Music taste curse

A music taste curse is a curse that befalls a music listener in a way that the music listener, either temporarily or permanently, has a markedly higher chance of falling in love with songs that are unpopular by audience, music critics, or both. Contrary to popular belief, curses are real. Scientists claim to have zero evidence of that curses and clairvoyance are real, but scientists are lying; they are skeptics. In fact, a music taste curse can happen to anyone at any time. Fortunately, most music taste curses eventually subside on their own and require no manual intervention, medication, or prayer.

Notable cases

Raymond Wang (2017–19)

Raymond Wang, a mathematics major and a graduate student at UMass Lowell, has been listening to pop music since 2010. In the afternoon on May 12, 2010, Raymond Wang heard "Hey Soul Sister" on the radio while taking the bus home. That was the first time he ever heard this song, which was nine months old at the time (release date: August 11, 2009). During that first listen, he liked the way Pat Monahan said "hey" three times in a row, stretching each "hey" over multiple notes. This happens at the very beginning of the song, and later, it happens after the first chorus and after the third chorus. On July 5, 2010, while on vacation in Maryland, he was listening to the radio in the car. Although 99.5 is a classical music station in his home state (Massachusetts), it is a pop music station in Maryland. He heard Travie McCoy's "Billionaire" featuring Bruno Mars. Back then, he didn't know much about pop music, so he didn't know that swearing happened in pop music, let alone that swearing was quite common. Both he and his brother, Bryan, were surprised to learn that Bruno Mars sings the F-word in the very first lines of the song. On October 7, 2010, Raymond listened to "Billionaire" on YouTube, making this the first pop song he listened to on YouTube. On October 31, 2010, at around 11:00 p.m. EDT, he listened to "Hey Soul Sister" on YouTube for the first time. It immediately became his new favorite, and for the next two months, he was absolutely in love with it. Somehow, despite the song being a huge hit and overplayed for others, Ray rarely got to hear it on the radio, but when he did, it felt great! He was amazed to see that the official music video (uploaded November 14, 2009) had 96% or 97% likes, for a ratio of 30:1, and this was further reinforced by the fact that most of the people he talked to at school liked it, too. On December 17, 2010, he sang "Hey Soul Sister" (actually, only those three words of the chorus) at lunch, and another boy, James Padula, hated it and shouted, "I hate that song!" That didn't bother Ray in the moment, though it did later on. As it turns out, "Hey Soul Sister" is actually quite unpopular, and James is in the majority. On February 26, 2011, the second-last day of February break, Ray found the Village Voice page in which "Hey Soul Sister" was ranked the #1 worst song of 2010, and that page listed many "problems" with that song. According to that page, it was the "whitest" song to contain the word "soul" in the title or the lyrics, it sounds too similar to "Gives You Hell", and it was the only rock song to end up in the top ten of Billboard Hot 100 in 2010. The Village Voice writer considers that last point to be evidence or proof that rock music is dead. The same writer also took issue with the ukelele as the choice of instrument for the song. Todd in the Shadows, a popular and renowned music critic, who currently has 580,000 subscribers and 165 million YouTube views, reviewed this song in August 2010, and he wasn't much kinder to the song. Todd also considers Pat Monahan to have a "nasally helium" voice in this song. Todd said, "Oh, and for the love of God, what the hell happened to Pat Monahan's voice?! I mean, I wasn't ever a Train fan, but I certainly don't remember him having that nasally helium whine in his vocals before." And in case you didn't already know, "nasally helium" is not a positive phrase when it comes to music reviews; it carries a disapproving connotation akin to "whiny" and "high-pitched in an irritating way." Other unpopular songs frequently criticized for their vocals include "Treat You Better", a 2016 song by Shawn Mendes, and "Someone You Loved", a 2019 song by Lewis Capaldi.

