25 Songs Everyone Claims to Hate but Still Knows by Heart

We’ve all had that moment when a song we claim to hate suddenly comes on. Maybe you roll your eyes. Maybe you complain about how overplayed it was. Then the chorus hits, and somehow you know every single word. It is annoying, ridiculous, and way too catchy, which is exactly why it works.

Some of these songs were not hated at first. They were simply played so often that people got tired of them. Others were mocked for being cheesy, repetitive, overly dramatic, or attached to a certain era people love to make fun of. But no matter how much criticism they received, they still stuck around.

That is the strange power of a guilty pleasure song. You may not proudly add it to a playlist, but if it comes on at the right moment, you are probably singing along. Here are 25 hated songs that plenty of people secretly still love.

This one got a lot of flak for the nonsensical lyrics. Alanis Morissette even did a slow, mournful ballad cover just to highlight how ridiculous they were when stripped of the original instrument. The song was dubbed by many as the worst of the decade, and the phrase "my lovely lady lumps" became an epitome of bad pop music.

Despite all of the hate, the song stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 34 weeks and went down as one of the most memorable earworms of the mid-2000s. The production is built around a riff that is hard to get out of your head once it makes its way there.

A Canadian reggae-dancehall artist singing in a thick accent at such a fast pace that almost nobody could understand the lyrics. That’s “Informer” by Snow. Pitchfork eventually put it on their list of the seven worst US number-one singles of the 90s, while VH1 ranked it one of the top 100 songs of the decade. That tells you everything about what the culture admitted and what it actually sang to in the shower.

Snow's flow is technically more demanding than most people would give him credit for, and despite the hate, "Informer" still managed to spend seven consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993.

This one found its way into VH1's "100 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever" list and it became shorthand for the worst of early-2000s novelty pop. Mentioning the Baha Men at a party was considered a faux pas, but despite their reputation, they still managed to take home the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, and "Who Let the Dogs Out" became the fourth-highest-selling single of 2000 in the UK.
Although the lyrics were nothing short of nonsense, the song is catchy and has a way of making you shout “who, who, who” even if you don’t mean to. If you hated this song, you probably couldn’t help yourself from singing along either.

"MMMBop" was always an easy target for people to make fun of given the song title and the fact that it was recorded by three blond brothers who were barely teenagers. But the Hanson brothers wrote and performed it themselves. The harmonies were real, and the song had better production than many other songs played on the radio at that time. In retrospect, many music critics even took back their initial reviews. It aged considerably better than a lot of what people said was good that year.

Another teen hit. The thirteen-year-old Rebecca Black was swept by an avalanche of mockery on the internet. The song was labeled as one of the worst ever recorded by multiple outlets, and it amassed millions of dislikes on YouTube, back when you could still see the dislike count. But people kept on watching anyway. Lady Gaga even spoke out positively about the song, and Katy Perry invited her to one of her videos. Despite the criticism and mockery, the song was a commercial success. Not bad for “one of the worst songs” ever made.

"All Star” was the kind of song that defined the tail end of the '90s. It felt edgy on the surface, but it was still safe enough to play on the radio. It was basically pop wearing a fake rock mustache, and that’s just something music snobs can't forgive.
Despite being a decent song, it became an internet meme, and a generation learned to love under the guise of ironh. Take away the sarcasm, and the song holds up: the production is clean, the melody is immediately memorable, and every line lands where it should. If somebody once told you they hate this song, they are probably lying.

Aqua from created one of the most cheerful, ridiculous pop songs ever recorded and got sued by Mattel in the process. Regardless, the song topped out at seventh place in the US, hit number one across most of Europe, and became one of the defining audio snapshots of 1997.
Aqua actually wrote the song as a satire about consumerism and shallow ideals and watched it go to number one all over the world. Most people singing along had no idea they were the punchline.

Country purists hated this song. Rock fans hated it too. The line dancing craze it spawned was mocked into oblivion. So how did "Achy Breaky Heart" sell more than eight million copies? The song introduced millions of people to country music. People who had never been interested before. The chorus repeats the same line over and over. You would think that the repetition would stop working at some point. It never does.

Rolling Stone called it the worst song of the decade, and VH1 named it the worst song of all time on their Most Awesomely Bad Songs list. Everyone who was alive in 1985 can trace it back to a specific memory. Its synthesizers and overblown production are excessive in a way that feels almost affectionate now. No one will admit they like it. Yet the radio won't stop playing it.

Mambo No. 5 is essentially a list of women's names set over a brass band beat. Not something you should take seriously in 1999. Or ever. Lou Bega basically took a Perez Prado mambo song from 1949, put it back on the charts, hit first place in 17 different countries, and helped bring a wave of classic Latin music back to print after decades of obscurity. It also makes everyone dance in less than eight seconds after hearing it.

"Kokomo" appeared on the Cocktail soundtrack in 1988 and is considered a blatant cash-grab that sounds more like a parody of the Beach Boys than the real deal. But it became their only number-one single in over twenty years. The song hits a specific soft spot that triggers a kind of late-eighties vacation vibe people look back on with a certain degree of nostalgia. Die-hard fans hate it, but the general public tends to love it.

