5 Flop Arena Rock Songs That Have Earned Respect From Younger Generations

You never really know what way a song is going to go. Does anyone remember 1990's song "She Ain't Worth It" by Glenn Medeiros, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100? Neither do we. Alternately, while some hits are long forgotten, others that were considered flops when they were shiny and new have gotten a second life through younger generations. This includes all types of flops, even arena rock songs.

A song might do well, commercially, but be a critical flop or grow to be disliked over time. It also might be loved by critics but hated by fans or other musicians. It also might flop in comparison to other songs from the same artist, no matter that it did well in comparison to songs from another artist. "Younger generations" also means any generation after the one targeted by the original song release, not just 15 year olds tooling around on TikTok. That being said, the use of songs in social media has become the go-to way that the youngest generation gets introduced to music. But in the case of that most rousing of heart-swelling rock anthems, "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, '00s shows like "The Sopranos" and "Glee" introduced it to new generations. 

Songs on our list did commercially well on release, but were despised or dismissed critically and have since found favor with younger listeners. Let's take a look at why.  

Thanks be to the fates for this terrible, amazing godsend of an awful track. Europe felt much the same about 1986's "The Final Countdown," at least as far as their finances were concerned. Except for guitarist John Norum, who despised the track's synth opening so much that he left the band over it, as it ran counter to Europe's rock roots. But the song reached No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. At the same time, it was loathed by critics and music aficionados for being annoying and dumb. And wouldn't you know it? The youths, ever the contrarians, seem to dig it. 

Tributes, memes, inclusions in video games, sporting events, TikToks, and yes, in "Arrested Development" as Gob's favored magic show theme: "The Final Countdown" keeps getting spun up again and again in the modern day. "Arrested Development" (2003 to 2019) isn't too new at this point, but it's at least one to 1.5 generations past '80s arena rock fare, we'd say. 

"The Final Countdown" has garnered such respect (or at least amusement) in our nostalgia-driven cultural economy that it's surpassed 800 million Spotify listens at the time of writing, 1.4 billion views on YouTube, and reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hard Rock Digital Songs in 2015. Plus, as one father-daughter reaction duo noted on YouTube in 2020, the crowd for a Europe performance at the music festival, Wacken, was filled with multi-generational attendees. Such sharing of experiences is probably another reason why the song has caught on with younger folks.  

This selection might shock people because, surely, Journey's 1981 "Don't Stop Believin'" off "Escape" has always been a much-beloved, eternally overplayed, karaoke earsplitter that all humans can belt by heart, no? No. No matter that it seems like it was a No. 1 hit, that most massive of rock anthems only reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Open Arms" from the same album reached No. 2. That's not an objective commercial flop by any stretch, but it's a flop in comparison to modern expectations — so high has "Don't Stop Believin'" lived up to its own creed in intervening decades. The song's entire album was also panned when it came out, with Rolling Stone giving it two stars and saying, "the latest victim of inflation is the value of a Number One album." Whoa there, kitty claws.

But no worries, because Journey's had the last guffaw. The young 'uns have never stopped believin', at least since TV shows like "The Sopranos" (in its finale) and "Glee" (in its pilot) passed the torch of schmaltz to the next generation. Since then, "Don't Stop Believin'" has sort of persisted in cultural consciousness and in loads of terrible karaoke. 

Now, "Don't Stop Believin'" has a mindblowing 2.7 billion listens on Spotify and has backed nearly 300 thousand TikToks. And what are folks believin' about? Everything from Chris Evans' comic book movie costumes to getting good grades in school, plus any other human activity in need of inspiration via power ballad. In 2021, Billboard reported that it became the most downloaded track from the '80s.

There's no way that the paramedics who brought Nikki Sixx back to life after the singer's heroin overdose could have predicted that the 1989 Mötley Crüe song based on that experience would blow up with kids decades later, right? They didn't even know that the internet would exist, same as Mötley Crüe didn't know that their generic but energetic No. 27 Billboard Hot 100 tune, "Kickstart My Heart," would wow Gen Zers who'd never heard talk box before (there's a talk box solo in the song). But hey, cut the young 'uns some slack. They never had Peter Frampton to show them the way.

But really, it's odd to think that it's not "Girls, Girls, Girls," "Dr. Feelgood," or "Smokin' In the Boys Room" that's Mötley Crüe's most listened-to song on Spotify. It's "Kickstart My Heart," at 935 million listens. How did this happen? Once again, it's younger folks setting the song to TikToks, played it in parents' cars, discussing Mötley Crüe on Reddit, and taking a real shining to the talk box thing, like we mentioned. And while "Kickstart My Heart" has been used in 54,000 TikToks, the phrase "kickstart my heart" appears over 22 million times on the platform. 

In fact, Mötley Crüe's entire listening demographic has changed as a result of their fame amongst younger generations. It was once the case, as expected, that most of their listeners were older. Now, 62% are aged 18 to 45, according the website Sleaze Roxx. That's a pretty wide range, but it's still younger than those who would've latched onto the band in their prime. 

To some folks, the band Foreigner means crooning "I want to know what love is" in that horribly sentimental, overplayed '80s track that we never want to hear again. But Foreigner had lots of commercial success beyond that one song, with songs like "Cold as Ice," "Hot Blooded," and "Waiting for a Girl Like You" landing in the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 and garnering hundreds of millions of streams each on Spotify. And what about 1981's "Juke Box Hero" from Foreigner's "4"? It did moderately well in comparison to other hits, reaching No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, but is Foreigner's fourth most listened-to song on Spotify, with over 280 million listens. What gives? Younger generations of listeners, that's what.

It's not clear exactly how "Juke Box Hero" caught on, but it looks like the song's name definitely helped. Appearances in video games like "Back 4 Blood" (as a defend-the-juke-box mission) and "Guitar Hero," the backing track to TikToks that tend to focus on everyday accomplishments (recipes, hair cuts, housecleaning), and the subject of an inordinate amount of YouTube reaction videos collectively equalling hundreds of thousands of views: "Juke Box Hero" has really caught on with younger folks. Ad Hoc News mentions 18 to 29-year-old Americans, specifically, fueling the resurgence of what would otherwise be a forgotten semi-hit only known to fans who listened to it when it came out. But now the next generation can be juke box heroes, too.

Jefferson Airplane had quite the long and bizarre journey from a song like 1967's psychedelic, cowboy-twanged "White Rabbit" to the limp, corporate arena rock of 1985's "We Built This City." What does Jefferson Airplane have to do with Starship, you ask? Well, the latter grew from the former, with Jefferson Starship in between, culminating in a song so lame that it helped '80s rock fizzle out. It doesn't matter that "We Built This City" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for two weeks — it wasn't that kind of flop. It was a flop of the soul that disappointed rock fans by being tepid and sellout, and has since been labeled one of the worst songs ever. But wouldn't you know it? The kids love it, at least in a post-ironic way.

Post-irony is the key to understanding why a song like "We Built This City" shows up in so many danged TikToks as a backing track. Making fun of the song is a way to avoid expressing a sincere love of it, because sincerity is cringe, which means you love it. Got it? Gen Zers, feel free to intervene at this point and offer corrections on that assessment. Just kidding, we know you're not reading this. 

"We Built This City" also falls into nostalgic, "so bad it's good" territory, no matter that some folks despise it (and others genuinely love it). Listen, we can't make sense of the kids. Just roll with it. The song's got over 722 million listens on Spotify, so folks are listening to it no matter how despised by our collective cultural memory.