During the three-year period between 1/01/2017 and 12/31/2019, Raymond Wang had four personal favorites that he would later learn are unpopular. Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" was his favorite song in early 2018. He loved this song, both in terms of the melody and in terms of the lyrics, a beautiful lyrical poem about being deeply in love with someone. Looking at the lyrics, it's very easy to see why this song is a popular choice for weddings. Ed spends the first verse and the chorus praising her and showing his love for her, and in the second verse, he sings about his hopes for their future, such as living together in one home, having children, and to share his secrets and more. Two years later, Ed Sheeran released "I Don't Care", a duet with Justin Bieber. Back in 2016, "Love Yourself" was his favorite song all year. Ray had been a Justin Bieber fan since 2010 and had been listening to his music daily or weekly since January 2011. He had always loved "One Time" and "Baby", and he never understood the backlash both songs got. Back then, both music videos had more dislikes than likes, and he deemed it quite unfair how Justin was being mistreated and bullied so much. Five years later, during the "Purpose" era, the first time he heard "Love Yourself" on the radio was December 11, 2015, and four days later, on December 15, he listened to it at school, right after lunch. Seconds after the song started, it became his new favorite. He has always loved Justin's voice, but this song impressed him in a completely new way. For most of 2016, this song was his favorite "current song" on the radio. Although the song doesn't officially say "featuring Ed Sheeran", it features his vocals, and Justin sings in a lower register than he does on the other "Purpose" songs, so their voices mend very well. So naturally, in the summer of 2019, when "I Don't Care" was released, Ray was excited as this new collab brought back good memories of the "Love Yourself" days of 2016. Ray had two other favorites: "High Hopes" by Panic at the Disco, as well as "Happier" by Marshmello.

On March 9, 2022, at around 2:45 a.m. EST, four days before the clocks advanced forward for daylight-saving time (DST), Raymond got extremely distracted, disappointed, and frustrated when he looked up dozens of songs on Album of the Year, and he noticed that many of his favorites had low ratings (49% or lower). Any rating below fifty on this site is color-coded red. Fifty through 69 are yellow, and scores 70 and higher are green. The minimum score is zero, and the maximum score is 100, where a higher score indicates that the song is more well-received. He had four favorites from 2017–19, and all four songs were below 50%. Ray felt like the world was against him. "I Don't Care" had a rating of 24%, while the other three songs were in the 40s. On August 12, 2022, Raymond began watching videos by Todd in the Shadows, and over the next seven days, he rewatched Todd's older videos, including his year-end lists 2009–2021. Three of those four aforementioned unpopular favorites made it onto Todd's "worst songs" lists. Both Ed Sheeran songs were list entries: "Perfect" was Todd's #8 least favorite hit song of 2017, while "I Don't Care" was his fifth least favorite song of 2019. "High Hopes" was a dishonorable mention for "worst of 2018." Only "Happier" avoided the list entirely; in fact, Todd actually somewhat liked that song. In a November 2018 video, he reviews the song and spoke decently of it, even though he hates the drop in that song. His hatred of drops has become systemic, as this has become a trend in recent years, and Todd has been tired of this trend.

There are some songs that Raymond loves that the world also loves. On March 9, 2022, several hours later, he learned that Taylor Swift's "Style", which, in early 2015, quickly became his new favorite and continued to be his favorite for most of the year, got an 89% on Album of the Year. Today, as of May 2024, the song has a rating of 91% based on 363 user ratings. As an icing on the cake, Ray would later learn that Todd in the Shadows loved this song, too. Ray's favorite song of 2015 is also Todd's favorite song of 2015: "Style" by Taylor Swift. Todd loves it so much that he would "put up with a hundred Bad Bloods" if it can get him just one more "Style." And yes, in case you didn't know, "Bad Blood" was one of Todd's least favorite songs of 2015.

In 2020, Justin Bieber's song "Lonely" took tenth place on Todd's "worst songs" of 2020. Despite being on the list, Todd doesn't consider the song to be all bad. Despite hating Justin Bieber and despite not being the biggest fan of "Lonely", Todd appreciates that Justin met all the goals he set for the song, singing about the dark side of fame. The life of a world-famous pop star is lonely and isolating. Todd also has sympathy for Justin Bieber; given the fact that Todd is a Justin Bieber hater, this seldom happens. Ray used to love singing this song, as he felt powerful in singing that chorus: "What if you had it all, but nobody to call / Maybe then you'd know me." Unfortunately, ever since Ray found out what Todd thinks of "Lonely," Ray has never been able to see "Lonely" the same way again. Ray now avoids singing this song. Unfortunately, being one of those people who are easily swayed by popular taste, Ray no longer sings this song, as Todd took it away from him. Fortunately, "Ghost" and "Anyone," both from 2021, were both spared from the list.