As a musical genre, emo developed out of the ’80s and ’90s alternative rock scene. It became a whole new subculture in the 2000s. Pairing rock band music with often unorthodox structures and angsty themes—and a strand of fashion that prioritized skinny jeans, eyeliner, and straight black hair—the scene hit hard but burned out by the early 2010s.

As a result, some of the biggest names from emo’s heyday moved on and enjoyed success with something quite different, whether shifting into new wave, returning as fully-fledged pop groups, taking a leaf out of the hip-hop playbook, or digging down into something heavier. These 10 bands made it big without the eyeliner, but with the 2020s seeing a renaissance for both emo and pop-punk, some of them might wish they hadn’t.

Related: 10 Darkest Rock Albums Ever Made

10 Paramore

An icon of the mid-2000s emo scene, singer Hayley Williams released some of the era’s finest black tear-streaked ballads and flippy-haired bangers with Paramore. The band put out their sophomore album Riot! in 2007, which earned them permanent status in the emo canon with tracks like “Misery Business.”

But having never been comfortable with the emo label—despite being one of the groups responsible for the genre’s mainstream success—Paramore began to explore other musical avenues. By the time their self-titled fourth album rolled around in 2013, the group had moved in a more new-wave/indie direction.

This was compounded in the years to come with 2017’s After Laughter, a bright, new-wave synth-pop record that made it in drivetime radio, clubs, and charts and saw the group take on pastel and primary color branding and outfits. But why the dramatic shift? Well, years of making emotionally charged music to match emotionally charged intra-band fallouts took their toll, and it was either time to disband or show up and try something different.^[1]

9 Fall Out Boy

Given the Fall Out boys were being told they had sold out as early as their third album Infinity on High (2007)—deep in the heart of their emo days—it should come as little surprise that they have flexed with the times and changed their sound significantly over the years.

After a four-year hiatus (2009–2013), Fall Out Boy returned with Save Rock and Roll. The pop rock album is packed with guests from across the musical spectrum and an array of genre influences to boot, and burned the band’s emo image (quite literally, with 2 Chainz taking a flamethrower to their records and memorabilia in the “My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark” video). This allowed the Illinoisan foursome to cultivate a mainstream sound, giving them the freedom to explore other genres like reggae and dubstep without worrying about their base.

Pete Wentz divides the band’s output into two distinct sections: pre-hiatus emo and post-hiatus mainstream. He likens the band’s trajectory to that of the Star Wars movies, whose originals, prequels, and sequels have different aesthetics that bring new relevance with each era.^[2]

8 All Time Low

All Time Low reached the height of their original run with 2009’s Nothing Personal, an album that used Panic! At the Disco’s producer (Matt Squire) to refine the band’s emo sound and boost their international presence. While they repeated this formula for follow-up Dirty Work (2011) and maintained decent sales across the next few records, they gradually lost their widespread appeal, and experiments with new-wave on Last Young Renegade (2017) couldn’t save them.

Three years on, after guitarist Jack Barakat poured all his emo tendencies into weepy electronic side project WhoHurtYou and singer Alex Gaskarth had blown off steam with pop-punk/new-wave outfit Simple Creatures, the band announced Wake Up, Sunshine, an album which “hit reset on All Time Low.” Far from being a rehash of the “Dear Maria” days for the foursome, their new material featured collaborations with the likes of Blackbear and Demi Lovato and a radio-friendly tone.

The album’s re-tooled sound jettisoned their emo origins and other generic experiments for a slice of pure pop-punk nostalgia, much aligned with the mainstream revival scene led by Machine Gun Kelly. And the album and singles went to #1 in several charts, driving a newfound success.^[3]

7 Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World has never been comfortable with the emo label despite being considered one of the genre’s founding fathers. Their original run of albums in the ’90s made their name within this space before hitting the mainstream with their fourth album Bleed American (2001) and hit single “The Middle.”

The band graduated out of the scene as the now iconic mid-2000s bands (like Fall Out Boy and MCR) moved in, adopting a rock-heavy power pop sound that is less tears and more party. More recently, their work with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen has seen Jimmy Eat World move into a phase of releasing singles untethered from full albums, allowing them to explore different creative avenues without needing an overarching vision.

And now that emo has come around again, the band is more forgiving of it, recognizing it as a label for a particular sound and particular scene at a particular moment in time that they can look back on fondly.^[4]

6 Thirty Seconds to Mars

Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto’s passion project with brother Shannon, has been in motion for over 25 years, and the pair are still playing stadiums across the globe. But while some of their biggest tracks came during the height of emo and embraced that genre’s aural and visual aesthetic, they have continuously shifted gears to remain relevant to contemporary listeners.

