#10 Tate McRae - Just Keep Watching

There was a New Yorker article by well-known music writer Kelefa Sanneh published earlier this year lamenting the fact that music criticism doesn’t have the same mean edge as it used to. Which is a sentiment that makes me roll my eyes and groan, but at the same time I kinda get it? As times change and reader dynamics shift, critics have become a lot more careful in what they say and who they rag on, usually out of caution for a potentially angry fanbase or provoking defensive responses from the artists themselves. Not to say these lists are inauthentic, but your writers are probably gonna get some nasty DMs and doxxes if you piss off the wrong fanbase. We aren’t cranky old fools cracking jokes like Statler and Waldorf anymore. Now we’re glazing acts that we otherwise would have posted pissing monkey videos to twenty years ago.

#9 Sabrina Carpenter - Nobody’s Son

I do understand how one could miss the days when we weren’t so cautious about writing negative criticism of beloved artists, especially when it would put us directly against the zeitgeist. If there’s any pattern I’ve noticed in my time reading and writing music criticism, it’s that being “with it” holds way more cultural cache than being the contrarian. You say something negative about Taylor Swift and someone will turn it on you by saying “Oh so you hate successful women who have been torn down by patriarchal men for years because she wanted to make a fun album?”. Suddenly, you’re the buzzkill and all the cool girls are laughing at you. Which is silly, obviously. I doubt most writers have this in mind when they write about music these days. But there is something to SwiftieGirlie2010’s point that is, while articulated poorly, still worth keeping in mind as a critic.

#8 Thomas Rhett - After All The Bars Are Closed

Part of my issue with Sanneh’s article is that it doesn’t really reckon with the fact that a lot of that old late 90s early 2000s critic writing was pretty bad in retrospect. Not in quality, but in tactlessness and refusal to actively engage with an artist’s work. They didn’t deem that type of music “worthy” compared to the artists they did gas up and consider to be artistic geniuses. Often, their targets of ire ranged from female pop artists, underground rap artists who wrote more about partying than any “real” songwriting, queer artists veering outside of what’s expected in pop music, and any genre they just didn’t think mattered as much as their indie rock favs, who happened to be mostly male and white. Many writers are deeply self-conscious of this. They do not want to perpetuate that cycle of demeaning art from minorities in favor of the white boys that, they still love, but now share the spotlight with your Addison Raes and your Playboi Cartis.

#7 The Weeknd ft. Playboi Carti - Timeless

If we’re going to seriously consider a “return” to negative criticism that doesn’t hold back punches, I don’t think there’s a way to do it the same way we used to when everyone was meaner and more willing to talk shit. Because that would mean bringing back an ugly side of music criticism that has alienated women, queer people, and people of color for years. I certainly wouldn’t feel appreciated as someone who fits two and a half of those metrics. Not to mention, I’ve done the negative criticism route before. I used to do “Worst Hit Songs” lists of any given year, and eventually I stopped. Which is for a number of reasons, but one that always stuck with me was when I made a Worst Hit Songs of 2019 list, which was topped by “Robbery” by Juice WRLD. I hated that song. I wrote such angry and baffled things about it and how it was made. I just couldn’t understand how anyone could listen to it and not be flabbergasted by its hideous vocals and “bad boyfriend” lyrics. Then the next morning, I learn Juice WRLD had died of an accidental overdose.

#6 Lady Gaga - Abracadabra

That’d be enough to shake any critic, but I felt especially gutted by Juice WRLD’s death. Not the least of which because I wrote such harsh, angry things about him and his music assuming that he’d still be with us even after I posted that list. Suddenly, writing mean things about artists who are still young, likely trying to navigate their art and passions through the predatory music industry, just didn’t feel good to me anymore. Hell, overtime, I started to understand and appreciate Juice WRLD’s music more and more. It could have been under better circumstances, but when you’re not so concerned about writing funny bits and biting criticisms of one’s music, you find another angle to appreciate their music and change your tune when you find yourself enjoying it. It even happened with “Robbery”, a song I can now say I actually like quite a bit. But I wouldn’t have gotten there by crossing my arms and looking for things to make fun of or complain about. I have to let the song speak for itself, and from there, I can decide whether it works for me or not.

