Hello Popheads! I am
u/TiltControls and I hope you're ready to be overwhelmed with too many tables, stats, and numbers that have no influence outside of this subreddit! Over the course of the pandemic, instead of learning a new language or skill, I have been compiling a list of every song rated in Popheads history, including score, controversy, placement, and more. With the Redemption Rate Reveal
yesterday two days ago (because I am slow)
Popheads has hit its 100th rate! (Actually can be 97-102 depending on how you classify rates but ignore that…). So I figured now was as good a time as any to finally get this list finished and posted!
For those unaware, the subreddit performs 2-3 rates a month where we all come together and
endlessly bicker send in scores to determine our general consensus/opinions on songs! A good overview on past rates and how to do it can be found
here.
About the data: not included here is the bonus rate for the Up and Coming Rap Girls since the conditions for rating were different than normal (and it breaks basically every statistic I have). Also there is no guarantee everything listed here is correct, but I am reasonably confident it's all accurate. Still, if you see something off let me know!
If you don't care about the numerous charts that are included you can find a link to the
raw data/full songlist here and again at the bottom of the post.
Songs Statistics
Score Leaderboard
The leaderboard is probably the easiest to calculate, and I am definitely not the first to do it. However, it wouldn't be a full listing if I didn't include it.
| Place | Score | Song | Artist | Rate |
| 1 | 10.107 | How Will I Know | Whitney Houston | 80's Dancepop Debuts |
| 2 | 10.038 | All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey | Holiday Music |
| 3 | 9.962 | Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) | Kate Bush | OG Art Pop |
| 4 | 9.954 | Dancing On My Own | Robyn | Futuristic Flops |
| 5 | 9.867 | The Chain | Fleetwood Mac | All Time Classics |
| 6 | 9.864 | Creep | TLC | 90's R&B Girl Groups |
| 7 | 9.854 | Can't Get You Out of My Head | Kylie Minogue | Fever vs. In the Zone vs. Music |
| 8 | 9.756 | Oops!...I Did It Again | Britney Spears | Y2K Teen Rate |
| 9 | 9.737 | Get Outta My Way | Kylie Minogue | Futuristic Flops |
| 10 | 9.734 | Mr. Brightside | The Killers | 2000's Pop Rock |
| … | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 5137 | 2.854 | Take a Little Ride | Jason Aldean | 2012 Billboard Year-End |
| 5138 | 2.771 | Bad Guy (Remix) | billie eilish (ft. Justin Bieber) | 2019 Main Girls Rate |
| 5139 | 2.745 | SAD! | XXXTENTACION | 21st Century Hip Hop #1s |
| 5140 | 2.672 | It's Everyday Bro | Jake Paul (ft. Team 10) | Meme Songs |
| 5141 | 2.668 | Watch Me | Silento | 2010's Billboard Decade-End |
| 5142 | 2.644 | Drunk on You | Luke Bryan | 2012 Billboard Year-End |
| 5143 | 2.438 | Birthday Cake (Remix) | Rihanna (ft. Chris Brown) | 2011 Ultimate Albums |
| 5144 | 2.371 | On My Own | Farrah Abraham | Charity Rate I |
| 5145 | 2.322 | Somethin' Bout a Truck | Kip Moore | 2012 Billboard Year-End |
| 5146 | 1.570 | Earth | Lil Dicky | Charity Rate II |
I don't think there is anything I can add to this conversation except for the features on Earth should go thank Lil Dicky for not being listed.
