Worst Country Songs That Were Big Hits Poll – Response

 

Recently, The Boot ran a Facebook poll that asked readers what the worst country hits were. I had a look through some of the answers and some were expected, and some totally surprised me, so I thought I’d share this list with you and a few of my comments. Here’s the top 10 counting down.

10. Shania Twain – That Don’t Impress Me Much

I get this. One of the main things that underlies country fans’ criticisms of songs is the lack of ‘country’ they feel is present. Though I loved this song as a kid growing up, it was because of its poppiness, not because it was a great country song. Its bouncy chirpiness and connections to novelties probably didn’t do a lot for its popularity with die-hard country fans either.

9. Jason Aldean – Dirt Road Anthem

I can see why people were annoyed by this one. I personally found it all kinds of oddness, despite the fact it was a huge hit. Brantley Gilbert is a talented writer but I actually preferred his remixed version, although it was even further from ‘country’ than Jason’s. The slow rap is not a thing.

8. Sugarland – Stuck Like Glue

WHAT EVEN THE WHAT. I love this song. A lot. It is so catchy and the video is probably one of my all-time favorite country music videos. It’s hysterical and I just don’t understand how anyone can truly hate this song. Sure, they might be annoyed by its catchiness, but I like to call those people spoilsports and the ‘cool kids’ who pretend not to love ‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen but rock out to it in the shower. However, this song is far, far better than that and there is no excuse whatsoever for not loving it.

7. Tracy Byrd – Watermelon Crawl

Like #2 on this list (no peeking!) this song is associated with a line dance, and perhaps country line dancing has received a negative perception as of late. I can see how it could be labelled as cheesy, and may well be seen as a product of the 90s and thus outdated somewhat. The song itself for me isn’t that annoying but I can understand if it’s been overplayed and people have been doing some ridiculous dance to it left, right and center (not insulting proper line dancing here but the mass-audience stuff...) that it’ll get on people’s nerves.

6. Kenny Chesney – She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy

Like many of the tracks on this list, this is a little novelty, a bit of a joke. It’s so full of cocky patriarchy it’s laughable, and the video? Oh dear. Embarrassing. The lyrics are cringe-worthy and a bit silly, and that kind of stuff is very popular for comedic value for a short period of time, and then dates very quickly. People get tired of it because they’ve heard so much of it.

5. Big & Rich – Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy

The excessive sex in this song has no doubt put off a lot of country fans off. The lyrics are also shocking. I don’t hate this song as much as other people because it’s designed to poke fun at so many songs, and be a novelty. They laugh at themselves and I don’t think you can hate a song as much if you know the artists don’t consider it seriously either.

4. Trace Adkins - Honky Tonk Badonkadonk

Errr. Yeah, I agree with this. While it was probably meant to be fun and a parody, it just felt pretty annoyingly sexist all things considered and I personally found it pretty irritating, especially when a guy thought it was perfectly acceptable to quote the lyrics at me in reference to my own body when I was 15. That was pretty damn weird.

3. Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Ha. A lot of people are annoyed by this. I can’t blame them, it is pretty annoying, not to mention its place in complete pop terrain yet place on top of the country charts for ages. Plus, it encompasses everything about Taylor Swift’s songs and love life that gets on the nerves of country fans. I’m surprised this wasn’t number 1 in all honesty.

2. Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart

Well we all saw that one coming. As someone who is from and lives in the UK, I put all of the misconceptions, stereotypes and terrible reputation of country music in the UK since 1992 down to this song, which was extremely popular here. I can see why everyone else is sick of it too.

1. Toby Keith – Red Solo Cup

Well, it was tough competition, but the childish simplicity of this parody song that not even the artist takes seriously took the number 1 spot as worst country hit. While I see where people are coming from, I actually don’t mind the song (although I couldn’t listen to it repeatedly), and I sometimes sing it to myself round the house. However, considering how new this song is in comparison to some of the others, and how fresh the irritation is, I can see why this had so many votes.

The thing I picked up from this list was that novelty is something that people really don’t remember fondly. In addition, songs that could be mistaken for pop get on country fans’ nerves too. I was surprised that the list didn’t go back further than the early 90s, but perhaps that’s a factor of the age of people answering the poll, due to the demographics of internet usage. True, plenty of people over 35 use the internet, but the fact is there’s still a majority of younger people on social media so that’s probably the reason for the dates. That and they’re more recent and thus more easily remembered.

So what did you think? Were these the worst country hits? Or are there others? Comment below.

Posted by Vickye (Guest Writer).
If you want to check out my own blog it's For The Country Record, and you can follow me on twitter @planmymistake. You can email me at vickye.countrymusic@gmail.com.

Comments

[countryqueen]

I'm thinking "Stuck like glue" was in there because it had a reggae hook...which has no business being in country music.