A huge problem in the rock music world was exemplified in January, when Billboard released their list of the biggest rock music songs of the 2010s.   Sitting right next to each other, at the top two slots, were “Believer” and “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons.  Aside from these being both terrible songs – they demonstrate a lack of effort musically and both songs’ hooks are obnoxious – they aren’t rock music.  Both songs place considerably more focus on the vocals and hooks than the instrumentation, and guitar is barely a presence on either song.

That being said, the biggest problem with Imagine Dragons isn’t Imagine Dragons’s fault.  It is the fault of a considerable number of musicians, especially within the last five years, cashing in their chips and attempting to be the next Imagine Dragons by coating their music with synths and electronic effects to the point that they became straight-up pop music, or at the very least becoming more pop-oriented and losing their initial edge.  Casualties in the last few years have involved Fall Out Boy, 30 Seconds to Mars, and even Linkin Park as they put out arguably the worst songs and albums of their careers with this approach.  But then there are other acts, such as Papa Roach and Bullet For My Valentine, who have attempted to incorporate these effects while still remaining rock music.  These acts, judging by their critical panning and lessening commercial sales, haven’t done well with this approach either.  And while this trend finally appears to be declining with Imagine Dragons losing a considerable amount of their relevance in 2019, another band I heard a lot about over the years went with the “let’s play electronic mainstream rock” approach and followed these bands off the cliff and into the sea…

“Antisocialist” – Asking Alexandria

Mainstream Rock
#3 peak, #18 year-end

I’m a regular watcher of Luke Spencer and his Rocked channel on YouTube.  It was here, on his Worst Albums of 2020 list earlier this month, where I was first warned of this song and Asking Alexandria’s apparent drop in quality.  When I first listened to this song, I was surprised to hear a generic, but not-bad-at-all guitar rhythm and some nice background vocal effects in the intro.  I sat listening to it and thought, “this is from the fourth worst album of the year?”

Then Danny Worsnop began singing.  At this point, all the guitars dropped out for some eerie synths that sounded less like a band and more like a pop act playing around with FL Studio, and I realized, “Oh, yeah.  This is bad.”

Aside from the synths in the verses being bad, they make for a lousy match for Asking Alexandria’s melodic hardcore sound in general, and it gives the sense that two different songs of different genres were spliced together in Pro Tools.  But unlike with Pop Evil earlier on this list, the bad music isn’t why the song is here.

I need to be blunt here:  The lyrics suck.  It’s yet another song complaining about how one person makes the protagonist of this song’s life miserable.  It’s not the first, and spoiler alert, won’t be the last on this list.  After a verse where we learn about a sleeping-pill induced psychedelic dream Worsnop had where he was “all by myself with no one else,” we get to the chorus.  Oh boy.

The line that gets the most emphasis in the chorus is the one that closes it:

Please, stay away from me
Cause I don’t f**king like you!

A MASSIVE pet peeve of mine is when someone uses polite language, especially “please,” to justify their rude behavior. All I can say to Worsnop in this situation is, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?  You’re using “please” to emphasize quite possibly the biggest insult you can tell someone?  From this statement, you’re telling me that YOU are the one with the problem, not your enemy.  And surprise… Worsnop tells us nothing regarding how this person doesn’t deserve respect.  The most we find out about this “enemy” is:

Please, stay away from me
You keep on talking with nothing to say

So, that’s it?  That’s why you have an excuse to tell him to his face you don’t like him?  You find what he talks about meaningless and boring?  Wow.  Doesn’t take much to send you over the edge.

Me: “I review music and do other stuff.”
Danny Worsnop: “YOU KEEP ON TAKING WITH NOTHING TO SAY!  I DON’T LIKE YOU!!”

But wait.  There’s more.

I don’t wanna hear about your life
You make me wanna eat a bullet, bullet

Come on.  This guy makes you want to commit suicide?  Because he talks about nothing?  We haven’t learned anything about how this person has earned your scorn, and this is how you greet him.  By announcing that you hate him, and threatening to commit suicide.  How thin-skinned are you?

Then we get to the bridge.  At which point the whining not only continues, but becomes stolen:

From my heart, I hope you know this song is about you
From my heart, I hope you know this song is about you

Uh… I’m sure I’ve heard this before.

“You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon (1973):

You’re so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You’re so vain
You probably think this song is about you
Don’t you, don’t you?

Multiple times.

“A Film For the Future” by Idlewild (1998):

I know what you think
You think this film is about you
It isn’t about you, it isn’t about you
I know what you think
You think this film is about you

Not only is this couplet an obvious copy of “You’re So Vain” and the other songs that got to its chorus first, but this song’s use of the lyrics pales in comparison to the previous examples.  “You’re So Vain” has had its reputation hit in recent years by critics who have argued that it is whiny and a forerunner to Taylor Swift’s angry songs about boys, but I still really like this song.  Carly absolutely sells it with her exquisite yet intense belting of the song, and unlike “Antisocialist,” she gives legitimate reasoning why this person is “so vain.”  She mentions how he always thinks so highly of himself with how he “had one eye in the mirror, as you watched yourself gavotte,” and how other women want him simply because he thinks so highly of himself.  And in “A Film For the Future,” Roddy Woomble uses this same phrase to discuss his hatred of his film studies and how “nothing is certain” regarding his future.  But here, with the boring and lame electronic backing track and the immature chorus, we don’t get the same feeling here.  All I’m left to think is that Danny Worsnop loves Carly Simon a little too much.

When I initially listened to this song, I predicted that this song could grow worse in stature over the next few years.  And indeed, it has. I initially put this song at 7th, but moved it below Green Day when I added it to this blog. While Green Day’s song is a big disappointment, “Antisocialist” is just anger-inducing with its whiny and plagiarized lyrics. In short, this song needs to stay away from me, because I don’t freaking like this song.

IMAGE SOURCES

“Antisocialist” single cover from Genius

No Secrets album cover from Wikimedia

“A Film For The Future” single cover from Discogs