Eleven Leaderboard
After another 60+ rates, Praying is still holding that number 1 spot strong (though now tied with one T. Swift). Not listed is a 5 way tie in the #11 spot, each with 18 11's a piece: So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings, All I Want For Christmas Is You, Mr. Brightside (2000's Pop Rock), Gone, and Nobody.
| Rank | 11's | Song | Artist | Rate |
| 1 | 36 | Praying | Kesha | 2017 Ultimate Albums |
| 1 | 36 | Cruel Summer | Taylor Swift | 2019 Main Pop Girls |
| 3 | 32 | Juice | Lizzo | 2019 Main Pop Girls |
| 4 | 30 | disco tits | Tove Lo | 2017 Electroflops |
| 5 | 29 | Your Best American Girl | Mitski | Women Who Rock |
| 6 | 27 | cellophane | FKA twigs | 2019 Ultimate Pitchfork Acclaim |
| 7 | 24 | All Too Well | Taylor Swift | Anniversary Rate |
| 8 | 22 | Bad Romance | Lady Gaga | Billboard 2010's Decade End |
| 9 | 21 | G.U.Y. | Lady Gaga | 2013 Ultimate Albums |
| 10 | 19 | ghostin | Ariana Grande | 2019 Main Pop Girls |
Zero Leaderboard
People have opinions with these Ultimate album rates! Though partially owing to the large turnout they get whenever we do them, I'm still surprised that 5 different ones have taken 6 spots on the leaderboard. Currently the top spot is held in a 3 way tie, with 3 controversial tracks I'm sure someone out there likes (Okay, maybe not Earth).
| Rank | 0's | Song | Artist | Rate |
| 1 | 36 | Earth | Lil Dicky | Charity Rate II |
| 1 | 36 | Birthday Cake (Remix) | Rihanna (ft. Chris Brown) | 2011 Ultimate Albums |
| 1 | 36 | ME! | Taylor Swift (ft. Brendon Urie) | 2019 Main Pop Girls |
| 4 | 27 | On My Own | Farrah Abraham | Charity Rate |
| 5 | 23 | It's Everyday Bro | Jake Paul (ft. Team 10) | Meme Songs |
| 6 | 21 | SAD! | XXXTENTACION | 21st Century Hip Hop #1s |
| 7 | 20 | This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things | Taylor Swift | 2017 Ultimate Albums |
| 7 | 20 | Jewels N' Drugs | Lady Gaga (ft. T.I., Too $hort, Twista) | 2013 Ultimate Albums |
| 9 | 19 | 7 Rings | Ariana Grande | 2019 Main Pop Girls |
| 10 | 18 | Ur So Gay | Katy Perry | 2008 Ultimate Albums |
Minimums and Maximums
Out of the many, many songs we’ve rated only 5(!) have gone through a rate without receiving a score 7 or below.
Lowest score 8.3 | How Will I Know – Whitney Houston (80s Dancepop Debuts) Lowest score 8.0 | POWER – Kanye West (Modern Classics of Hip Hop) Lowest score 8.0 | Valerie - Mark Ronson & Amy Winehouse (Disco/Funk Revival Bonus) Lowest score 8.0 | One More Time - Daft Punk (Disco/Funk Revival Bonus) Lowest score 7.5 | Do I Wanna Know – The Arctic Monkeys (2013 Alt Rock)
(If you want to be more forgiving there are an additional 16 songs whose lowest scores were 7 exactly)
On the other side, 3 songs have never received an 8 or above when rated. Funny enough, all of them are from the same artist and rate. Sorry Backstreet Boys, better luck in the VH1 90’s rate.
Highest score 7.8 | Spanish Eyes Highest score 7.5 | You Knew What I Knew Highest score 7.0 | You Wrote the Book on Love
Current Thresholds
Wondering where in the rankings each song falls? Here is a list of handy milestones to compare! Also included are what songs sit as the gatekeepers of each milestone (Dreams for example, is in place #50).