Three years after their self-titled first album, which didn’t travel as far as the band might have liked, Thirty Seconds to Mars released emo standard A Beautiful Lie (2005), coming out strong with an onslaught of eyeliner, jet black hair, and genre-defining emotional singles. Indeed, “The Kill” is still synonymous with the scene as a whole.

Yet, just four years on, the band moved away from this sound entirely, releasing stadium-size alt-rock record This Is War. This dramatic shift came from an extensive battle with their record label over breach of contract, which shifted their perspective on writing and recording music toward inspiration rather than introspection. And they have continued to reinvent themselves on every album since through to 2023’s electronic/pop record It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day, landing big singles like “Stuck.”^[5]

5 Falling in Reverse

After going to jail and being thrown out of Escape the Fate, frontman Ronnie Radke returned to the scene with Falling in Reverse, a band positively smeared in guyliner and a mix of bleeding-heart and tongue-in-cheek tunes. Following a successful first album in the genre, The Drug in Me Is You (2011), Radke began gradually reworking the band’s sound and image. From their second album onward, there was a deep infusion of other generic elements.

Remaining fluid over the years, Radke has shifted through hip-hop, rap, pop, country, rock, metal, and post-hardcore, stepping well outside the band’s traditional emo underpinning so as not to get pigeonholed and stuck in a creative rut.

After the decline in sales of 2017’s Coming Home, Radke was at a loss and was desperate to do anything not to “disappear into the abyss of aging emo” like many of his contemporaries. As such, Falling In Reverse took inspiration from Drake and the rap scene, shifting their output to focus on singles, putting their creative energy into each individual track, securing Billboard spots, and going platinum with a new blend of genres.^[6]

4 Coheed and Cambria

While Coheed and Cambria is today known as one of the foremost names in progressive hard rock, there was a time before they found their niche where the band would have slotted in closer to Fall Out Boy and Silverstein rather than The Mars Volta and Closure in Moscow.

While their first two albums, The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002) and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003) were straight out of emo’s hardcore end, awash with nerdy lyrics, high vocals, and power chords, their third record Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV (2005) swerved hard into progressive rock territory and opened them up to a whole new audience with international hit track “Welcome Home.” And despite forays into various rock and metal subgenres over the years since, this is primarily where the band has planted their flag.

Frontman Claudio Sanchez admits to being happy to be associated with the genre tags applied to the band and has consciously adopted aspects of them as Coheed has moved toward a core sound. For Sanchez, this is pure, undiluted rock, and he believes that maybe “one day [they’ll] just be called a rock band.”^[7]

3 Weezer

Since their breakout on the emo scene with their second album Pinkerton (1996), Weezer has cut a jagged path through music’s recent history. Moving between emo, college rock, power pop, and other genres, they have courted the kind of mainstream success and longevity many hope for, but few achieve.

While Pinkerton is hailed as one of the foundation albums of the emo genre, it was only a brief stay for the band and stemmed more from some dark nights of the soul rather than any intention to build a new movement. For frontman Rivers Cuomo, the record developed from the pain of a 13-month sojourn with leg surgery that took over his life, turned him into a shut-in, and sent him to a “serious and dark place.”

Despite Pinkerton overshadowing subsequent records and becoming a sore spot for Cuomo in particular, Weezer still managed to ditch the emo overtones, bring their songs back to the sunny side, and tack toward the simpler compositions and less personal lyrics that have made them alt-rock royalty.^[8]

2 Panic! at the Disco

Alas, Panic! at the Disco is no more, with singer and sole remaining member Brendon Urie closing out the “band” with a last tour in 2023. But it’s not as if these were the final days of the eyeliner and vaudeville, as those went out years ago.

Despite the band’s first two albums, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (2005) and Pretty. Odd. (2008), defining emo elements in the mid-aughts, the core members came and went in these early years, and Urie took control. Over the next decade, he pivoted away from Panic!’s hallmark look and sound and found significant success in transplanting his generic root from emo to big-band pop.

This shift was cemented with Pray for the Wicked (2018), which courted global commercial success with singles like “High Hopes,” which broke the record for the most weeks spent at No.1 in the Billboard Rock Chart. But while the album is broadly pop rock, Urie’s compositional inspiration came from a curious blend of artists like Kendrick Lamar, Dua Lipa, and Cardi B and the music he grew up with—including jazz and folk.^[9]

1 My Chemical Romance

Having just recently returned from a decade-long hiatus, My Chemical Romance has neither fallen back on their old ways nor started a new chapter, lounging instead in that nostalgic limbo while they play some shows and figure themselves out. But there is no denying that before they left, they went in an entirely different direction from the one established on their foundational emo record The Black Parade (2006).

Poster boys for the moodiest, saddest side of the movement, MCR rebranded in the years following The Black Parade, thanks to a gnawing discomfort with the emo tag. Rather than being upset about being characterized as emo, singer Gerard Way was primarily upset at all his hard work and sacrifice on the album being lumped into a category with other bands that he felt just weren’t as good.

