rock and roll with disposable bubblegum/traditional pop.
50. National Socialist Black Metal
The lyrical themes are not good. If you’re easily offended like me, avoid it. If you don’t care, don’t even bother rummaging through metal archives for any good NSBM albums; there are none.
51. Horrorcore (Eminem, Tech N9ne, Brotha Lynch Hung, Gravediggaz, Insane Clown Posse)
Anything and everything horror-related doesn’t belong in rap. Terrible rappers singing about hell and death. That’s all it is. It’s horrible.
52. Serbian Turbo-folk (Cece, Aca Lukas, Milan Stanković, Seka Aleksić)
Absolutely awful. Thank God it’s only known in Serbian and not around anymore. The synths and guitars have got to be the worst I’ve ever heard in my life. Each note that comes out sends shivers down my spine. Stupid lyrics, mentioning of names, negative impacts on people via the stupid lyrics, too much personification, always talks about love, s** and weddings, etc.
53. Wizard Rock (Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, Ministry of Magic, The Parselmouths)
Novelty garbage. Literally just rock music about Harry Potter. Nothing else.
54. Pop Reggae (Magic, Big Mountain, Steel Pulse, Peter Tosh, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Doe Maar, Lily Allen, UB40, Claude Fontaine)
An insult to reggae music and a hollow shell of what such legends as Bob Marley and the Wailers were. The most boring, uninteresting genre in the world.
55. Schlager (Helen Fischer, Andrea Berg, Matthias Reim, Kristina Bach, Heintje Simons, Rudi Schuricke, Lale Andersen, Olivados, Die Paldauer, Peter Orloff)
Ugh, this is terrible. Terrible lyrics, terrible music, terrible everything. Schalger is obviously the worst and most sickeningly sweet thing Germans invented.
56. Educational Music (Ms. Robinson, Marshall McLuhan, McGruff, Bill Cosby, Marlo Thomas and Friends)
Education equals boredom, entertainment equals fun.
57. Christmas Music
Corporate garbage for the masses. There, I said it. Don’t waste your goddamn time listening to this crud. Always the same 30+ covers by obscure/popular artists of about 5-10 Christmas songs. Absolute torture for anyone who has to work a retail job.
58. Indietronica
Praised by indie-heads beyond all belief and overrated as hell. All you need to do to write an indietronica song is pull up a cheap software application and add a loop for a synth (both treble and bass) and a beat sequencer.
59. Cybercore
Only one track ever got labeled as this; very high-pitched, screeching basslines and chugging guitars make for an unpleasant combo.
60. Soft Rock (Stephen Bishop, Barry Manilow, Rod Stewart, Dan Byrd, Bay City Rollers, Hanson, Hilary Duff, Jesse McCartney, The Jonas Brothers, Tiffany, Westlife)
This is just incredibly annoying. All of the old people who think soft “rock” is by far the best are close-minded idiots. Now keep in mind that I’m not stereotyping old people. Some people say that today’s music is really Auto-Tuned and that’s true. Dad’s bus driver in seventh and eighth grade ALWAYS seemed to play this music every day.
If you tell me you like this genre, I’ll literally write an essay on everything bad about soft “rock”, including the fact that it has an over-reliance on love songs or power ballads. It fails as a genre and it fails as an umbrella term for the softest, most “adult-oriented” (though some artists are marketed to teenagers instead) music that pop has to offer. This is an oxymoron. It’s not how rock sounds or should be.
61. Banda/Mariachi (Sergio Vega, Valentín Elizalde, Banda MS, Los Tucanes)
Sappiest, most manufactured crap ever. I hope it doesn’t get even more popular than it already is because it’s just noise.
62. Soca (Farmer Nappy, Kes, Machel Montano, Destra Garcia, Nadia Batson, Kerwin Du Bois)
This genre is a slap in the face. Just listen to this garbage; the lyrics are terrible, to be honest. The lyrics are just a couple sentences about love and s** on an endless loop. Add that with the nasty vocals and horrible sounds and Soca is by far the worst genre there is. This music does not make me want to wine my bottom.