Top 50:
9.403 | Dreams – Fleetwood Mac (All Time Classics)
Top 100:
9.259 | Run Away With Me – Carly Rae Jepsen (Winner’s Rate 1)
Top 500:
8.642 | Oops I Did It Again – Britney Spears (Winner’s Rate 1) 8.642 | Waking the Witch – Kate Bush (OG Art Pop)
Top 1000:
8.222 | Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z and Alicia Keys (All Stars 3) 8.222 | Old Habits Die Hard – Allie X (2017 Electropopflops)
Top Half of Songs (Median):
7.383 | Sirens - Kelsea Ballerini (New Country Girls) 7.383 | Just Another Thing – Maren Morris (New Country Girls) 7.383 | Haunted – Evanescence (Aughties Rock)
Not in the bottom 100:
4.841 | Dear Diary – Britney Spears (Y2K Teen Rate)
Overall Average
Over every single rate, using every single song, the current average (mean) sits at a score of 7.320. Anything better than that score can be considered above average and anything lesser is below average. From there only one song is considered right on the average in the first 100 rates: Altar by Poppy from the 2016 EP Rate. (If you exclude bonus songs the total average rises slightly to 7.341).
Controversial Songs
Possibly unsurprisingly, Closer (from the 2016 EP Rate) still holds the top spot for controversy after all this time. In the top 25 it also holds spot #16 (from the All Stars 3 robbery). Work From Home is the only other song with that distinction sitting at #3 and #21.
Currently 86 rated songs have achieved a controversy score over 3.00. And 11 of those are just from the Meme rate! In contrast, only 20 songs have received a controversy score at or below 1.00. 20% of those songs all come from the same rate (Modern Classics of Hip-Hop).
Controversy usually dooms a song to a low rating, but not always. The only 3 songs to get 7+ with more than 3.0 controversy are Shoes (Meme Rate), Where's My Juul (Meme Rate), and Closer (EDM/Pop Girls Collab Rate). If that isn’t justification to include it in Meme Rate 2 among its brethren I don’t know what is.
| Rank | Controversy | Song | Artist | Rate |
| 1 | 3.669 | Closer | The Chainsmokers (ft. Halsey) | The 2016 EP Rate |
| 2 | 3.640 | Ur So Gay | Katy Perry | 2008 Ultimate Albums |
| 3 | 3.617 | Work from Home | Fifth Harmony (ft. Ty Dolla $ign) | X-Factor Excellence |
| 4 | 3.537 | Santa's Coming For Us | Sia | Popheads Holiday Music |
| 5 | 3.530 | American Pie | Madonna | Fever vs. In the Zone vs. Music |
| 6 | 3.527 | Fairytale of New York | The Pogues | Popheads Holiday Music |
| 7 | 3.506 | 4:33 | John Cage | Charity Rate I |
| 8 | 3.477 | !!!!! | billie eilish | 2019 Main Pop Girls |
| 9 | 3.453 | 9 (After Coachella) | Cashmere Cat (ft. SOPHIE, MØ) | EDM/Pop Girl Collaborations |
| 10 | 3.448 | Blurred Lines | Robin Thicke (ft. Pharrell Williams, T.I.) | Billboard Songs of the Summer |
| … | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 4988 | 0.907 | Heartless | Kanye West | Moody R&B |
| 4989 | 0.905 | Do I Wanna Know | Arctic Monkeys | 2013 B+W Alt Rock |
| 4990 | 0.862 | Joga | Björk | OG Art Pop Rate |
| 4991 | 0.848 | Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) | Kate Bush | OG Art Pop Rate |
| 4992 | 0.842 | Switch | TLC | 90's R&B Girl Groups |
| 4993 | 0.785 | Native Tongue | Paramore | Emo Rate II |
| 4994 | 0.774 | How Will I Know | Whitney Houston | 80's Dancepop Debuts |
| 4995 | 0.759 | One More Time | Daft Punk | Disco/Funk Revival |
| 4996 | 0.752 | Valerie | Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse | Disco/Funk Revival |
| 4997 | 0.696 | POWER | Kanye West | Modern Classics of Hip-Hop |
In the top 25 leaderboard there are also 6 former Miss Songenialities (Ur So Gay, Work From Home (X-Factor), Revenge, Closer (AS3), Accelerate, and Party Rock Anthem (Songs of the Summer)). We love to award a messy song!