Flipping their image on its head and surprising everyone, the band released the upbeat alt-rock/pop-punk, sci-fi-themed record Danger Days in 2010. Each band member adopted an alter ego sporting primary color-splashed outfits designed by themselves and won a brand new slice of mainstream success in the process, with singles peppering the charts and featuring in TV shows Glee and Teen Wolf, films Movie 43 and American Reunion, and video games The Sims 3 and Gran Turismo 5.^[10]

Movies are an art form, and like any work of art, they are appreciated, critiqued, beloved, and hated by the many people who see them. Someone may watch a film and walk away offended and angry while another may weep in joy at what they saw. It’s subjective, like most works of art.

Top 10 Greatest Movies To Win Best Picture

That’s usually true, but then there are those films that are almost universally beloved. Granted, there’s always someone who hated Citizen Kane, but there are millions more who loved it. This list breaks down ten different genres to highlight the greatest movie of each one presented in no particular order.

Doubtless, many will agree and disagree, so sound off in the comments with your favorites.

10 Comedy—Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Comedy is one of the most subjective genres out there because what’s funny to some people is either idiotic or offensive to others. That being said, some things are objectively funny, and the sub-genre that seems to get the most chuckles out of an audience is slapstick. Still, slapstick is often the lowest form of comedy. Satire would be its opposite, as it tends to tap into a more intellectual concept of what makes something funny, and there aren’t a lot of movies that do this well. The film that does it better than any other is Stanley Kubrick’s Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

The movie is as silly as Monthy Python while being as deadly serious as Patton. Being able to make nuclear war funny is no easy task, but when you take an actor like George C. Scott and tell him to do everything over-the-top, throw in a horrific situation leading to nuclear annihilation, and get Peter Sellers to play three separate characters; you’ve got comedy gold on your hands. Sellers’ performance alone qualifies Dr. Strangelove as an immortal comedy, and while Monty Python certainly deserves mention, Kubrick’s Strangelove is arguably the greatest comedy ever made.^[1]

9 Drama—Citizen Kane (1941)

It was mentioned in the intro, so you knew Citizen Kane was bound to show up somewhere on this list. Citizen Kane was a movie that shocked a lot of people, but not for the reasons you might think. People were shocked at how incredibly good the movie was, as Orson Welles, produced, co-wrote, starred, and had final cut. The man had never directed a movie before this one came out, so it wasn’t a guarantee that it would be a hit. That being said, he was heavily courted by RKO to do anything for the studio, and his contract stipulated that he be allowed to direct two pictures.

His first was arguably his greatest cinematic achievement on a number of levels. Citizen Kane tells the story of Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy industrialist who dies with one word on his lips, “Rosebud.” The film continues with an attempt to determine what his dying word meant. Interestingly, the movie many critics identify as the best ever made was a box office failure. It didn’t recover its costs and became somewhat obscure. It achieved more success in 1956 following a French review, which led to a revival.^[2]

8 Science-Fiction—E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

It doesn’t have any of the amazing CGI you’ll find in a modern sci-fi movie, but that’s what makes E.T. something special. Like most movies from the early ‘80s, filmmakers had to rely on puppeteering, and it says something about how well E.T. was made that seeing him hurting in the film’s third act can elicit a tear from even the hardest of hearts. The movie is one pretty much everyone has seen at least once in their life, and some of the scenes are so iconic, they’ve managed to completely permeate the zeitgeist in ways few movies could ever hope to emulate.

A story about a boy and an alien who become friends and far more is a story that somehow resonates, and it’s one everyone can enjoy. The adventure of riding your bike away from the bad guys is something kids, and adults can identify with, but when E.T. levitates them into the sky, the story becomes magical. There are tons of fantastic Sci-Fi films, many of which have the word “Star” in the title, but the thing about E.T. that gets it the top spot is that it’s loved by everyone who watches it. That can’t be said of all science-fiction movies, as many of them have niche audiences, whereas E.T. does not.^[3]

7 Romance—Casablanca (1942)

For those people who think Casablanca is overplayed as the top romance film, it may be time to go back and watch it once more. The movie is an immortal classic. It’s one of the most quotable films ever made, and it came out nearly eighty years ago. Casablanca is about a love story that hasn’t a chance in hell of working out, and only one of the two people in love acknowledges that fact. The war is tearing up all of Europe and North Africa, but in the midst of it all, a cynical American ex-pat runs a bar and pines over the woman he fell in love with during a brief, yet memorable tryst in Paris.

