There's probably a scientific explanation for why we've have xvideos あなたのお母さんはポルノ映画に犯されているbeen so susceptible to a good old-fashioned catchy tune this year. Stripped raw by the trauma and stress of a global pandemic, reduced to a brain-in-a-jar with one hand for constant phone scrolling, unable to process the complex emotions of some of our favourite "real" music, and subjected to the infinite smorgasbord of TikTok sounds, our minds have been easy targets for these sonic remora.
It's entirely possible that one of these ditties took up residence in your mind's ears for such an extended period of time that it verged on the traumatic. I apologise in advance for inviting them back in. But that said, please enjoy reliving it all with our list of the most insidious, perfidious, bing-bang-bongiest earworms of 2021.
"Welcome to the Internet" / "Shit" — Bo Burnham
Almost every song from Bo Burnham's surprise quarantine special Insidecould qualify here, if we're honest. My TikTok For You Page was riddled with Bo content for weeks after its release — from the straightforward, relatable lipsyncs to "Shit," horny clips of "Problematic" and "All Eyes On Me," and ADHDtok loops of "a little bit of everything all of the time," to the meta-trend of people realising that not everyone's FYP is wall-to-wall comedy songs about mental illness and maybe the algorithm is trying to tell them something. (Also, working for a website that covers the tech industry is doubly stressful when I can hear Burnham crooning "Jeffrey Bezos! Jeffrey Bezos!" every time I see a photo of the richest cueball on earth.)
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But part of the genius of Burnham's ode to our collective Year Indoors is the way it captures the manic quality of certain states we all found ourselves in throughout the year. The most devastating songs aren't necessarily the saddest, but the deceptively perky ones that address the inevitable, mildly hysterical acknowledgement that we're not in a good place ("Are you feeling what I'm feeling / I haven't had a shower in the last nine days") and the loopy, overwhelmed feeling you get around hour five of an idle browse turned solid doomscrolling session ("Here's a tip for straining pasta / Here's a 9-year-old who died!").
If you have one of these stuck in your head, it could be a sign you need to shower, log off, or touch grass — or it could just be that they're wildly catchy.
"UK, Hun?" — The United Kingdolls / RuPaul's Drag Race UK
The second season of RuPaul's Drag Race UKgave us an absolute smorgasbord of charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent, but it had absolutely no business dropping a camp banger like this on us when nobody was allowed to go out dancing.
Both teams in the season's RuRuVision challenge performed the same song, with each queen contributing an original verse — but it was clear after the first performance that the United Kingdolls had delivered not only the winning act of the night, but also the best musical challenge of the franchise in years, period. (Justice for Tia Kofi's verse from the other version, though.)
That said, everyone responsible for this sing-sang-song ought to be tried at the Hague. I woke up every morning with Lawrence Chaney demanding "Clap for the bing bang BOOOONG!" in my head and went to sleep every night fighting to ignore the constant loop of "Release the beast: BIMINI!" Fully half of the queers I follow on multiple platforms appeared to be genuinely suffering after a full week of this.
“Save The City” — Hawkeye
The Marvel diehards on the Mashable staff were hyped for Rogers: The Musicalfrom the moment the Hawkeye trailer dropped (Exhibit A; Exhibit B) and the reveal of this number in the first episode did not disappoint: "Save The City" is cringetastic perfection. Written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the team behind the Hairspray musical, and featuring Broadway veteran Adam Pascal, it’s a cheesy, peppy, reductive retelling of the Battle of New York that makes a wincing Clint Barton surreptitiously remove his hearing aid. I wish I could avoid ever hearing the line “Black Widow's a knockout who can knock you out”, but alas, I do not have the Time Stone.
"Kiss Me More" — Doja Cat ft. SZA
There are two kinds of people: Those who mumble random noises along with the third verse of "Kiss Me More," and those who just hear Doja Cat going, "I feel like fuckin' something," over and over and over. Pre-vaxed era horniness, encapsulated.
Not to mention the limp-wrist meme that escaped TikTok and made it into the real world when people first returned to clubs, as demonstrated in this, um, TikTok. If you know, you know.
