20 Universally-Hated Songs That Are Actually Technically Very Good

What if we told you... there's a good Nickelback song?

By Michael Downie /

Chances are, at some point in your life you will have found yourself browsing music channels on TV or listening to the radio and you've happened across a song which you remember being completely and utterly awful, yet you stick with it. For some reason, the second time around something else makes you realise that the band are actually really good at what they do. In fact, as you remember complaining to your friends about just how awful it is, there remains that one thing you can't help but admire about the quality of the musicianship behind it - that tinge of guilty pleasure that can give many otherwise hated tracks a second chance. While music is an incredibly subjective thing to judge, there are songs out there that no one will ever admit to liking. From the pop stinkers to epic rock ballads that are just plain awful, the immediate judgement of an audience can cheapen what can often be an incredible amount of care that the artist has put into the track. In a lot of cases, especially in rock music, a song can be hated by the entire world. Yet take away the lyrics and what you're left with is an absolutely astounding piece of music, written with precision and care, and performed with nothing short of virtuoso skill - the whole thing discarded by a mass audience who simply detests the end product. Coming up are 20 songs that are either hated by 'everyone' or the artist's core fanbase, all of which feature amazing amounts of technical skill, but for whatever reason end up being reviled.