The story is so well developed and nuanced; it’s easily a contender for being one of the best movies ever made. Other movies were vying for this position, including An Affair to Remember, Titanic, Brokeback Mountain, and even Ghost battled it out for this spot. Still, in the end, it’s always going to be Casablanca. Making this choice was difficult, but if Casablanca didn’t make it to the top, I’d regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of my life.^[4]

6 Horror—Psycho (1960)

Like every other genre of film, horror has a ton of subgenres to choose from. There are slasher flicks, psychological suspense movies, and even great occult movies like The Omen or The Exorcist. Ultimately, the best horror has to offer goes to a film that helped define the genre as one that could instill a sense of fear in the audience while making it seem as if the villain could be anyone. What Anthony Perkins managed to do with Norman Bates was to offer up a realistic villain who could honestly be your next-door neighbor, or the person sitting next to you on a bus.

Sure, he was crazy — he dressed up as his dead mother, who sat mummified in his home, but that point aside, he was a charismatic and attractive young man. He was a bit awkward and seemed utterly harmless. So harmless, you might feel safe taking a shower, even if it’s the last thing you do! Psycho was brilliantly written, directed, and acted. Even the camera work was some of the best seen in a movie up to that point in time, and it’s easy to see why Psycho is considered one of the greatest suspense horror movies ever made.^[5]

10 Horror Movies On Netflix That Don’t Suck

5 Action—Seven Samurai (1954)

There’s a saying that imitation is the highest form of flattery. If that’s true in filmmaking, Akira Kurasawa’s immortal classic, Seven Samurai is one of the most flattered movies ever made, as its story has been adapted into so many films, it’s ridiculous. If you’ve seen Kurasawa’s work, you know him to be one of the greatest directors of all time. He put everything he had into his movies, and his work went on to inspire the likes of Kubrick, Scorsese, Tarantino, Lucas, Spielberg, and more. His films were epic stories filled with originality and beautiful settings that ring true with the saying that “every frame is a painting.”

Seven Samurai is a story you’ve likely seen before, even if you’ve never seen the movie. A village is terrorized by bandits and hires on seven r?nin to protect them. It’s the plot of The Magnificent Seven, the Three Amigos, and A Bug’s Life, and it influenced Hollywood filmmakers for decades. There are plenty of great action movies out there, and while the top spot could have gone to a more commercially appealing movie released relatively recently, it’s difficult to pass this movie by as one of the greatest stories ever put to film.^[6]

4 Adventure—Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)

Often, action and adventure are thrown together into a single genre, but some movies need to be separated into their own genre. Adventure is a genre with a lot of options. War movies could fall within adventure, but so could a western or even science-fiction. Ultimately, a great adventure movie features exactly that: a great adventure, and there’s nobody better at going on an adventure than Indiana Jones. In his first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jones goes on a globe-spanning adventure filled with Nazis and Jewish archaeological history to find the Ark of the Covenant.

Throughout the film, this college professor fights against a plethora of enemies, he swims to a submarine, which thankfully didn’t submerge with him on top, and he dug through the clues to find an artifact of such great importance, it was coveted by anyone and everyone who knew of its existence. The movie began one of the most successful adventure franchises in history, and while most of those films are fantastic, the very first Indiana Jones movie takes the lead as the greatest adventure movie ever made.^[7]

3 Fantasy—The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

The greatest fantasy movie of all time nearly went to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but looking back at all of the incredible fantasy films from throughout film history, the immortal classic, The Wizard of Oz takes the top spot. Like some of the contenders in Sci-Fi, some fantasy movies don’t appeal to a broad audience. There are people out there who don’t like hobbits, elves, or anything related to Dungeons & Dragons. Other fantasy movies that could have taken a top spot are those featuring muppets like Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal.

The Wizard of Oz is one of those movies everyone sits down to watch sooner or later. Most see it when they’re kids, but all that means is that when those people grow up and have kids of their own, the movie comes back out to entertain a new generation while the parents watch Dorothy and her pals with nostalgia. The story elements aren’t complicated, the musical numbers are memorable, and the characters are the kind we remember fondly years after watching the movie. The Wizard of Oz is a timeless classic, and despite being more than 80 years old, it remains the greatest fantasy film ever made.^[8]

2 Musical—Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

Musicals are an interesting genre of film, as they often don’t work well. What does well in a live theater doesn’t always transfer onto the silver screen, and as a result, some people absolutely love musicals while other folks routinely hate them. Despite this, there have been numerous musical films, which have gone on to win a ton of awards, as they have beautiful songs, exceptional characters, and at the end of the day, a good movie is a good movie whether people are singing spontaneously or not.

The choice for the greatest musical landed on Singin’ In The Rain, but it just as nearly went to the Sound of Music. Both films are grand epics, which beautifully showcase incredible songs belted out by some of the most talented people in the industry. Ultimately, Singin’ in the Rain stole the show simply because it features some amazing performances in a lighthearted story. The competition features a darker story, and it’s hard to watch Singin’ in the Rain and not feel joyous while the other movie tends to lead the audience in other directions.^[9]

1 Animation—Toy Story (1995)

Animated films can encompass any genre, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a single movie capable of taking a top spot as the greatest animated film of all time. Animation has been a medium for feature films since the release of 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and since then, there have been thousands of incredible animated titles. There are many to choose from, but the movie that is universally beloved by children and adults alike would have to be 1995’s, Toy Story.

