No. 1 Songs That Die-Hard Rock Fans Actually Hate

Peaking at No. 1 on the pop charts may be all the proof one needs of a song's popularity on paper. But that old "You can't please everyone" adage also applies to such chart-toppers, and it's not uncommon for fans of certain genres that aren't always in the mainstream, such as rock music, to hate these songs. But why all the negative feelings? Oftentimes, it's because rock listeners feel their favorite bands might have sold out and gone soft, but as you'll see in a bit with these five songs, it's not always that cut-and-dry.

When choosing songs for this list, we stuck with those that peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, then considered how familiar these tunes are with modern listeners. As for the "hate" part of the equation, most of the feedback comes from Reddit threads where fans of rock music or certain rock bands discuss the songs they dislike. However, we backed this up with similar sentiments from online articles or other forums whenever applicable. We're also limiting things to one song per artist, so if a band or a singer has more than one No. 1 song that rock fans hate, we're going with the one that gets the most negative feedback or the one that, in our opinion, is more deserving of the negative comments.

Now that we've established the criteria, let's dive in and look at five No. 1 singles that have consistently earned scorn from rock aficionados.

Joan Jett may have gotten her start in the musical limelight with the Runaways, but it was "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," her cover of an obscure glam rock track by the Arrows, that truly propelled her to mainstream recognition. It's a catchy, foot-stomping song that's fun to sing along to, and it's since been covered by even more artists and parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic as "I Love Rocky Road." Jett's version, which hit No. 1 in March 1982, has undoubtedly become a classic in the decades since its release, but ironically, many rock fans don't enjoy it because it isn't rock 'n' roll enough for their liking.

That was one of the reasons mentioned in a Reddit thread where the original poster didn't mince any words in explaining why they hate the song so much. "I just feel that this song is monotonous, one-note and seemingly endless. It doesn't even sound like a rock and roll [song]," they wrote. Elsewhere on the platform, users feel it's way overplayed, which is a very common yet very fair complaint with these songs.

Interestingly, some fans claim to prefer the Arrows' original version, while others dislike both versions equally. But regardless of which version you prefer (and you may even be partial toward Britney Spears' polarizing 2002 cover), it's hard to argue against "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" being an earworm — such tunes rarely rock the hardest in an artist's discography, but like them or not, they have the hooks to drive airplay and record sales.

If you told the average Aerosmith fan, or "Blue Army" member, in 1975 or 1976 that the already-famous rockers would become best known for a grandiose, sappy, and slow-paced love song with strings, you would have likely been laughed out of the room and called a heretic. But that's exactly what happened when the hard-hitting Boston band became pop icons in middle age thanks to "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," a Diane Warren-penned chart-topper that was written for the 1998 film "Armageddon." This wasn't the first ballad Aerosmith recorded or had a huge hit with, but most fans aren't slinging mud at "Dream On" or "Angel" when talking about Aerosmith ballads they don't like.

In one Reddit thread asking why many fans dislike "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," one user mentioned the overall lack of Aerosmith DNA in the song, as well as the fact that someone else wrote it and that the tune was made for a movie soundtrack. "There's no Aerosmith thumbprint on it," they wrote. "Short story long, it's a top-to-bottom mercenary song. Anyone could have recorded it." Another fan also mentioned Warren's involvement in the songwriting process (and the band's lack thereof), calling the song "incredibly cheesy," while others admitted to liking the song (or feeling neutral about it musically) but disliking how it was overplayed to death on the radio upon its release.

This one's quite the layup, as it's been a fixture of "worst songs of the '80s" and "worst songs of all time" lists for as long as we can remember. It's hard to imagine such lists without Starship's "We Built This City" somewhere close to the top (if not actually on top), and to this day, it seems like a travesty for many that the song spent two weeks at the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1985. But why do so many music lovers, rock fans included, hate "We Built This City" with a passion? Is it the song's overproduced nature, the fact that it was performed by a band that traces its roots to '60s psychedelic icons Jefferson Airplane, or nonsensical lyrics like "Marconi plays the mamba/listen to the radio"?

Turns out it's all of the above. Fans have mentioned those three primary reasons when explaining why they detest "We Built This City," calling it a classic example of cheesy '80s production, proof of how the band that cranked out '60s classics like "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" devolved into a group of pop-rock sellouts nearly two decades later, and a hodgepodge of disjointed lyrical ideas. All in all, though, it would seem that the most consistent complaint relates to the second reason — how could a band known for beloved psychedelic rock anthems release such dreck in a new incarnation nearly two decades later? "[Imagine] if Nirvana survived as an entity and went from making Nevermind to making music that sounded like well ... 'We Built This City,'" wrote one Redditor.

Take note that this list features "No. 1 songs," not specifically "No. 1 rock songs," so that means there's room for other genres to enter the conversation. That said, "Ice Ice Baby" is admittedly fun to rap along to, especially if you grew up in the early '90s, and there's no shame in knowing all the lyrics by heart more than 30 years after its release. But if you're a rock fan, there's a chance that there's at least a little part of you that can't stand "Ice Ice Baby" because of its blatant sampling of Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" — and more importantly, Ice's insistence that the bass line on "Ice Ice Baby" is different because of one extra note.

Over on the Queen subreddit, fans still make no secret of how much they hate "Ice Ice Baby," with users consistently mentioning Ice's infamous "not the same" comments about the song's bass line (via YouTube) as their main reason why. One Redditor called it an "absolute insult" that "Ice Ice Baby" became more popular than "Under Pressure," despite having the all-star duo of Bowie and Freddie Mercury sharing lead vocal duties, and in a similar vein, a user on another thread quipped about the confusion that may arise from both songs having virtually identical bass lines. "The worst is when you think you're gonna get down to Under Pressure and it turns out to be Ice Ice Baby," they wrote.

It was a toss-up between the Steve Miller Band's first No. 1 hit ("The Joker") and their last ("Abracadabra"), and both songs have indeed incurred the disdain of rock fans through the years. However, we feel the former has held up better than the latter, as "The Joker" stays within Miller's wheelhouse of bluesy, hard-driving, and catchy pop-rock, and, questionable wolf whistle guitar lick aside, it hasn't aged anywhere as poorly as some other '70s rock songs. "Abracadabra," on the other hand, sees Miller embracing the processed sound of the '80s and writing even more banal rhymes than he did when he paired "gangster of love" with "pompatus of love" (whatever that's supposed to mean) on "The Joker."

"It's a ridiculous song, and the lyrics are so bad it's literally laughable," wrote a Reddit user in a thread about least favorite classic rock songs. "A chimp with a rhyming dictionary could have written that song." And when talking specific lyrics, a second Redditor found the chorus especially cringe-worthy, also opining that "Abracadabra" will "always be a bit of a taint" on the Steve Miller Band's legacy. Not helping is the song's video, which, per one Redditor, "takes stupid to a whole new level ... Literally a guy doing magic tricks, like the s***tiest kids birthday party magician level performer."