63. Cumbia (Bomba Estero, Los Temerarios, Selena, El Gran Silencio, Celso Piña)
Just as bad as turbo-folk, banda/mariachi and Latin music. But I have some respect for Selena…
UPDATE: I hate Tom McDonald. I misunderstood what I said when I liked him in the past. I promise not to say that I like this bastard. Ever.
Category Story / Other Music
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 60.9 kB
Barring everyone I mentioned in the previous one...
Pat Benatar made the fourth-worst video of 1983.
Cher made the second-worst video of 1996.
Madonna made the fourth-best video of 1986, the second-best video of 1989, the third-best video of 1991 and the best video of 1998.
Paula Abdul made the fourth-worst videos of 1991 & 1995 and the fifth-worst video of 1992.
The Human League made the third-best video of 1982.
A-ha made the best video of 1985.
Janet Jackson made the fifth-best video of 1986 and co-made the third-best video of 1995.
Ginuwine made the fifth-worst video of 1996.
Weezer made the second-best video of 1994.
Poison made the fifth-worst video of 1987.
The Cars made the third-best video of 1981 and the best video of 1984.
Loverboy made the fourth-worst video of 1980, the fifth-worst video of 1981 and the third-worst video of 1983.
REO Speedwagon made the worst video of 1981 and the fourth-worst video of 1985.
Starship made the worst video of 1985.
Styx made the worst video of 1983.
Celine Dion made the third-worst video of 1996.
Michael Bolton made the fifth-worst video of 1989 and co-made the second-worst video of 1992.
Mariah Carey made the third-worst video of 1997.
Billy Ray Cyrus made the worst video of 1992.
Kenny G co-made the second-worst video of 1992.
KC And The Sunshine Band made the second-worst video of 1984.
Rick James made the third-worst video of 1981.
Bobby McFerrin made the fourth-worst video of 1988.
George Michael made the third-best video of 1988 and the best video of 1990.
Hanson made the fifth-worst video of 1997.
Tiffany made the worst video of 1988.
Pat Benatar made the fourth-worst video of 1983.
Cher made the second-worst video of 1996.
Madonna made the fourth-best video of 1986, the second-best video of 1989, the third-best video of 1991 and the best video of 1998.
Paula Abdul made the fourth-worst videos of 1991 & 1995 and the fifth-worst video of 1992.
The Human League made the third-best video of 1982.
A-ha made the best video of 1985.
Janet Jackson made the fifth-best video of 1986 and co-made the third-best video of 1995.
Ginuwine made the fifth-worst video of 1996.
Weezer made the second-best video of 1994.
Poison made the fifth-worst video of 1987.
The Cars made the third-best video of 1981 and the best video of 1984.
Loverboy made the fourth-worst video of 1980, the fifth-worst video of 1981 and the third-worst video of 1983.
REO Speedwagon made the worst video of 1981 and the fourth-worst video of 1985.
Starship made the worst video of 1985.
Styx made the worst video of 1983.
Celine Dion made the third-worst video of 1996.
Michael Bolton made the fifth-worst video of 1989 and co-made the second-worst video of 1992.
Mariah Carey made the third-worst video of 1997.
Billy Ray Cyrus made the worst video of 1992.
Kenny G co-made the second-worst video of 1992.
KC And The Sunshine Band made the second-worst video of 1984.
Rick James made the third-worst video of 1981.
Bobby McFerrin made the fourth-worst video of 1988.
George Michael made the third-best video of 1988 and the best video of 1990.
Hanson made the fifth-worst video of 1997.
Tiffany made the worst video of 1988.
Some of the artists that you mentioned in Techno don't really produce Techno. The Prodigy, which have done some amazing stuff are not Techno but Big Beat. Eiffel 65 is Eurodance, can see how this can get on peoples nerves but I personally like it in all its cheesy glory. Also just saying Electronic music as a whole has no emotion just because it is produced using technology is just plain wrong. What about Wendy Carlos' rendition of Bach Pieces? Kraftwerk? Laurie Spiegel? Aphex Twin? Just saying stuff like this comes off as plain ignorance.
calling kpop a genre tells me you dont know anything about it. kpop is a production style—the rather unique production style popular in s korea. the genres of artists within that style are diverse. if you think rain, got7, stray kids, and psy are all the same music genre you dont have ears
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