The top most irritating tracks of the year have been announced – and it’s not good news for Sabrina Carpenter supporters.
Researchers from Seat Pickextracted the top songs of the year from the official rankings, then subjected them to an ‘annoyingness index’.
The songs were evaluated based on four main criteria, including repetition and lyrical filler (such as ‘yeah’, ‘la’, and ‘uh’ used repeatedly).
The findings indicated that Sabrina Carpenter’s tracks “Sugar Talking” and “Tears” were the most irritating songs of the year.
As per the irritation scale, these songs annoy 46 percent of listeners.
Other tracks considered irritating include ‘Azizam’ byEd Sheeran, ‘Who’ by Jimin, and ‘The Dead Dance’ byLady Gaga.
‘2025 has turned out to be a significant year for music, featuring chart-topping releases, trending TikTok songs, and musicians exploring new creative limits across various genres,’ Seat Pick explained.
‘Nevertheless, certain tracks have also generated discussions regarding their annoying nature, ranging from repetition to “harmonic monotony.”
To identify the most irritating songs, Seat Pick analyzed the Top 50 songs and TikTok playlists using the annoyance score.
This was structured based on four quantifiable elements – repetition, loudness, harmonic blandness, and lyric content density.
“Each element generated a 0–1 score,” Seat Pick clarified.
These were integrated through a weighted formula (Repetition 30%, Brightness 20%, Harmonic Dullness 20%, Filler Density 20%, Baseline 10%) to determine a final 0–10 Annoying Score for each track.
The findings showed that Sabrina Carpenter’s Sugar Talking and Tears are at the top of the list, each receiving a rating of 4.6/10.
‘Sabrina has continued to achieve impressive streaming figures and robust social media engagement, and has marked a highly successful year overall—receiving several awards, including Best Pop Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards and Pop Artist of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards,’ Seat Pick stated.
Lady Gaga’s ‘The Dead Dance’ is next (4.58), then ‘Who’ by Jimin (4.55), ‘Beautiful People’ by David Guetta and Sia (4.52), and ‘Make Believe’ by Luke Dean (4.51).
On the opposite end, Rosalia’s popular track ‘Memoria’ was the least irritating song, scoring only 3.07.
| Rank | Song | Artist | % who find it irritating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sugar Talking | Sabrina Carpenter | 46 |
| 2 | Tears | Sabrina Carpenter | 46 |
| 3 | The Dead Dance | Lady Gaga | 45.8 |
| 4 | Who | Jimin | 45.5 |
| 5 | Beautiful People | David Guetta/Sia | 45.2 |
| 6 | Make Believe | Luke Dean/Omar+ | 45.1 |
| 7 | Just Keep Watching | Tate McRae/F1 The Album | 44.7 |
| 8 | Dreamin | Dom Dolla/Daya | 44.6 |
| 9 | Azizam | Ed Sheeran | 44.1 |
| 10 | The Days | Chrystal/NOTION | 44 |
This was followed by her song La Perla (3.19), Anne-Marie’s ‘Depressed’ (3.26), and Drake’s ‘Gimme a Hug’ (3.35).
Meanwhile, on TikTok, the track “Dame Un Gurr” by Fantomel/Kate Linn was the most irritating song (4.57).
Other annoying songs that became popular on the social media platform include “She Twerkin” by Ca$h Out (4.41), “Ace Up” by BubaJuice (4.40), and “Illegal” by PinkPantheress (4.40).
In the meantime, although ‘Hold My Hand’ by Jess Glynne first entered the charts in 2015, it experienced a revival on TikTok following its inclusion in Jet2Holiday’s 2025 advertisement.
‘“Hold My Hand” by Jess Glynne ranks among the most irritating TikTok trending songs of 2025, with a 42.1% likelihood of being found annoying by listeners,’ Seat Pick added.
‘The track’s repetitive chorus and soaring vocals, while intended to be uplifting, have contributed to listener fatigue when overplayed on the platform.
First becoming well-known after being used in a Jet2Holiday commercial, the track later appeared extensively in more than 3.4 million TikTok videos and social media fads, keeping it very prominent throughout the year.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome, there’s no need to be concerned.
“Annoyance” is subjective to the listener, Seat Pick added.
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