"she stole my broccoli casserole recipe" — Lubalin
Montreal producer, singer, and songwriter Lubalin is a Serious Artist in his own right, but hit the viral jackpot with a series of TikToks where he turned random internet drama — the kind shared around via screenshots on Reddit and Twitter — into The Weeknd-esque dark pop jams. Within weeks of the first (and best) two going viral in the first days of 2021, he was doing the third on The Tonight Showalongside Jimmy Fallon and Alison Brie.
With all due respect to "good evening, is this available," which is triggered in my brain every time I use Facebook Marketplace, the best remains this ode to boomer Facebook beefs. (The fact that it's actually from a Facebook group where people role-play as boomers does not lessen its power.)
SEE ALSO: The best/worst Twitter main characters of 2021"Meet Me At Our Spot (live)" — THE ANXIETY
Caught a vibe! Willow Smith and Tyler Cole’s moody 2020 single caught a second wind on TikTok in the second half of the year, thanks to this superior live version. Smith's rapid-fire delivery on the first chorus — sounding both deeper and more deeply felt than on the demo-y studio version— inspired a dance trend involving extremely literal miming and wild flailing. And like "Kiss Me More", half the fun is not knowing the words and just mouthing some random syllables.
"good 4 u" — Olivia Rodrigo
The breakout pop star of 2021 had her first big moment at the beginning of the year with "driver's license," but it was this Paramore-aping anthem to breakup bitterness that wormed its way into our brains. It took over TikTok as well as the charts, spawning remixes, mashups, and even a version that cuts out the negative self-talk to be a simple affirmation that you're actually doing great.
But if you're just feeling a bit petulant and ragey, the taunting, elliptical melody of "good 4 u" is primed to loop in your head.
"All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" — Taylor Swift
The reigning queen of ethering her exes in song finally released this super-extended cut of the longtime fan favourite with her re-recorded and expanded album Red (Taylor’s Version). Because of that hefty runtime, there are plenty of moments that snag themselves in your mind, whether it’s the screaming-gull-memebelt of "You call me up again just to BREAK ME LIKE A PROMISE" or the rising, cracking new addition "and that made me want to diiiiie".
For a solid two weeks after the release, fragments like that looped in my head so persistently that I was almost angrier at Swift than at the guy who allegedly didn’t show up to her 21st birthday. Almost.
"Agatha All Along" — Kathryn Hahn / WandaVision
She's insidious! And so is her signature song. WandaVision's era-hopping sitcom conceit gave us a fun new theme song for its show-within-a-show every week. But it was the goofy, extravagant soundtrack to the first MCU Disney+ show's villain reveal that took over the internet and our minds' ears. Kathryn Hahn's series MVP deserved a better arc than she got, but at least she got to live rent-free in our heads for weeks thanks to this brassy banger.
That stomping, shimmying horn part also lent itself well to a trap remix that demands to be yanked onto a mixtape ASAP.
무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다 (Mugunghwa kkochi piotsseumnida), aka "Red Light Green Light Song" - Squid Game
The playground chant that rules over Squid Game's first challenge plays on the reliably eerie vibe of hearing nursery rhymes and children's songs in less wholesome contexts — just like the show’s kiddie-games-but-with-murder premise.
While the spooky vocals of the score's "Pink Soldiers" are just as likely to have haunted you for weeks, hearing this over and over again in the scene almost certainly helped cement it in your brain. (Unless, of course, you watched the English dubbed version of the show, which just had a child’s voice saying "Red light" and "Green light". Perhaps this was a mercy.)
"Edgar's Prayer" from Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar
The deep silliness of Barb and Stararguably reaches its peak in this emotional number inspired by Kevin Bacon's angry-dancing scene from Footloose. (See also: "Angry Mad" from Crazy Ex-Girlfriendfor more proof of this moment's impact.) There's a hint of Lonely Island's powerful work with Michael Bolton here, too.
Jamie Dornan, playing the entire film straight as the villain's lovesick henchman Edgar, belts lines like "Seagulls in the sand, can you hear my prayer?" with full commitment. The song quickly deteriorates into Edgar narrating his own attempts to dance, spin, and climb out his overwhelming feelings. "I’m going up a palm tree like a cat up a palm tree who’s decided to go up a palm tree" — that's just solid storytelling, right there. Showing andtelling. It's all in good fun, but then you find yourself belting it in the shower a week later and it's weirdly cathartic.
It's been a rough year, OK?
This article was originally published in June 2021 and was updated in December 2021.