Songs Rated Multiple Times
Excluding bonus songs, we have rated 410 songs more than once. Of those 57 songs have been rated 3 or more times and 8 have hit the 4+ barrier (below).
| Title | Artist | Rates In | Avg Score |
| Rolling in the Deep | Adele | 6 | 8.513 |
| Paparazzi | Lady Gaga | 4 | 8.851 |
| When Doves Cry | Prince | 4 | 8.785 |
| Call Me Maybe | Carly Rae Jepsen | 4 | 8.549 |
| Lights | Ellie Goulding | 4 | 8.413 |
| TiK ToK | Kesha | 4 | 8.400 |
| We Found Love | Rihanna (ft. Calvin Harris) | 4 | 8.363 |
| Closer | The Chainsmokers (ft. Halsey) | 4 | 6.611 |
The songlist sheet only contains songs after they have been rated, but due to the VH1 90's rate Genie in a Bottle and Waterfalls will be joining the 4+ club very soon. Additionally, once the 2nd Winners Rate starts Dancing On My Own and We Belong Together will also both be joining the 4 timers list.
Artists Statistics
Including both primary and featured credits, we have rated nearly 1300 artists at this point!! From those, 228 have more than 5 ratings (excluding bonus songs). Any artists mentioned in this next section will be about those artists since they've got enough ratings to pull data from. These only include credited names, so for example, Beyoncé is not credited for Destiny's Child songs (though I want to add this feature some day as a toggle or something).
Artist Averages
Despite a rough showing in the Redemption Rate (which also means Hounds of Love [Redemption] is now her lowest rated song), Kate Bush still holds the number 1 spot by a good margin. The bottom 5 is also included, though I don't think many will be surprised by their inclusions. Though T.I.'s spot might not be an immediately expected guess, but it shows when you see that of his 6 ratings - 1 is Jewels and Drugs (avg: 4.751) and 2 are from Blurred Lines (4.333 and 3.527).
| Rank | Average | Artist |
| 1 | 8.636 | Kate Bush |
| 2 | 8.461 | Prince |
| 3 | 8.416 | Björk |
| 4 | 8.399 | Michael Jackson |
| 5 | 8.362 | Fleetwood Mac |
| 6 | 8.335 | Carole King |
| 7 | 8.309 | Frank Ocean |
| 8 | 8.307 | Fiona Apple |
| 9 | 8.281 | Alicia Keys |
| 10 | 8.263 | ABBA |
| … | ... | ... |
| 224 | 5.734 | Pitbull |
| 225 | 5.531 | T.I. |
| 226 | 5.399 | Wiz Khalifa |
| 227 | 5.036 | LMFAO |
| 228 | 5.034 | Chris Brown |
Artist Controversiality
Barring a contest held for "Lowest Artist Average" or "Worst human being rated", Chris Brown is at the top of hopefully the only chart that can be made for this data. Joining him is the rest of the bottom 5 average artists listed above as well.
| Rank | Contr. | Artist |
| 1 | 2.850 | Chris Brown |
| 2 | 2.848 | The Chainsmokers |
| 3 | 2.800 | LMFAO |
| 4 | 2.719 | SOPHIE |
| 5 | 2.689 | T.I. |
| 6 | 2.534 | fun. |
| 7 | 2.500 | Pitbull |
| 8 | 2.467 | Kiiara |
| 9 | 2.464 | Wiz Khalifa |
| 10 | 2.453 | Iggy Azalea |
Most Times Rated
Surprising absolutely no one, this top 10 is composed entirely of the sub's favourite pop girls. In fact nearly all of the top 20 is made of women, except for Kanye West (#12), Drake (#14), and The Weeknd (#17).
