Aussie Songs Make It Onto Viral List Of World's Most Hated Tunes

A handful of tunes by Australian songwriters have earned the ire of respondents to a viral question, about the world's least enjoyable songs, that has seen John Lennon's Imagine singled out as a repeat suggestion for the title of the most annoying composition on the planet.

Among the nearly 400 songs compiled into a big ol' list of "Kryptonite songs" by British music fan Edward Carter — the responses to a question he'd posed on Twitter as to which songs people "most detest and despise" — were vintage and neo-classics from the great southern land, including the Bee Gees' More Than A Woman, Courtney Barnett's Pickles From The Jar, Men At Work's Down Under, Savage Garden's Truly, Madly, Deeply, and Vance Joy's Riptide. 

As The New York Post reports, Carter first published the list from a field of 337 songs but, in the days following its popularisation, had tallied 373 at last count.

That said, it's difficult to know what the results really mean in a broader context, especially since popularity itself actually seems to be the biggest sin most entrants have committed, given that well-known, well-loved (and frequently well-written) songs — even Bohemian Rhapsody and James Brown's I Feel Good are there, and it's for Christ's sake — appear throughout. (There are some genuine shockers in there, though.)

Indeed, in his initial analysis of the list, Carter straight-up admits that Blur's Song 2 and Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry Be Happy are both songs "by otherwise popular acts, completely ruined by their ubiquity", while Bobby Pickett's Monster Mash is, along with Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer, probably "on rotation as the elevator music in hell".

Also appearing on the list are a couple of songs by Aerosmith ("Music for people who like to be uplifted but hate music," Carter quipped in his write-up), a trio by Billy Joel (including both Piano Man and Uptown Girl), Blondie's Heart Of Glass and Rapture ("I'm glad these were nominated," Carter said. "It's nice to have some great songs in any playlist.") and two from Coldplay — Clocks and Yellow, which remained the only two specific Coldplay songs to be nominated until someone tipped "every single song Coldplay have recorded, in alphabetical order of the title".

There are also six nominations for "objectively the greatest pop group in history", The Beatles — Across The Universe, Hey Jude, She's Leaving Home, When I'm 64, Yellow Submarine and Yesterday — and Carter, admitting he "can't particularly argue with any of these selections", urges readers to "[j]ust accept it".

Other points of interest from throughout the list include Deep Blue Something's Breakfast At Tiffany's ("Of all the songs nominated, this one inspired the most hatred and anger"), The B52's Love Shack ("Really, REALLY unpopular"), Black Eyed Peas' I've Gotta Feeling ("The level of angst that [this song] inspires, if harnessed properly, could end our reliance on fossil fuels"), The Byrds' Mr Tambourine Man ("The worst band in history"), Eagles' Hotel California ("The other worst band in history"), Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street ("Extraordinarily popular … [b]ecause no one likes saxophones") and Marc Cohn's Walking In Memphis, which Carter eviscerates as, "The worst song ever written, performed by the culprit".

See the full list at Carter's website.