There are plenty of movies that could take the top spot here. Movies like The Last Unicorn, The Iron Giant, The Secret of NIMH, or any of hundreds more, but Toy Story did something most animated films failed to do before it; it perfectly bridged the gap between adults and children. By featuring all of the toys parents played with when they were kids, the movie managed to appeal to the kid in all of us. Children loved it while parents waxed nostalgic about their long lost Speak-n-Spell and Slinky. The movie is a masterpiece, and while the sequels are amazing, the original stands as the greatest animated film ever made.^[10]

10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Hit Cult Movies

Movies require a ton of work and money to make, so studios attempt to make nothing but hit films. Of course, the reality is, more movies suck than don’t, and the world has been assaulted with thousands of terrible movies over the years.

Sometimes, a movie is so bad, it’s actually fun to watch. Ed Wood’s infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space is a perfect example of this, as it has a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes^[1] despite being absolute trash. At least the more-realistic audience rating makes more sense at 46%. As you’ll see on other entries on this list, the critics are clearly not from the same species as regular film-goers as they seem to get it wrong every time.

This list identifies those movies so bad, they’re just bad, and they are presented in no particular order.

Top 10 Lost Films

10 Comedy—Jack And Jill (2011)

When it comes to Adam Sandler’s movies, they are often hit or miss. Some of his earlier work is outstanding while his more recent fare for Netflix has met with little more than a “meh” from audiences around the world. Still, he manages to get a few laughs in even his worst-rated flicks, but it’s hard to find anything funny about 2011’s Jack and Jill. The movie was so horrendously awful, it was nominated for 12 Razzies, and became the first film in the award show’s history to sweep the major awards for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Actress (Both for Sandler).

If you haven’t seen the movie, please, for the love of God, don’t! It’s about the twins annoying one another during a Thanksgiving event, and it features some of the worst acting ever to grace the silver screen — and that’s taking into account the fact that Al Pacino is inexplicably in the movie. Oddly enough, it made a decent amount at the box office but was so critically panned, it’s somewhat surprising to see that it has a 3% (36% from non-critics) on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2]

9 Drama—Glitter (2001)

Glitter is all about Billie Frank, an orphan who grows up to become a superstar, and the film follows her life through her turbulent childhood to her discovery as a star. Mariah Carey took on the role of Frank, and while she made it clear that she could sing, she also made it crystal clear that being a great singer doesn’t mean you can act. The movie came about as a sort of passion project for Carey, having begun creating a soundtrack and film back in 1997. There were some delays, but she finished the project at what amounted to be the worst possible time.

The soundtrack dropped on September 11th, 2001, which meant that hardly anyone noticed, and the film followed ten days later. While the terrorist attacks didn’t help her project gain a lot of traction, the people who did see the film universally hated it. Carey’s acting was the primary source of criticism, and she even later said she regretted being involved in the project. In terms of money, the movie cost around $22 million to produce, and it only raked in a measly $5.3 million at the box office.^[3]

8 Science Fiction—Battlefield Earth (2000)

In 1982, L. Ron Hubbard published a book titled Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000, and just about anyone who followed Scientology ate it up. To be fair, the book may be unnecessarily long, but it’s not the worst sci-fi book ever written. Still, it’s not one that could easily be adapted into a major motion picture, but if you tried to tell that to John Travolta in the 1980s and ‘90s, it would fall on deaf ears. Travolta worked hard to get the movie made, but the connections to Scientology and issues with the script kept it in development hell.

Sadly, 1998 changed all that when Franchise Pictures gave Travolta the green light and $73 million to turn his passion project into a reality. The movie was so incredibly awful, it’s an insult to science fiction and motion pictures in general. The over-the-top hammy acting by Travolta is inexcusable, seeing as he wasn’t new to the trade, and there really isn’t anything redeeming about the movie at all. It is arguably the worst movie ever made. Battlefield Earth won nine Golden Raspberry Awards and forced the production company into bankruptcy following fraud charges concerning the budget.^[4]

7 Romance—Gigli (2003)

Many years ago, the Hollywood “it” couple everyone was talking about was that of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. The two were dubbed “Bennifer” by the press, and their love was so true, they got to star in a movie that showcased it, and as you can imagine, it was awful. Gigli has a ridiculous plot, which involves a hitman taking a job to kidnap the younger brother of a federal prosecutor. Things get complicated, and not at all interesting when a beautiful gangster assigned to help him with a kidnapping starts stepping on his toes.

