Revealed: The most ANNOYING songs of 2025, according to science

The most annoying songs of the year have been revealed – and it’s bad news for Sabrina Carpenter fans. 

Researchers from Seat Pick pulled the most popular songs of the year from the official charts, before running them through an ‘annoyingness index’. 

This scored the songs across four key factors, including repetition and lyrical filler (things like ‘yeah’, ‘la’, and ‘uh’ on repeat). 

The results revealed that Sabrina Carpenter’s hits ‘Sugar Talking’ and ‘Tears’ were the most annoying releases this year. 

According to the annoyingness index, these tunes irritate 46 per cent of listeners. 

Other songs deemed annoying include ‘Azizam’ by Ed Sheeran, ‘Who’ by Jimin, and ‘The Dead Dance’ by Lady Gaga. 

‘2025 has proven to be a memorable year for music, with record–breaking releases, viral TikTok hits and artists pushing creative boundaries across genres,’ Seat Pick explained.

‘However, some tracks have also sparked debates over how irritating they are from repetitiveness to “harmonic dullness”.’ 

To uncover the most annoying songs, Seat Pick processed the Top 50 tracks and TikTok playlists through the annoyingness index. 

This was built around four measurable components – repetition, shrillness, harmonic dullness, and lyrical filler density. 

‘Each component produced a 0–1 score,’ Seat Pick explained. 

‘These were combined using a weighted formula (Repetition 30%, Brightness 20%, Harmonic Dullness 20%, Filler Density 20%, Baseline 10%) to calculate a final 0–10 Annoying Score for every track.’

The results revealed that Sabrina Carpenter’s Sugar Talking and Tears top the list, both with a score of 4.6/10. 

‘Sabrina has still achieved significant streaming numbers and strong social media traction, and has celebrated a highly successful year overall—earning multiple awards, including Best Pop Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards and Pop Artist of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards,’ Seat Pick said. 

Lady Gaga’s ‘The Dead Dance’ is next (4.58), followed by ‘Who’ by Jimin (4.55), ‘Beautiful People’ by David Guetta and Sia (4.52), and ‘Make Believe’ by Luke Dean (4.51). 

At the other end of the scale, Rosalia’s hit ‘Memoria’ was the least annoying song, with a score of just 3.07. 

At the other end of the scale, Rosalia’s hit ‘Memoria’ was the least annoying song, with a score of just 3.07

This was followed by her song La Perla (3.19), Anne–Marie’s ‘Depressed’ (3.26), and Drake’s ‘Gimme a Hug’ (3.35). 

Over on TikTok, ‘Dame Un Gurr’ by Fantomel/Kate Linn was the most annoying track (4.57). 

Other irritating tracks that trended on the social media app include ‘She Twerkin’ by Ca$h Out (4.41), ‘Ace Up’ by BubaJuice (4.40), and ‘Illegal’ by PinkPantheress (4.40). 

Meanwhile, despite initially hitting the charts back in 2015, Jess Glynne’s hit ‘Hold My Hand’ saw a resurgence on TikTok after it was featured in Jet2Holiday’s 2025 advert.  

‘“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. 

‘Initially gaining popularity through its use in a Jet2Holiday advertisement, the song later became widely featured in over 3.4 million TikTok videos and social media trends, ensuring it remained highly visible throughout the year.’

If you don’t agree with the results, don’t worry. 

‘”Annoyance” is listener subjective,’ Seat Pick added.