Sometimes what’s been deemed “verified” on Wikipedia seems too strange to be true. In Wikipedia for the Weird, the Daily Dot tracks down the most bizarre and entertaining entries on the Web’s crowdsourced encyclopedia, sending you down the rabbit hole even further.
List_of_music_considered_the_worst
Over these past few weeks, Wikipedia and I have been through a lot together but nothing to make me doubt the service’s authority. Until now.
Somehow I stumbled upon (not using StumbleUpon, I promise you) this seemingly offensive Wikipedia entry–offensive to Wikipedia’s standards of objectivity, I mean–that even the page itself seems to even realize how its existence is debatable: “Furthermore, individual tastes can vary widely, to the point where very little consensus on a worst song can be achieved…”
To be officially “considered the worst” (which is a phrase I will now use to taunt friends, “Ugh, even Wikipedia would consider you the worst”), a song or album “needs to have had a high profile at the time of its release, such as an unexpected hit that was highly disliked outside of its fanbase” or be “included on two notable ‘worst music of all time’ lists.” Notable meaning listed by Rolling Stone, The Daily Mail, and apparently, Rocklistmusic.co.uk.
According to Wikipedia and its collection of “notable sources,” albums that are considered the ;worst include Duran Duran’s 1995 covers album, Thank You, Crazy Frog’s Crazy Hits (yes, that’s this frog, pictured above); and Kevin Federline’s only album, Playing With Fire. I disagreed that Federline’s Playing With Fire should be included, until I discovered (thanks Wikipedia!) that “PopoZão” wasn’t EVEN ON THE ALBUM. Ridiculous.
You might be surprised to find Jimi Hendrix included on this list–until you learn it was a posthumous album. And The Shaggs’ Philosophy of the World is described as “the sickest, most stunningly awful wonderful record I’ve heard in ages.” Well, “awful wonderful” sounds pretty great to me. But, whatever.
The songs included are all by artists you’d expect: Baha Men, Starship, Paul Anka. But one singer’s tragic triumph is sorely missing, and you’ll find the culprit in the Talk page. Mr. 121.223.153.239 is apparently a Britney Spears fan and has waged a war against the former inclusion of Spears’ “Womanizer” on the list.
“Is there any reason why ‘Womanizer’ is here with 17 LINKS! People have tried to delete it twice (I did once) but these have been undone.”
Oh man.
“I think it’s a terrible song too, but it has to have been declared as one of the worst songs ever by a major source.”
Sure you do.
“I normally don’t write here, but this was so horrifically bad that I needed to.”
Sure you don’t. (Oh, he actually doesn’t.)
Photos via Wikipedia