Is there a #1 best song curse?

We all know that Toddstradamus can strike at any time, but I saw a comment on the post for his 2024 top 10 about there being specifically a curse for songs he picks as number ones for his favourites list. I know we can think of a few glaring examples right away, but I wanted to get a full overview and see just how prevalent it is. So here is my semi-subjective assessment of the #1 curse.

  • 2010 Lady Antebellum - Need You Now: I don't know them enough to say, apparently they've had trouble recently with the connotations of their name but that was long after so it doesn't really count.
  • 2011 CeeLo Green - Fuck You: Hell yes. He showed so much promise and just failed in the most miserable way an artist can, not only with allegations but just being less than everyone thought he'd be. What a wash
  • 2012 Drake and Rihanna - Take Care: Probably not? You can argue that this was the peak of Drake's career, but he was still at the top of the game until last year so it really doesn't count, and Rihanna had a pretty natural career cycle all things considered.
  • 2013 Daft Punk - Get Lucky: Yes, but positive? Daft Punk never made new original material after this and only a trickle of production jobs for a few years before calling it quits at the height of their fame and acclaim. It's disappointing that the Daft Punk brand is being milked to hell and back now that it's in the label's hands, but the guys themselves seem to be doing well.
  • 2014 Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk: Nope. This was the star-making moment for Bruno and he's still trucking to this day, and while Ronson would never have the same success he had with Amy Winehouse, he's still holding up with jobs like the Barbie soundtrack.
  • 2015 Taylor Swift - Style: Yes, but recovered. Reputation is an obvious curse that burned a lot of goodwill she had, led to a spiral and Todd and others dogpiling on her, but she has since spectacularly recovered. I think it still counts a curse, even if it was salvaged, for better or worse.
  • 2016 Chainsmokers - Closer: Yes. Looking past the backlash, even Todd admitted they fell off after this song, and the whole pop EDM genre this song represented would rapidly lose the relevance it had in the mid-2010s.
  • 2017 Lorde - Green Light: Yeah, sure. Lorde was the teen prodigy of music who made the 2010s what they are, but ended up kind of falling off the boat she made. Melodrama is basically the peak of her career, with Solar Power garnering a serious critical cooldown while Charli, SOPHIE and the rest of the hyperpop gang firmly claiming the innovating women of music throne. It's telling that the most attention she got in recent times is because Charli wrote a song about her.
  • 2018 Ariana Grande - Breathin: No. An argument can once again be made this is the peak of her music career, and she had a tiny bit of a rough patch at the turn of the decade, but her star is going strong, she still makes decent music, and of course Wicked made her the talk of the town lately so I wouldn't frame it like that.
  • 2019 Billie Eilish - Bad Guy: Hell no. Billie has kept making new and interesting music, her public image is great, she won two Oscars in a row, Bad Guy almost feels quaint compared to where she is now.
  • 2020 Morgan Wallen - More Than My Hometown: Hell yes. I mean, this is the one, he did a thing days after the video came out, has accumulated junk on him, and has gone from the shining new voice Nashville to essentially being Country Drake. Todd's disappointment in him is palpable
  • 2021 Willow - Meet Me at Our Spot: Yes. I love this song and I love Todd for taking a long shot like this in his ranking, but it didn't ammount to much. Emo Girl broke what little cred Willow amassed, there's been a significant backlash to the tiktok-ified pop punk she was part of, and apparently she made a shitty book. Case closed.
  • 2022 Taylor Swift - Antihero: Yes? In retrospect people probably thought Midnights was a greater turning point than it ended up being. 2023 proved Taylor Swift remained as vapid as ever, she got into two more high-profile relationships that were obviously doomed to fail, and her next album was just Midnights 2.0. She's obviously still the biggest act in the world, but I think Antihero only works as a song if you really believe that Taylor is struggling with who she is and her greatest flaws, and the last two years have shown very little movement on that end.
  • 2023 Olivia Rodrigo - bad idea right?: Probably not. The commenter who inspired this post tried to say it was on her too because Chappell and Sabrina have dominated this year, but I mean, Olivia seems nothing but happy about Chappell's success, and what beef there was between her and Sabrina is pretty much over. It's normal for an artist to have a slower year after a huge blockbuster one, it's called having an album cycle, and her tour was still a massive success. It's still too early to call, but I don't think there's any signs of the curse hitting her yet.
  • 2024 Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club: Obviously too early, but we all know there are signs that things might go south for her. I think everyone is holding their breath seeing if she can navigate it, I really don't need bad Chappell news this year.

So overall tally is 8 artists who could reasonably have been considered "cursed," 4-5 who did well, and 2 undetermined. It's definetly more curses than I would've thought, and the last few have been pretty spectacular. I'd love to discuss some of the more grey ones (and Lady A because I have no clue if they count or not).

Tldr: There's a significant number of artists who topped Todd's list who then had a rough time, but some are less clean-cut than others.