Gigli was, by all accounts, one of the worst movies ever made, (critics rate it 6% and normal people rate it 13%) and that is reflected in its box office performance, which established it as one of the most expensive flops of all time. The film cost $75.6 million to make, and that hardly makes sense, seeing as it’s not really an over-the-top action film. When the dust settled at the worldwide box office, it only managed to pull in $7.2 million. Gigli was directed by Martin Brest, who is best known for directing Midnight Run and Scent of a Woman, but Gigli ended up being his last directing job, which isn’t all that surprising, given what he ultimately produced.^[5]

6 Horror—Troll 2 (1990)

Horror is an interesting genre when it comes to identifying the worst, as many horror movies are shot on a shoestring budget, and aren’t all that great. That being said, some of the best horror films are shot for nearly nothing; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is arguably one of the best slasher films ever made, and it cost only $140,000 to produce. Finding the worst of the worst is no easy task, but fortunately, the studios made it easy for horror with the celluloid equivalent of a dumpster fire that is Troll 2.^[6]

Troll 2 was billed as a sequel to the 1986 film Troll, but the two movies have absolutely nothing in common with one another. Troll 2 was shot under the title, Goblins, and was meant to be a comedy. The producers didn’t feel that the movie would succeed, so instead of doing expensive reshoots, they opted to change the title, call it a sequel, even if it wasn’t one, and release it. Behind the scenes, the crew only spoke Italian, the cast only spoke English, and the resulting movie is the celluloid equivalent of utter nonsense.^[7]

10 Movies Based On Common Misconceptions

5 Action—Batman & Robin (1997)

Back in 1989, when Tim Burton and Michael Keaton did Batman, there was a lot of concern that the movie would flop — it didn’t. The sequel wasn’t bad either, so Warner Bros. opted to continue making them, though the director and star changed in Batman Forever. When it came time for a fourth movie, the result was Batman & Robin, which is often considered to be both the worst action film of all time as well as the worst comic book film adaptation ever made, and that’s saying something, as there have been a ton of crappy comic book movies over the years.

George Clooney was cast to play Batman/Bruce Wayne, and while he could pull off a billionaire playboy without breaking a sweat, he was a terrible Batman. Add to that the plethora of cheesy villains, the horrible dialogue, which came off as little more than a string of bad puns and one-liners, and you’ve got yourself a terrible movie. The worst aspect of the film is probably the minor detail added to the hero’s costumes, as the costume department decided to add nipples, and nobody knows why anyone thought it was a good idea.^[8]

4 Adventure—Catwoman (2004)

Back in 2004, Halle Berry signed on to play Catwoman in the eponymous film, but she wasn’t originally slated for the role. When Batman Returns came out, the studio wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to star in a spinoff film, where she would play Selina Kyle, but it never manifested. The movie sat in development hell for years, but in 2004, it hit the theaters, and it was a massive flop. The movie completely changed the character into one who was unrecognizable to people who even had a vague understanding of who Catwoman was.

They changed her name, her origin story, her place in the DC Universe, and everything else about her making her a Catwoman in name only. Halle Berry did her best with what she was given, and it’s not as if she’s not a brilliant actress, but that didn’t stop her from receiving a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. She was a good sport about it and is one of the rare examples where a star actually shows up to collect the unprestigious dishonor. When she accepted it, she said, “Thank you for putting me in a piece of s***, god-awful movie!”^[9]

3 Fantasy—Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

The first Highlander movie wasn’t a hit when it was released, but it soon became a cult classic with a large fan base. That movie was all about a group of people called the Immortals, who lived forever — right up to the point they were decapitated. While that would kill anyone, nothing else could kill them, so they had a leg up on the rest of humanity. That movie’s ending concluded the story, and there really wasn’t any reason to make a sequel… Sigh… if only Hollywood listened.

Highlander II was completely different from its original. It kept Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert in the franchise despite the fact that Connery’s character was killed in the first movie. The plot is incoherent, it changes the origin of the characters, and the added science-fiction element was laughably ridiculous. Everything about Highlander II served to undermine what made the first movie special, and as a result, it’s reviled by fans of the franchise. The director hated what he produced, and re-released the movie twice with different cuts in an effort to improve his creation.^[10]

2 Musical—From Justin To Kelly (2003)

American Idol is one of the most successful music competition shows ever made, and it stayed that way for years by adapting and changing its format a little bit here and there. The first season, which saw Kelly Clarkson win in the end, had a different prize package for the winner and runner-up. Clarkson got a record deal, and another ‘prize’ given to the top two performers was a movie all about them! While that may have seemed like a great way to push the show’s popularity into another medium, the movie that came out of it was disturbing, to say the least.