If someone told you that a Korean pop song would become the most-watched video on YouTube before 2012, you probably wouldn't believe it. Most Western listeners had no idea what they were watching, and critics weren't kind about it. But PSY had been a major star in South Korea for a decade before 'Gangnam Style' ever hit the internet. His song was a sharp satire of conspicuous consumption in the richest neighborhood of Seoul, and it has gone on to accumulate more than five billion views on YouTube to date. You may not love the song, but you probably did the dance at some point.

This song was being played on every single station and every commercial back in 2012. The truth of the matter is that it's one of the cleanest pop songs of the decade, a perfectly crafted song with a chorus that works and a vocal performance that carries warmth through heavy production. Billboard later ranked it as one of the best pop singles of the 2010s. This one didn’t get flak for being bad, just overplayed.

The pants were iconic. The fake hip-hop persona and the reckless spending habits not so much. MC Hammer became an easy punchline, and the music got buried along with the reputation. But 'U Can't Touch This' takes the 'Super Freak' sample and turns it into something else entirely. Something different. The song won Hammer Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best Rap Solo Performance. Nobody wanted to admit they liked it, but the Grammys tell a different story.

The unusual name of the track, the incredibly deep male voice, and the slow-paced lyrics. It’s an unusual track, even by early nineties standards, and in the world of pop, an unusual track isn't supposed to do well. But Brad Roberts' voice is truly unique and the song itself is more emotionally honest than most songs in the genre. It's a weird song. It's also better than you remember.

Bon Jovi has always been an easy target for rock snobs. Too polished or too popular. But "Livin' on a Prayer" may be one of the most intricately composed pieces of rock music ever with some of the most resonating lyrics ever written. Everyone who was around in the 80s probably knows every single word by heart. That doesn't happen by accident.

"New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits, Chinese food makes me sick." Those lyrics were used by music critics as evidence that LFO, and pop music in general, had stopped making sense. They weren't wrong. But that's kind of the point. "Summer Girls" shows that not everything needs to be taken seriously and it’s still one of the most iconic summer songs ever. It manages to sound fresh today while still bringing back bittersweet memories for those who had their teenage years at the end of the 90s.

When Linda Perry shrieks "what's going on" at the top of her lungs, you know this song took itself way too seriously. It was everywhere in 1992, and somehow, it still finds its way into movies, TV shows, and pretty much anywhere else you can think of. Perry herself still performs it with the same passion and dedication as she did in the 90s. When that chorus hits, you either go for it or leave the room. A lot of people choose to lean in.

A group of anarchist protesters from Leeds accidentally managed to write the most relentlessly upbeat anthem to resilience ever recorded, but no one quite knew what to make of it. Critics described it as a gimmick, and fans hated seeing them collaborate with popular culture. The rest of us simply didn't understand what they were listening to. But somehow it works.
The song reached number two in America and number six in the UK, embedding "I Get Knocked Down" so thoroughly in public consciousness that most people who know it have no idea what the rest of Chumbawamba's music sounds like. It comes on, and you feel like you can handle whatever life throws at you.

It was criticized for being too pure and too wholesome. Simply too distant from Justin Timberlake’s previously funkier music. Being featured in the Trolls animated film didn't help its reputation either. But the track stayed on top for ten weeks and won a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song is pretty good despite the context and if you find yourself singing along, don’t worry, you’re not alone.

It was impossible not to mock the keyboard intro to "The Final Countdown," which became synonymous with everything that is wrong with rock music in the 80s. It's too pretentious, too dramatic. Simply too much. But the riff is one of the defining moments in the history of rock music. Even today, you can hear the song at sporting events and dramatic moments in movies and TV. It's an addiction the culture just can't seem to shake off. Nobody claims to love it, but it's still everywhere. It's just one of those songs you love to hate and hate to love.

Hating on Nickelback turned into a weird cultural phenomenon in the mid-2000s, and "Photograph" was released at the peak of the hate wave. Despite becoming somewhat of a meme, the band sold over 50 million albums worldwide and the song was one of the most frequently played songs of 2005. The nostalgic lyrics appealed to any teenager alive back then no matter how they felt about the band's status as an internet punching bag. Whether you love it or hate it, you probably know every word.

Clean-cut, no rough edges. The kind of tune that your parents might enjoy listening to, which isn't a compliment. Hip-hop purists did not take kindly to Will Smith, but his "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and held its place there for three weeks straight. It also got a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. The sample of "He's the Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge adds an invigorating boost that makes it timeless. People put it down in public, but when it plays in the privacy of their home or car, they usually get jiggy with it.

A Swedish Eurodance band playing an American folk tune over an electronic dance beat was not something the music world was prepared for, and critics generally reacted with either confusion or disgust. But "Cotton Eye Joe" topped the charts in several European nations as well as the American Dance charts, becoming a must-play at roller rinks, school dances, and sporting events. Ask anyone who was at a roller rink between 1994 and 1997.

"Don't Stop Me Now" sat in relative obscurity for years after its release, considered too lightweight for Queen's usual sound. Then it slowly became one of the most beloved songs in their catalog. A 2015 study commissioned by British electronics brand Alba, analyzed by a cognitive neuroscientist using survey data from 2,000 UK adults, named it the greatest feel-good song of all time. The composition is more complex than it sounds on the first listen, and Mercury's performance is truly breathtaking. It wasn't really despised so much as overlooked.