- Taylor Swift (105 times)
- Britney Spears (92)
- Lana Del Rey (90)
- Beyoncé (87)
- Lady Gaga (81)
- Katy Perry (77)
- Rihanna (75)
- Madonna (70)
- Carly Rae Jepsen (69)
- Kesha (64)
Least Zeroes
Managing to survive through rabid stans, ratings sabotage, and the messiness known as "All Stars", only 11 artists of the 228 have never received a zero! From most ratings to least they are
- MisterWives (0 zeroes/15 songs)
- The Jonas Brothers (0/15)
- Carole King (0/12)
- Dolly Parton (0/12)
- Fiona Apple (0/12)
- Paula Abdul (0/11)
- Purity Ring (0/10)
- Usher (0/8)
- Ludacris (0/7)
- Alicia Keys (0/6)
- Rico Nasty (0/6)
Congrats! Everyone either loves you or you’re so forgettable no one cares enough to bring your scores down. Shout out to Jess Glynne, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, and Florence + The Machine who all have the lowest amount of zeroes per song otherwise, with 1/20, 1/18, 1/16, and 2/32 respectively.
Most Elevens
Quick, before you get to this list take a 2 or 3 guesses which popheads favourites might be on it. If you didn’t guess any then you must have just joined this subreddit, in which case – Welcome!
- Taylor Swift (291 elevens)
- Lady Gaga (210)
- Lana Del Rey (178)
- Carly Rae Jepsen (172)
- Ariana Grande (158)
- Beyoncé (151)
- Lorde (146)
- Kesha (130)
- Britney Spears (128)*
- Kanye West (126)
*Couldn't find the number of 11s from the first time we rated Toxic, but if I had to guess it would be enough to move her to at least 8th.
Most Zeroes
Only Taylor could top both of these categories by such a large margin. Say what you want about her, but she knows how to get a reaction. Beyoncé and Halsey are technically tied for 5th, but I don't feel liking working around markdown today to fix it.
- Taylor Swift (213 zeroes)
- Katy Perry (120)
- Rihanna (98)
- Lady Gaga (79)
- Beyoncé (78) [TIE]
- Halsey (78) [TIE]
- Britney Spears (76)
- Lana Del Rey (75)
- Ariana Grande (74)
- Charli XCX (72)
Least Elevens
Out of the group of 228 with 5+ ratings, there is only a single artist that has never received an 11.
Sorry LMFAO stans (if you exist). Should have thrown them an 11 when we rated Party Rock Anthem for the third time.
All around trash human being Chris Brown is otherwise worst of the pack, with only 1 eleven score out of 11 rating entries. Joining him in the bottom 5 include Wiz Khalifa (1/8), Linkin Park (2/15), Ne-Yo (1/7), and Macklemore/Ryan Lewis (1/5).
Edit: This is too long and breaking my reddit so rate stats are included in a comment
That's it from me! Here is a link to the raw data/full songlist for anyone interested! Some tips:
- Ctrl/Command + F is your friend if you are looking for specific artists/songs
- If you want to sort/reorder the sheets you may have to download or make a copy for editing rights
- Due to the headers, to determine a song's ranking just take 1 off the row number (ignoring ties)
- Some of the songs/rates are missing data (usually controversy or participant data). Due to this some of the aggregated stats might be slightly off (score-related stats should be all fine though)
All the source data is actually stored in a database so if anyone has rate questions that can’t be done in Sheets let me know (in the comments or as a message) and I’ll see what I can do. I'll be slowly adding more stats to this sheet as I figure out a good way to either calculate or store them, so be on the lookout for those! I'll try to keep the list updated within a day or two of new rate results as well. Enjoy! And don't fuck up the Emo/90's Rate like y'all did Redemption!
Edit: I've been lucky enough to be granted a Wiki page to keep a running stats page for any new rates! Check it out! Thanks for the kind words and awards from everyone! I'm not usually one for gold edits, but really everyone who does these rates (both hosting and participating) does great work and I've discovered so much more fantastic music that I never would have otherwise!
