My soft spot comes from this being the first version I heard/saw:
Corgi!
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D’awww!
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Oh come on! Most detested? More than The Chipmunk Song? More that Disco Sgt. Pepper? More than Achy Breaky? Ma Humps? Laffy Taffy? I got you babe? Yummy yummy yummy? Tiptoe through the tulips, for god’s sake?
Surely you’re not suggesting this is more despicable than Macarthur Park?
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“The Code” is an Australian political thriller. In season 1, a young hacker is abducted and interrogated by spooks. They use this song on him.
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It means nothing to me.
(I’ll admit it, I have kind of a soft spot for this song despite its excesses)
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What do people mean by “accessible” when it comes to music and/or lyrics? Isn’t the main factor basically knowing the language it is sung in?
I think the magnitude of “worst” increases with the song’s longevity. Thus, a song that is terrible which is also played consistently in dentist offices, waiting rooms, other places where some “Lite FM” is always on, will always trump a song which you can only hear by intentionally pulling it up on Youtube (or digging into the CD bin since you undoubtedly bought the single on CD and maybe tape back in the day).
Consider – now, you hear a song like “We Build This City” and for those past a certain age, you recognize all the hooks, cliches, and “classic” parts of the 80s. It’s welcoming and familiar, but more like a terrible diner where you know you shouldn’t eat the food.
The better comparison are songs you can reliably hear on a classic rock station of some stripe. In my experience, though, you’re more likely to hear at least passably decent songs or even good “classics” rather than things that people are kind of sick of. The fact that there remain exceptions like “We build this city” heighten the “badness” of those songs, in my opinion.
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I was in my early 20 when this song came out, and for the first 48 hours it was like everyone went, “What? Starship?” And then almost pure hate from that point on. 
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Currently playing: Dr Demento Show - 1986 FEB 16 - 05 – Profile of Stan Freeberg
I don’t have every show by any means, but I’ve got shows running as far back as 1970. (Including quite a few recorded live on KMET.)
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I lol’d. But, really, is “harder better faster stronger” all that much better (in terms of lyrics, I mean)?
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If you heard the original demo, you wouldn’t even recognize the song.
I was curious, so I looked and found it on an archive.org episode of a radio show called “Crap From the Past”
original demo (starting at about 1:08:45)
It’s definitely recognizable, but a little weirder, I guess. Bonus: the host plays it right after an “extended club remix”.
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There’s a hell of a lot of music in the metal or rap genres where the language definitely doesn’t have much impact on the accessibility.
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Like Rammstein. And most opera.
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Yeah, I’m going to go against the consensus here. I like it. Yes, it’s classic 80’s rock, but it’s got a beat, you can dance to it, and I enjoy the incongruity between the pop-rock tune and the dark, dystopian lyrics. And I’d listen to Grace Slick sing my grocery list.
But whatever. I like Meat Loaf, too, and I don’t care who knows it.
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OH come on now - when that came out it was some of the best electronica out there.
Speaking of electronica - this is probably one of my top five songs. I don’t think I have ever skipped this song over. In my head I imagine doing a GOOD video for it animated. (Video is rather weak, but some cool animation is parts.) Lots of the design elements, both from the game Wipeout XL, and Flukes album were by the design gods Designer Republic.
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Is there an archive some where? I used to stay up, tape the whole show, and then edit the best songs onto a 2nd tape.
Eh, yes and no. I think the lyrics, even if we don’t know the words, can still still help or hurt, even if we can’t understand them or if in a different language. I enjoy Mexican Institute of Sound, even though I know nearly no Spanish. And Death Metal is a whole genre with hard to understand lyrics.
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So the internet somehow hates this song more than the worst song by the internet’s least favorite band, Nickelback? Color me confused…
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I’ve never heard the song before in my life.
Not temped to listen.
But I do like MacArthur Park.
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Without Call Me Maybe we wouldn’t have this:
I don’t know, as I never claimed that any of the music I like is “accessible” to anyone else, but I like quite a lot of music in languages I don’t speak. Some of my favorite groups sing in multiple languages on the same song – Gadjo does a lot of this. I can identify English (duh!), French, and Spanish, possibly other languages as well, but I’m not always sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZWnzn-MT8Q
Stealing Orchestra is an experimental group from Portugal that also has a lot of wonderful polyglot music. I can’t find a video link to any of my favorites, but I highly recommend most tracks on Stereogamy.
Hmm. Apparently I’ve posted about music that I really like in a thread about detested songs. Consider this a kind of antidote, perhaps?
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