#5 Drake - What Did I Miss?

Coincidentally, I stopped seeking out albums I know I won’t like around mid-2020. Now anytime I end up hearing an album I dislike, it’s usually because I was disappointed by it in one way or another. Even the hit songs I just found less and less music to outright hate because I don’t concern myself with listening to them over and over again to find new material. I have better things to do, better songs to hear. Not to mention by then the internet as a whole got a lot meaner. Maybe Senneh isn’t seeing that meanness in reviews and lists, but I certainly see it on Twitter, TikTok, even parts of Instagram and Youtube. If you want to see people be ruthlessly and horrendously mean to musicians, just search up any artist name on Twitter and you’ll find some smug shithead calling Taylor Swift “the MCU of tradwives” or some bullshit like that.

#4 Jessie Murph - Blue Strips

I just don’t want to contribute to any of that. Cuz it sucks and it’s not fun to read. A lot of critics thought they were witty and cool in those old reviews but they really weren’t. Most intensely negative, mean reviews I’ve seen and watched in recent years haven’t been fun to read either. Maybe it’s cathartic to see someone agree with you on how bad a song is, but if it gets to the point where an artist is being characterized unfairly or an audience is getting drive by shots and condescended to for listening to that artist and buying their stuff, I just turn that shit off. I’d rather see people passionate about the art they love instead of cracking bad jokes over music they didn’t care to take seriously in the first place. If leaving behind “mean critics” means leaving behind shitty attitudes and temporary catharsis, then good riddance.

#3 KATSEYE - Gnarly

Then again, it is kind of fun, isn’t it? To tear into artists who make the worst shit you’ve ever heard? That’s why people enjoy negative criticism, don’t they? Todd In The Shadows just dropped his worst hit songs of the year list, and that was a fun video! As much as I’ve disowned a lot of my old worst lists, it’s not like I stopped writing negative criticism altogether. They’ve just become personal writing exercises that I write solely for myself. I don’t have to be self-conscious of my friends who enjoy these songs, I can just let loose and no one will read it except me. I did genuinely consider publishing a real worst list this year. 2025 was a real dud of a year for mainstream music, plagued by stagnant charts and a rarity of new hits. And the ones we did get still kinda sucked and wasn’t nearly as good as last year. I would have even included some jabs at those “2024 is the best year EVER” essays that overglazed the pop hits of last year while seemingly throwing rap and country artists who weren’t Beyoncé or Kendrick under the rug. Not as cool to admit Morgan Wallen had one of the biggest songs of the summer in the same breath as Brat summer and “Not Like Us”, is it?

#2 Forrest Frank - YOUR WAY’S BETTER

But I don’t think it’s all that worth it. I went through the whole year-end Hot 100 for 2025 (plus some extras for good measure) and I ended up liking more songs than I thought I would. Not to mention a bit of retrospect conversations with me and my fellow pop music loving friends made me realize how much of my lack of enjoyment came from following the charts at a time where its formula was busted where most of its biggest and best hits were just songs from the previous year. Remove all those and the hit songs we did have, they weren’t as good, but there are still some gems. “Sailor Song”, “Shake It To The Max (FLY)”, “Folded”, “DtMF”, “DAISES”, even Morgan Wallen’s album had some pretty great hits make the year-end like “20 Cigarettes” and “Love Somebody”. I’d rather give some love to those than the bad hit songs from this year that mostly gave me irritated groans and eye rolls whenever I saw them on year-end best lists. Maybe some of these warrant more particular commentary (I have A LOT to say about Forrest Frank in particular) but I have a Top 100 Songs to write about instead.

#1 Playboi Carti ft. The Weeknd - RATHER LIE

Anyway you’ve caught on by now that this isn’t so much a worst list as much as it is a reflection on negative music criticism and its place in the current culture. The ranking is real though, and if you’re curious about any of these entries, ask me! I’d rather talk about the actual essay though. I don’t have a particular conclusion to this, but it’s something I’ve been ruminating on for a while and I hope we can bounce off some good conversations and interesting perspectives off of this. Best Songs list coming next month, then Best Albums. Might get one more small bonus list before those too, so look out for that! Thanks y’all.