From Justin To Kelly starred Clarkson and Justin Guarini in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Spring Break. The two kids meet, they fall in love with one another, various complications ensue, and they sing songs merrily on the beach. It was basically Beach Blanket Bingo but released in 2003 instead of 1965. The songs were banal, the so-called romance between the two leads lacked any and all chemistry, and it was quickly apparent that two people with absolutely no acting experience were thrown in front of a camera without much preparation of instruction.^[11]

1 Animation—Titanic: The Legend Goes On (2000)

When it comes to animation, there are tons of movies that could take the top prize in the genre. Mars Needs Moms is often cited as the worst animated film ever made, but that’s largely due to the fact that it cost an exorbitant amount of money to make, and it bombed. Then, there’s Titanic: The Legend Goes On from 2000, and the movie wasn’t just bad due to its terrible writing and animation; it was also bad because it was done in very poor taste, as it tried to capitalize on a historical tragedy by calling it a legend.

The term “rapping dog” should be the worst part of this movie, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. The movie is more or less a ripoff of James Cameron’s epic tale Titanic from a few years earlier. The development was fraught with issues, which is why the animation and art style changes, almost from one scene to the next, and the strange cacophony of characters make the plot into complete nonsense. It’s also vastly inappropriate for children despite being marketed to them, and very little about the story makes any sense. It’s little more than a movie that should never have been made. Ever.^[12]

10 Best of the Worst Films

Are you bored of hearing the same, semi-whispered, vaguely English sounding female singer that pronounces every ‘s’ as ‘zsh’? Interested in expanding your musical horizons so far that you may just find yourself in another universe? Check out these fringe musical genres, shed the notion that ‘current’ and ‘new’ means ‘good’ and you may just find your newest old jam… this is not a suggestion that you eat twelve-year-old jam. Enjoy.

Top 10 Musicians Who Were Ahead Of Their Time

10 Bardcore

Taking existing songs and re-imagining them within a different, often older genre has been a view-generator online for a while now (check out the views gathered by Scott Bradlee’s Post Modern Jukebox). This trend is normally limited to taking contemporary songs and making them seem like songs of a by-gone 20th century style. What if we go back further? Much further? Welcome to the beautifully weird world of Bardcore.

Where nostalgia could be considered the main driver for the success of retrofication of modern pop songs, who is going to feel nostalgic for music from the medieval era? In part, it’s exposure to this little-known era and the accessibility of the modern song that allows for listening to Bardcore to be as much of a journey of discovery as simply listening to good music. Before long, you’ll forget the original lyrics to Lady GaGa’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ and find yourself singing Hildegard von Blingin’s version instead:

‘I want thy horror, I want thy design/Thou art a criminal whilst thou art mine’.^[1]

9 Chillhop

This genre is great when you want to relax and fall asleep. It is also great when you want to sit down and study. It is also great to wake up to instead of a shrill, jangling alarm clock. This genre is so chill, so laid back, it is hard not to like. One cannot imagine a person who really hates hard on chillhop (unless you don’t understand that definitions of art are not generated by any given individual). It is conversely difficult to imagine a person whose whole life is defined by listening to this microgenre in the same way as a punk or a metal-head. That is the beauty of chillhop; don’t think too hard for a while, recharge your batteries, Wagner can wait. Right now, stick those ear pods in, hold your mug of coffee close, close your eyes and get ready for whatever comes next.^[2]

8 Japanoise

Let’s cut out all this blissed-out ceiling gazing shall we? Let’s get some blood pumping! Japan has a solid pedigree when it comes to extreme, avant-garde metal. This is most evident in the amorphous, ever evolving genre of Japanoise (Japan—Noise).

Noise music is hard to get into. Most people do not have a proclivity for enjoying ‘extreme’ musical genres. Japanoise bands have always felt slightly more accessible to non metalheads due to the worth the put on musical competence as well as innovation. Still, it may be a tough sell if you want your grandma to listen. Try to imagine listening to bands like ‘Merzbow’ or ‘Melt Banana’ as similar to attending a good, immersive conceptual art exhibition (they do exist, promise). You don’t have to love it, but try to let the complexity and the discord make you think.^[3]

7 Gypsy Punk

When you listen to Django Reinhardt’s recordings, it feels revolutionary for the time. It sounds explosive when you consider that his music was published around the same time as Cole Porter and Bing Crosby were topping the charts stateside. The stripped back, free, joyful sounds that Reinhardt gave the world, drawing on tradition Romani music, is still getting banged out and getting people moving in the form of gypsy punk.

The cultural influences go beyond Romani music—polka, klezmer, rockabilly, English folk, it really is the ‘world music’ of punk. One of the main themes you’ll find is the notion of life being about seeking new experiences, allowing for wanderlust to drive your impulses. Next time you get married, make sure the band is a gypsy punk outfit and you can ensure the party will be remembered forever.^[4]

6 Traditional Georgian Folk Music

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. In the case of this age-old musical tradition, beauty will be in the ear of the listener.

