Rock’s Most Hated Records

First off, let’s point out the difference between a list of Rock’s Worst Records and Rock’s Most Hated Records. There’s crossover between them, for sure, as you’ll see in our above list of Rock’s Most Hated Records, but there’s a special place for records that aren’t just bad but totally despised too.

Terrible records can be ignored. They often disappear after their short shelf lives have expired. But hated records? They can live on forever. Younger music fans may not know a single thing about Paul Anka’s gloopy ’70s ballad “(You’re) Having My Baby,” but they can probably tell you that Starship‘s “We Built This City” from the following decade is all kinds of awful. And that they really, really hate it.

Same goes for Neil Young‘s Trans album. The singer-songwriter has shifted gears dozens of times over his five-decade career, recording all-in, speaker-shredding rock ‘n’ roll songs and spare, acoustic country ballads – often on the same album. He’s made LPs dedicated to rockabilly, big-band, R&B and grunge music. Many of his albums are adored; several are ignored. Trans, an exploration into synthesizer-enhanced sounds, is downright hated because of its whiplash-inducing shift.

That’s the sort of thing you’ll find on our list of Rock’s Most Hated Records. And we made it easy for you by combining albums and singles in one place, so you don’t have to look too far for full-length dives into ego-inflating excess (remember that album Gregg Allman and Cher made together?) and four-minute slices of head-shaking confusion (hello, “Mr. Roboto”!). You many not break into Hulk-sized fits of anger while revisiting these records, but we advise a calming drink beforehand all the same.

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