The 10 Worst Music Videos of 2014

"Best" and "worst" are subjective terms. Something that’s absurd or obscene to one viewer might be hilarious or titillating to another. But after poring through dozens of videos, we found some that, by any standards, are just downright bad.

And in some cases, the worse they were, the more people watched!

Read on for our list of 2014’s just plain really bad clips. Did we miss any? By all means, feel free to weigh in with your own choices.

10. PSY featuring Snoop Dogg, “Hangover”

For those surprised that this is the same happy YouTube star that brought joy to the world in 2012 with “Gangnam Style,” consider the cavalcade of celebrity PSY has enjoyed and endured since his breakthrough. Given the circumstances, it’s hardly surprising he’s sought kinship in the arms of veteran weed cultivator and rapper Snoop Dogg. Together, they’ve come up with an anthem about partying till you puke. Too bad the results are more head-scratching than amusing.

9. Bella Thorne,  “Call It Whatever”

Considering that Bella has a résumé that rivals a pre-twerking Miley Cyrus, we expected greater things from her video for “Call It Whatever.” It’s not horrible or at all offensive. It’s just lame and tame. The singing-girl-in-a-diner theme is played out (remember Cher Lloyd’s “Want U Back?”), and the Justin Bieber wannabe that sweeps her off her feet is as laughable as the a cappella passage that ends the clip and takes Bella out of her honey-dipped daydream. Back to work, missy!

8. Riff Raff, “Dolce & Gabbana”

It’s pretty hard to take Texas boy Horst Christian Simco (aka Riff Raff) seriously. The guy looks about as street as Tobey Maguire, even with the python around his neck. And if, as he says, he “only f---s with hos who rock Dolce & Gabbana,” then we doubt he’s getting a lot of action — unless he’s paying to be playing. From his bling-and-braids fashion sense to the weak, sloppy rhyming, there’s very little to recommend about this clip. And if it was just intended to be a stoopid spoof of hip-hop indulgence, well, the joke’s lost on us.

7. Paris Hilton, “Come Alive”

This idea of Paris Hilton dressed up as an angel is absurd in and of itself. But even if you can roll with the mawkish imagery of the celebutante prancing through fields of wheat, relaxing on a budding rose, and swaying on a swing of giant flowers, the series of increasingly ridiculous imagery makes us wonder, “What’s next, a unicorn and a rainbow?” Then sooner than we can say “home sex video”… yes, Hilton is leaning on a horned horse and framed by a lustrous rainbow. In the end, we’re left thinking we just watched an advertisement for Hallmark greeting cards or Lisa Frank.

6. Justin Bieber featuring Chance the Rapper,  “Confident”

The only thing Bieber has in common with Justin Timberlake is the first name. The young, overly “confident” singer tries to come off all seductive, but he seems more like a stalker as he follows a young lady down an alley and through a bar. The mid-song acting segment is, at best, high-school-film-class quality. And how Bieber ends up wooing the object of his desire with weak pickup lines instead of getting sprayed with Mace is a mystery to us. Never mind the fact that his wardrobe choices of oversized sunglasses and giant gold necklace are as ridiculous as his barely visible mustache.

5. The Chainsmokers, “#SELFIE”

In some ways, “#SELFIE” brings us back to the days when phones and cameras were different devices and Frank Zappa recruited daughter Moon Unit to imitate the lingo of superficial California teens in the song “Valley Girl.” Thirty-two years later, not that much has changed, judging by all Valley-ish, airheaded banter heard here. Getting through this nearly four-minute clip is excruciating, maybe because this kind of art imitates life too closely.

4. Jennifer Lopez featuring Iggy Azalea, “Booty”

Newsflash! Jennifer Lopez has a pretty fine booty. But in case you forgot, J.Lo is here to remind you, with some help from the equally bootylicious Iggy Azalea, who is 21 years her junior. What results is a sleazy montage of grinding, bumping, and sliding that falls just short of late-night Cinemax programming. Women may be queens of pop these days, which is all well and good, but the messages of objectification they continue to perpetuate is at best perplexing, and, in this case, appalling.

3. IceJJFish, “On the Floor”

Remember American Idol reject William Hung? Well, IceJJFish makes Hung sound like Adam Lambert. The big question is, does Ice Fish Man know he has terrible flow and a horrible singing voice? The semi-slick video for “On the Floor” suggests he doesn’t, though it further proves the guy dances as poorly as he sings. The entire production is so bad, it’s hard to feel anything but sympathy for someone so deluded. Only the truly cruel-hearted would consider this funny. Still, morbid curiosity knows no bounds, which explains how “On the Floor” has racked up more than 32 million views since it was posted in February.

2. Nicki Minaj, “Anaconda” (CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT)

Science and technology have come so far. High-quality albums can be recorded for a fraction of their former price, digital content can be transferred across the world in mere seconds, and phones and tablets now serve as portable laptops, cameras, and movie screens. And yet, for all the advances society has made, music videos are still a conduit for sexual promiscuity and misogyny, even among female artists. Nicki’s “Anaconda” references, and even samples, Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” but it takes the premise of the derriere as an object of desire to new, um, lows. “Starship,” this is not.

1. Avril Lavigne, “Hello Kitty”

We have no doubt that Avril is sincere in her love for Hello Kitty (who celebrated her 40th birthday this year) and Japanese culture in general. Sadly, Avril’s “Hello Kitty” video and song hardly pay suitable tribute to Sanrio’s feline phenomenon. The video isn’t offensive in the way Alison Gold’s “Chinese Food” was, but it’s not interesting or enlightening, either. It’s just… bad. Avril prances through Japan, dances with the locals, gobbles sushi, and sings mindless lines like “Come, come, kitty, kitty/You’re so pretty, pretty” — which contrast so radically with the rebellious verse of past songs like “Sk8r Boi” as to render the song utterly ineffectual. And compared with last year’s subversive comic book tribute, “Rock ‘N’ Roll,” which featured surreal imagery, violence, foul language, girl-on-girl action with Winnie Cooper, and cool riffs, “Hello Kitty” is a colossal disappointment from a performer capable of so much more.