As much as musicians tend to pour their hearts and souls into their music, this isn’t the case for every song. A music career is a job like any other, and some song productions are just that: work. As such, not every song is made with love, and in other cases, some artists can even lose love for certain songs.
If a song gets overplayed or starts to define their careers, some musicians andbands start hating their songs, so much so that they even refuse to start playing them. This can even be the case for an artist’s most popular songs. A hit record that has grown beloved by the masses can become hated by whoever created it.
12Slash Hated Playing “Sweet Child O' Mine” For Years Before Changing His Mind
Guns ‘N Roses have a discography filled with hit records, but their biggest smash by far is “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Having a song of that caliber should be a blessing for any band, but for the band’s lead guitarist, it quickly became a curse. For some time,Slash hated playing their most famous song.
For a long time, Slash was bothered by the song’s chord progression and felt the song was too uptempo to work for their usual style and image. In time, the success of “Sweet Child O' Mine” was enough to help Slash change his tune, but originally, he was not a fan whatsoever.
11Madonna Doesn’t Want To Hear “Like a Virgin” Again
Madonna’s feelings towards “Like a Virgin” fit closer to a soft disdain than an outright hate. It’s mostly a kind of weariness she’s felt based on how much radio play the song received in its heyday. That makes sense when readers remember that the dance-pop classic was Madonna’s first number-one hit.
As such, that would mean that she’s been hearing it played for decades now. She’s outright expressed never wanting to hear the song again when she’s heard and performed it billions of times over the years.It’s still revered after 40 years, but anyone can get sick of hearing the same song since 1985.
10Neither of the Gallagher Brothers Likes Oasis' “Wonderwall”
A standout track fromOasis' best-selling album, “Wonderwall” is adored by millions, but it’s hard to rank the band members themselves among the millions who enjoy listening to it. Both Liam and Noel Gallagher have been vocal about not being fans of the record that helped turn them into a household name.
Liam has said he hated it from the moment he heard it, while Noel (who wrote the song) views the song as sounding unfinished and among his least favorite songs that Oasis have made together. It got bad enough where Oasis opted not to play “Wonderwall” for years on stage.
9Miley Cyrus Feels Disconnected from “Party in the U.S.A.”
Trailing back to the notion that some songs are just jobs to musicians who work in the field, it’s hard for musicians to feel love and passion for a record they never wrote. This is where Miley Cyrus stands with “Party in the U.S.A.” As far assongs about other songsgo, this was one of the more popular ones.
Cyrus admitted she doesn’t relate to the record’s lyrics, arriving at a time when the songstress was still searching for her voice away from Hannah Montana. The song fell into her lap when it was written for Jessie J, adding to the dissonance. Cyrus never even heard a Jay-Z song before the song came out, contrary to the lyrics.
Radiohead carries an infamous disdain for “Creep,” to the point that it didn’t take long for the band toabandon “Creep’s” sound altogether. While some will argue that a band departing from their original style in favor of trying something different is normal, not every band has harsh words for their own song.
Singer/songwriter for Radiohead Thom Yorke has referred to “Creep” as “crap” in interviews. Worse than that, under the impression that the song misrepresented the band’s identity, Radiohead opted to stop performing “Creep” for years, although they eventually reconsidered. “Creep” remains a timeless record for so many fans despite the band’s complicated relationship with the song.
7Lorde Doesn’t Relate to “Royals”
Everyone cringes at their teenage years, but it becomes harder to put a cringey teenage past behind someone who became a pop sensation as a teen. The cringey things teens say are documented forever in song form. This is Lorde’s dilemma, who started to dislike “Royals” the older she got and the more she heard it.
Over time, Lorde started to liken the sound to a Nokia ringtone. She’s certainly matured and improved as an artist since “Royals,” as evident byLorde’s latest album,Virgin, but “Royals” is too big a record to escape. It’s a massive hit that continues to withstand the test of time, whether Lorde loves it or not.
6Kurt Cobain Was Embarrassed by “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Before he died, Kurt Cobain admitted that he found “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to be embarrassing. The reason why has nothing to do with the fact thatan iconic metal album outsoldNevermind, but rather because he felt it overshadowed the rest of Nirvana’s music. It’s easy to understand where Cobain was coming from.
Keep in mind that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is far more upbeat than the rest of the band’s grunge discography and, by comparison, the song’s popularity misled audiences regarding the band’s actual style. While the song is a major reason why Nirvana became iconic, it also undermined their other songs to the point that he didn’t want to perform it.
5Nicki Minaj Wishes She Never Recorded “Starships” or “Anaconda”
Two of the biggest records of Nicki Minaj’s career happen to be “Starships” and “Anaconda.” The former helped catapult the Young Money alumnus into superstardom, while “Anaconda” represents the peak of her success. However, she doesn’t look back fondly toward either record.
In a Q&A with Irving Azoff at the Pollstar Live Conference in Beverly Hills some years back, Minaj admitted to wishing she had never recorded either. For “Starships” especially, she’s said she hated the song and refuses to perform it onstage. While she enjoys Anaconda’s music video, she doesn’t like the song itself.
4Robert Plant Paid Radio Stations to Stop Playing “Stairway to Heaven”
It’s surprising to think that"Stairway to Heaven" never hit number oneon the charts when it has become Led Zeppelin’s most popular song. One has to wonder if Robert Plant had anything to do with that, since his hate for the song goes beyond just a general displeasure for it.
The band’s lead singer and songwriter has not only openly criticized “Stairway to Heaven” in recent memory, but also infamously donated $10,000 to a non-profit radio station in Portland called KBOO Radio just to get them to stop playing “Stairway to Heaven.” Now that’s a different kind of hate!
3"Telephone" Gives Lady Gaga Anxiety
Perception is an interesting thing. What one thing means to one person can mean something entirely different to another. While Lady Gaga’s fans adore dancing and singing along to the joyous “Telephone,” the song is a reminder of stress for Gaga herself. So much as thinking about “Telephone” can make Gaga anxious.
She has publicly stated that she hates the song, largely because of the music video, which she believes is cluttered with unorganized ideas that she wishes she had edited down herself. One has to wonder if Gaga would still carry all of this anxiety for the song ifBritney Spears had not turned it down.
