Inspired by this thread about Justin Bieber's Baby, what are some big hit songs that were regarded as "bad" at the time they were big, despite the fact they were smashing?

Baby is a great example. Despite breaking the record for most disliked video on YouTube, the song peaked at 5 in the US and sold 4 million copies before its later reappraisal.

Work by Rihanna is another great example. It spent 9 weeks at #1 and ended up #4 on the year end chart. Despite this, stans and critics at the time critiqued its choice as a single and the popular notion at the time was that the repetition in the chorus was ridiculous and was highly mocked.

This atrocity comes to mind

OMI's Cheerleader.

MAGIC'S Rude

Despacito

Shape Of You (retrospectively)

Gangnam Style

Old Town Road.

Ordinary

51 minutes ago, LanaDelRey said:

This atrocity comes to mind

Entered the thread to say that a song can't be that bad if it's a hit, but then I read your comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_McRae_discography

4 hours ago, LustSpell said:

OMI's Cheerleader.

MAGIC'S Rude

ngl I enjoyed these I HATED The Chainsmokers' Closer though. That was a catastrophic event for pop music

Edited September 6Sep 6 by Kurt Hummel

3.4 Billion views and still terrible.

...Vin

We Built This City
Beautiful Things

This clunky dribblepiss actively made my life miserable during its run.

Flowers

Gangnam Style is the worst offender imo

Ga Ga's discography

15 hours ago, SweetOreosOfHeaven said:

Ordinary

No one thinks this in real life.

THIS. GIRL. IS. ON. FIRE!!!