The history of polyphonic folk singing in Georgia dates back into antiquity, pre-dating Christianity coming to Georgia in the 4th Century. Back in 2001, Georgian polyphonic music was listed as one of the first entrances to UNESCOs list of ‘Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. Both Werner Herzog and the Coen Brothers have made use of the genre in their movies, offsetting their counter-culture films with songs that not only sound as though they’re from a time before we knew what time was, but also sound as though they come down from heaven itself. Hamlet Gonashvili, owner of one of the sweetest voices ever recorded, was a huge star within the genre. In 1985, at the height of his fame and gaining acknowledgment outside his native land, Gonashvili died from injuries after a fall from an apple tree. When you listen to the atmospheric, tragic-sounding songs he recorded, you’ll realise how fitting this way of dying seems.^[5]

10 Crazy Conspiracy Theories Clouding The Music Industry

5 Witch House

This is what Blade sticks on after a long day of pumping vampires full of silver. This is the music the CIA should blast at buildings housing key targets they wish to flush out. Good goat-headed god, this music is disconcerting. And yet…

The unholy marriage of EBM (electric body music), trance and industrial metal is haunting in every sense of the word. Why is it so difficult to stop listening to this stuff? Maybe it is infused with black magic that ensnares your soul and binds it to the tunes? Or maybe, if you can get over the overwhelming sense of foreboding and the uncanny, they’re pretty good tunes. Great as a soundtrack for your next community sacrifice, goat or baby!^[6]

4 Zeuhl

Lots of people hate ‘prog rock’. People who love prog often claim that any hate levelled at bands like ‘Emerson, Lake and Palmer’ or ‘Yes’, must be coming from a position of ignorance; you just don’t get it, loser. This elitism and unapologetic embrace of intellectualism can be off-putting to the uninitiated, much as the bar-wrecking, foul-mouthed, saliva drenched crowds of weird looking teens were a barrier for many with regards to punk. The barrier to entry into the ‘Zeuhl’ sub-genre of prog? Well, avant-garde musician and writer Dominique Leone summed it up quite well: ‘Zeuhl’ is “about what you’d expect an alien rock opera to sound like”. You’re human, how could you possibly ‘get’ it?

Originating in late 60s France, Zeuhl means ‘celestial’ in the ‘Kobaïan’ language, an invented, ‘alien’ tongue created by Christian Vander, a drummer with the band ‘Magma’. The vibratory nature of the music really does conjure a sense of otherworldliness (or perhaps that should be offworldliness) along with a feeling of vastness which reflects the limitlessness of the universe… or something like that. Cosmic.^[7]

3 Italian Occult Psychadelia

Horror is a genre that works well in literature. Horror works, arguably, better in film (if we consider that the goal of the horror genre is to scare, the visual nature of film allows for the fear to get in to the bloodstream quicker, so to speak). It tends to suck in music. When a band dons the ‘horror’ motif, it is usually cheesy (overuse of fake blood, crappy costumes and groan-worthy band names) or overly reliant on a sense fandomish homage. It is not scary.

Italian Occult Psychadelia seems to have solved that problem. This music can be truly unnerving, even frightening, whilst avoiding a loss in the translation from the literary and filmic tropes that inform the music, especially the work of legendary Italian film director Dario Argento, Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini, along with the banned ‘Cannibal’ movies of the 70s and 80s, and even Spaghetti Westerns. You’ll either love it, embracing the chills that’ll run up and down your spine, or throw your ear pods against a wall and run and hide in a cupboard (which is exactly where the serial killer wants you to hide).^[8]

2 Time Lord Rock

When Led Zeppelin took great inspiration from the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, they opened up Middle Earth for hordes of rock music lovers as a great accompaniment for their music, along with cannabis and not cutting your hair. Will bands like ‘Chameleon Circuit’ do the same for Doctor Who? Definitely not. But as far as IP-fan driven music goes, ‘Time Lord Rock’ isn’t half bad. Why does it hurt to write that?

The best way to enjoy this is to try and forget Doctor Who exists (unless you’re a fan, then you’ll be in heaven). It beats most other types of fandom pop into a cocked hat; these bands are pretty good. It also proves once and for all that Potterheads are the least creative, least open to new experiences and least talented people in all fandom culture.^[9]

1 Dark Cabaret

This is maybe the most commercial of all the genres on the list (maybe), having made a splash with 1998’s hit musical ‘Shockheaded Peter’ by the group Tiger Lilies who sing about crucifying Jesus (edgy!), or the popularity of bands like the ‘Dresden Dolls’. Still, one cannot imagine this type of music occupying spots 10-1 in the Billboard Chart. Unless, of course we, we go through some sort of Armageddon, allowing for the new, dark troubadours to wander the wasteland and delight us with accordion-driven songs about man’s follies. So, there’s hope, I guess.^[10]

Top 10 Crazy And Unconventional Music Genres

About The Author: C.J. Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.