It's only natural that the majority of songs released after a certain period of time will begin to sound dated, however there are some songs in particular which really don't age well at all.

Sucker DJ - Dimples D (1990) - To be fair, a lot of the hip hop songs from the Early 90s haven't aged well, but "Sucker DJ" in particular really hasn't aged gracefully at all. It can mostly be contributed to the song's heavy sampling of the theme song to 1960s TV show, I Dream of Jeannie.

Cherry Pie - Warrant (1990) - This would have sounded outdated as early as 1993. :P

Apple Eyes - Swoop (1995) - An Australian one-hit wonder from 1995. This would have looked and sounded outdated even by 1995 standards.

Sugar, Sugar - The Archies (1969) - Although it hasn't aged well, I like how innocent the song is.

Money For Nothing - Dire Straits (1983) - Mostly due to the theme of the song and its historical context. It was very innovative for its time, however I personally don't think that it has aged too well.

Money for Nothing is actually 1985. :P

What's funny about that song is even though it features stereotypical 80's production with synths and loud reverbed drums, the blues riffs give it this really unique edge that set it a part from so many other 1985 hits. The music video is really cool, too. One of the first uses of CGI for music videos!

"The Game of Love" by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders is the primary case of this, in my opinion. Its lyrics, while fairly plausible for 1964, are now, in hindsight, the most hideously heteronormative and sexist garbage I've ever heard put to record. Its lyrics declare, horrifyingly bluntly, that "the purpose of a man is to love a woman" and that "the purpose of a woman is to love a man," and then it proceeds to invoke Adam and Eve as the primary justification for the narrator's right to mate with the woman he's addressing. I know these complaints probably make me sound like a radical 21st Century feminist, but the thing is, even way back in the socially conservative mid 20th Century, the vast bulk of popular music addressed romance from a personal perspective and didn't rely on narrow, fundamental proclamations to drive their points home. I can still listen to a typical Frank Sintra song in 2017 and still relate to it personally; "The Game of Love," by contrast, makes me feel thoroughly uncomfortable, not just for myself and my fellow queer men and women, but also anybody in life whose motives stretch far beyond mere romantic commitment. The song may have been a celebration for what was still considered normal in its day, but now it sounds like the type of garbage Mike Pence would spew if he was trying to defend his "traditional values."

It's only natural that the majority of songs released after a certain period of time will begin to sound dated, however there are some songs in particular which really don't age well at all.


Apple Eyes - Swoop (1995) - An Australian one-hit wonder from 1995. This would have looked and sounded outdated even by 1995 standards.


I think that what makes it age bad would be that it's drawing on the '70s, which is a decade that is not as revisited as often as the '80s-'00s are today.

Most of Madonna's songs from Like A Virgin album haven't aged well. Too 80's for my taste.

This thread is a breath of fresh air.

Basically every song by the Hot Boyz. The beats are way too southern and the lyrics are bland, uncreative.

I would say "Ringtone-Rap" has aged horribly but it sounded horrible when it was popular in the mid to late 00's(late 2005-early 2008.)

A song like "Cherry Pie" by "Warrant" it doesn't that sound good today from the tail end of the hair metal era circa 1991.

Crunk songs haven't aged well

Most of Madonna's songs from Like A Virgin album haven't aged well. Too 80's for my taste.


I sort of compare the datedness of 80's synthpop/dance songs to the 50's doo wop songs of the era, as they were mostly liked by SOME adolescents and they contain a sentimental feeling for those who experienced it or for those who "wished" they grew up then. Many disco songs from the '70s and Eurodance/House/Teen Pop songs from the '90s also qualify, and part of it has to do with being "too LGBTQ" or dorkish to still enjoy and too old school for the fashion forward clubs.

Conversely, many songs popular during the decade following World War II (between the Swing and early Rock 'n Roll eras) also suffered for being "too whitebread" and reflecting midcentury conservatism, along with being plain sleepy. That's why you don't hear about the best-selling male and female singers of the era, Patti Page and Perry Como that much, with Tony Bennett getting a pass simply because he's the last real survivor from this era. The TV Tropes site has a section called "Dead Horse Genre", and most songs from the genres listed (Smooth Jazz for instance) is subject to this.

Many disco songs from the '70s and Eurodance/House/Teen Pop songs from the '90s also qualify
Like I said before, '90s songs that try to sound '70s have aged bad as well, I mean, '00s songs that try to sound '80s don't quite sound as old.

Oh wow, I just discovered another really obvious case of this. In 2000, Vengaboys had a song from their sophomore album called "24/7 in My 911." Not only is the latter number pronounced "nine-eleven" instead of "nine-one-one," the lyrics also go, "on a highway to heaven." I can't believe that song was included on the group's 2009 Greatest Hits! album, especially since it wasn't even released as a single.