Worst Hit Songs of 2025

 

                                     

   

 It's that time of year again. I have another list of the worst-hit songs to chart on Billboard's Hot 100. This year was tough on the charts. There were many good songs coming out, like every year, but the charts were stagnant as hell. The top hits of 2024 were also the top hits of 2025. To show this, let's compare some hit songs' 2024 year-end spot with their projected 2025 year-end spot.

• "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" by Shaboozey: #2 on the 2024 year-end list, #3 in 2025
• "Lose Control" by Teddy Swims: #1 in 2024,  #4 in 2025
• "Beautiful Things" by Benson Boone: #3 in 2024, #6 in 2025
• "I Halp Some Help" by Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen: #4 in 2024,  #8 in 2025

I like some of these songs, but this is insane. Last year, the charts were stagnant to a fault. The Teddy Swims song list above was on the Hot 100 for over 100 weeks, with most of those weeks spent in the top 10. I follow a YouTuber who watches Billboard chart changes every week, and the same songs stayed on the charts for months. The radio must be playing the same five songs, and the public refuses to change their streaming habits. But there's hope. Billboard wrote new rules to remove stagnant songs from the charts, so this will not happen again. Anyway, on to the list. 

Dishonorable Mentions:

• Soda Pop by Saja Boys (#61): The production on this song is a mess with the whistling synth in the background on a stupid song about being a boy band's "soda pop." I also haven't seen KPop Demon Hunters yet, so it might make more sense in the context of the film.
• YUKON by Justin Bieber (#105):  Justin is not cool enough to pull off the song's goofy lines. For some reason, his voice is pitched up. The badly recorded bassline and 2 Chainz's ad-libs don't help.  This song is a bunch of interesting ideas that do not work together at all.
• Help Me by Real Boston Richey (#125): Hey, look! It's this year's disposable rapper. Real Boston Richey's flow is too sloppy for my tastes. It sounds like he's falling off beat. As for the lyrics, Richey is looking for the right one who must have a low body count. He claims he will stop cheating, but then raps about cheating on her in the next line. Overall, this song is unimpressive.
• That's So True by Gracie Abrams (#14): Gracie opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour and is 100% inspired by Swift. This includes Taylor's cattiness and immaturity, which are on display in this song. It's just nowhere near as well-written as Swift's songs normally are.
• Somebody Love Me by PARTYNEXTDOOR, Drake, and Cash Cobain (#85): This song is mostly just boring. However, Drake does call himself a thot, so there's that.

10) What I Want by Morgan Wallen feat. Tate McRae (#27)

    Fun fact: this is a country song. It is hard to tell by the bland, overprocessed production and the trap beat, but it is country music. Tate sounds unremarkable. This must be very out of her wheelhouse. I barely noticed she has her own verse. The lyrics are also not good. It's a "hookup jam" where Morgan has a one-night stand with a damaged girl who will leave the next morning, because all he wants is meaningless sex. You know hookups are supposed to be fun, but why does everything sound miserable? This could work with darker lyrics, but they are not descriptive enough for that.

9) Ordinary by Alex Warren (#7)

    I don't have much to say about this song. It's generic, bland, and uninteresting. Alex Warren found the formula for a hit song and followed it, regardless of how boring the formula was. The song feels safe, calculated, and strangely empty, because that combination guarantees radio play. 

8) Who by Jimin (#57)

    This song is not here because of Jimin. He is fine. This is here because of the producer, John Bellion. Jimin did not need his voice to be covered with that many layers of autotune. He sounds much better in acoustic versions of the song. The autotune covers his singing skills. It's exceptionally jarring on his falsetto. The production also feels too busy. Many different ideas are jumbled together instead of one idea.

 

7) It's Ok, I'm Ok by Tate McRae (#120)

    This song has a big issue: Tate does not have the pipes for this song. Her singing needs to be stronger; it's too wispy. I really don't like that high note she tries on the pre-chorus. It might just be me. I do understand that Tate McRae is a throwback artist. She creates music reminiscent of the 2000s, much like Bruno Mars does for the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The 2000s were not a golden era for pop. I did not like the music then, and I won't like this music now. 

    

6) Your Way's Better by Forrest Franks (#104)

    The Billboard charts hit a new low this year. A Christian music song charted. However, I am not here to write about Brandon Lake's "Hard Fought Hallelujah;" it's surprisingly decent. I am here for "Your Way's Better," which narrowly missed the year-end list. I am a Christian, and I do like the Christian music genre. Hymns are beautiful, and gospel music is powerful and very important to modern music. These two genres work because the writers and performers show off their love for God. Christian music exists as a way to exploit good Christians who are scared of secular media. At least that's what it feels like to me. This song, for example, is a lame song about how Forrest discovered that following God is better. I do not believe a word of it. There is no real talk of suffering or struggle; I'm not sure he has actually sinned.  His delivery is way too smug for a man beaten down by sin. He sounds like a lame youth pastor trying and failing to relate to teenagers.

5) Worst Way by Riley Green (#35)

    This song is way too horny. Mostly, the lyrics are very horny about the rough sex he is having tonight.  However, he used the wrong production. It does not sound sexy. It is way too bright for the subject matter. Riley also does not have the bravado for a song this sexual. Overall, it's an inconsistent mess with gross lyrics. 

4) How It's Done by Huntrix (#68)

    There are seven songs from the movie KPop Demon Hunters on the year-end list. My question: why? These songs are nothing special. Does it deserve to have multiple hits more than In The Heights or the West Side Story remake, or Wicked? No, those are much better soundtracks. The real reason is that it's for little kids. This song reminds me of all the bad EDM of the mid-2010s. The synths sound ugly for the most part, and the singer's bragging is more annoying than deserved.

3) Just In Case (#18) by Morgan Wallen 

    This guy has 10 songs on my year-end list. Why? He makes mostly mediocre songs that become hits off his mediocre 37-track albums. In this song, Morgan talks about the girl who got away, whom he can't forget. This should be romantic. However, he talks about all the other girls he has one-night stands with. But those girls don't mean anything. I don't fall in love with them. You are the special one. In other words, he's a f***boy (pardon my French).   

2) No Pole by Don Toliver (#97)

     In this song, Don Toliver goes to the strip club and meets a stripper who wants to quit her job. So Toliver has a deal for her: he offers her a way out of stripping. In return, she has sex with him.  And I am not sure if he is skeezy or stupid.  He wants to manipulate this girl. He will keep buying her expensive things, but you must bang him first. This does not feel sexy, romantic, or cool; it feels transactional. The dark synths do add atmosphere, but they do not elevate the subject matter.

    

1) Blue Strips by Jessie Murph (#52)

    Well, last year's worst new artist is back, but this time she's making R&B music instead of country. However, she still has an over-autotuned voice and struggles to sing well. The song is much dumber this time. Jessie is out to get revenge on her ex. But she isn't mad at him. She is so not mad that she is bragging about her new man and her new mansion in Malibu (probably rented), but I digress. Her clever revenge plan is to go to the strip club and throw 100-dollar bills at his ex's new girl. This revenge plan was not thought out. You're getting back at your ex by helping his new girlfriend pay rent this month. I doubt this new girl knows who you are, so why would she care if you throw money at her? This song is immature in the wrong way. That is why it is the worst hit song of 2025.