Soon after Rolling Stone magazine was founded in 1967, it became one of the most influential publications in the world. After all, at the height of Rolling Stone’s success, people all over the world saw the publication as a great source of music opinions they could adopt for themselves.
As a result of its immense popularity, generations of artists have made sure to look fantastic when they are on Rolling Stone’s cover. In fact, even appearing in the pages of Rolling Stone can make a big difference to a musician’s career these days. For example, when Miley Cyrus posed for salacious Rolling Stone photos, she garnered a lot of attention.
Even though Rolling Stone has had a positive impact on a lot of musician’s careers, it can also be a source of negative feedback as well. For example, in 2011, the magazine polled its readers about the worst ‘90s song. Instead of choosing some crappy tune that a lot of people haven’t heard of, Rolling Stone’s readers named a track that was a worldwide hit as the worst song of the ’90s.
Buzzfeed Chimes In
As anyone who was alive in the ‘90s will be able to attest, there were a lot of bad songs that were released and became big hits during the decade. As a result, it makes sense that a lot of different media companies have tackled the subject in the past. For example, just like Rolling Stone, Buzzfeed put out a list of the worst ‘90s songs that were selected by their readers. While Rolling Stone and Buzzfeed’s lists unsurprisingly had some tunes in common, there were some notable differences as well.
According to members of the Buzzfeed community, the worst song from the ‘90s was released by a quintessential band from the era, Limp Bizkit. Of the songs that Fred Durst’s band released, it was their screamy cover of George Michael’s “Faith” that Buzzfeed’s readers deemed a decade’s worst. The second and third choices on Buzzfeed’s worst songs of the ‘90s list were Lou Bega’s “Mambo Number 5” and Crash Test Dummies’ "Mmm Mmm Mmm". Some of the other songs on Buzzfeed’s list include Creed’s “Higher”, Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca”, and Joey Lawrence’s "Nothing My Love Can't Fix".
The Runners Up
When Rolling Stone published an article about the songs that their readers named the worst of the ‘90s, they included the top 10 picks. Unsurprisingly, the magazine’s readers chose to include some memorably bad songs as a part of their list. For example, Los Del Rio’s “Macarena”, Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?”, Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping”, and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” all made the cut.
On top of the more obvious choices, some of the songs Rolling Stone’s readers picked as the worst from the ‘90s were a little more surprising. After all, everyone may agree that they are bad songs but a lot of people still enjoy them anyway. That grouping included tunes like Hanson’s “MMMBop”, Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy”, and Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby. Of course, given all the money that Vanilla Ica made from “Ice Ice Baby”, it seems likely he is fine with the song being ridiculed. Finally, there were two songs that a lot of people consider classics included in the list, 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”.
The Worst Song
When Rolling Stone’s readers voted on the worst song from the ‘90s, they likely expected a writer to eviscerate their number one choice in the resulting article. In a surprising twist, the blurb about the song only touched on a reason why the song is hated before focusing on the legal war that the tune inspired. Still, the members of Aqua couldn’t have been happy if they learned that “Barbie Girl” is the worst song from the ‘90s according to Rolling Stone’s readers.
“Barbie Girl – written by the Danish dance-pop group Aqua – is an incredibly polarizing song. Many people were offended by the portrayal of a woman as a man's plastic doll, begging him to ‘undress me everywhere.’ Others loved the over-the-top cartoonish video and bizarre sound of the song. Mattel (the makers of Barbie) were less than pleased that their product was being presented in such an overtly sexual way and filed a lawsuit. The courts ruled that the song was a parody and thus permissible, but Mattel took it all the way to the Supreme Court. The company had a change of heart in 2009 when they changed the lyrics and used the song in an ad campaign.”