Pop culture song fatigue reveals new content opportunities
The sentiment that songs can be 'ruined by overusage' in pop culture points to a saturation point for viral content and ubiquitous trends. Marketers and content creators often jump on trends, sometimes to the point of audience exhaustion. This signals an opportunity for campaigns that leverage unconventional music, delve deeper into niche genres, or utilize AI to predict content fatigue and suggest fresh alternatives for background music, jingles, or meme formats, ensuring originality and avoiding audience burnout. It also suggests a market for 'anti-playlist' or 'hidden gem' music services.
Origin Reddit Post
r/music
Songs ruined by their overusage in pop-culture
Posted by u/WimVaughdan•08/01/2025
There are certain songs that are so closely associated with a sort of Jokey association that they are pretty much unlistenable at this point. Or at least you can't listen to them in the same
Top Comments
u/kenmogg
u/Superhereaux
The fact that you’re 100% correct makes this even worse.
u/purpleitt
I’m. A believer
u/Paninaro_1979
DHMH NBAJ2H ARNYCS£50PP T£200OFAFO4
u/TheEnygma
isnt it in Forrest Gump? and possibly Kong Skull Island but cant remember
u/BellsOnNutsMeansXmas
Gimme Shelter is playing inside every Nam chopper engine. And it leaks out sometimes.
u/Other_Log_1996
You pulled the pin on that grenade when you opened the post. Don't shoot the messenger.
u/Dean_Proffitt
Thunderstruck by AC/DC
A lot of other AC/DC songs have been overplayed, but this one takes the cake. It’s in so many movies when the hero is training, building a car or vehicle, enacting the
u/Morningfluid
Fortunate Son - CCR
Often while watching a helicopter flying away in a Vietnam movie.
u/HowlingHipster
Or "Atomic Dog"
…
I can still hear "bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yay" in my nightmares
u/bandswithothers
Feeling fortunate to have only heard it in Arrival.
The whole Blue Notebooks album is pretty cool.
u/Superphilipp
That's the point. It's a good song that gets ruined by its overplayed-ness
u/wtfisspacedicks
JUST TAKE THOSE OLD RECORDS OFF THE SHELF!
Sunglasses, shirt no pants. Socks for sliding. Singing into a hairbrush/carrot/hairbrush/garden sponge...
I first saw it on A.L.F
u/dragula15
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
But Indy girl voice version ad nauseum
u/NowoTone
"Hallelujah" - a song mostly about religion and sex used at the most inappropriate moments in Films and TV series. Covered by in any season of any casting show like American Idol. Don't they
u/IrateBarnacle
Queen is my favorite band of all time. Yes, these are very much overplayed. BR is still a very good song that pushed many boundaries, but I’d argue their best work is in their deep cuts.
u/jefufah
There are so many reference tropes that I know are a reference to something, but many of them (like this one) are from films I’ve never seen… (Risky Business?)
u/gukakke
I had Running Up That Hill on my playlist for years before Stranger Things and now it’s kinda annoying how overplayed it is.
u/OhSanders
Problem Child sort of earns it though. That kid was a piece of shit.
u/newbrevity
... And it's poignant in a way because that's what death by gunshot to the head would be like. The music's playing, then suddenly... nothing at all
u/Maleficent-Drive4056
This song is also fantastic. Overplayed, but still fantastic
u/Paninaro_1979
DHMH NBAJ2H ARNYCS£50PP T£200OFAFO4
u/Afraid-Coyote-9556
It was The Sopranos a few years earlier also.
u/bambinoquinn
I absolutely agree. You would think the amount its used would hurt it, there was a while when every movie set in the 80s would pump it out non stop, but its just absolute perfection
u/Brt232
I first heard Mr. Blue Sky through the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind trailer. Put it in every movie, TV show and video games if it introduces the kids to ELO.
u/Optimal_Cynicism
I can't hear that song without imagining the punctuated beats of pool cues ineffectively smacking against zombie Big Al. Comedy perfection.
u/PeopleAmirite
https://preview.redd.it/zp11ibnajdgf1.png?width=1272&format=png&auto=webp&s=59e1a9b2db37bb27f61ccbb68ba4ce88e7fe5312
u/BellsOnNutsMeansXmas
Gimme Shelter is playing inside every Nam chopper engine. And it leaks out sometimes.
u/Rex_Suplex
The only movie that comes to mind that uses both songs.
u/Nackon
The Neverending Story III has a cursed version
u/Dracofear
She's defrosting.
u/Portlander_in_Texas
Not pop culture but the Army made me loathe AC/DC with how overplayed it is at every single ceremony.
u/bfsfan101
Are you British by any chance? It is played at every sports game, in every pub, every karaoke night, and I absolutely hate it. I didn’t love it the first time I heard it, but now it drives me
u/Brt232
I first heard Mr. Blue Sky through the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind trailer. Put it in every movie, TV show and video games if it introduces the kids to ELO.
u/ragu96
Don’t stop-*Tony’s brain gets blown out*
u/roland0fgilead
This might be the film douche in me coming out, but Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight". Great song, never need to hear it in a movie ever again.
u/ALIENANAL
Will forever be T2
u/originalcondition
A girl in an action movie, or Shrek.
u/saucyfister1973
Happy by Pharrell
Holy shit they played that song to death when it came out. Was a decent, motivational tune until that.
u/livefast_dieawesome
Problem Child came to mind.
u/O_J_Shrimpson
I had a musician friend whose work was somewhat Kate Bush adjacent. She had people comparing her music to KB’s fondly early in her live shows. After playing out for years she started working
u/Bobbi_fettucini
Unpopular opinion around these parts but I don’t mind that song at Christmas, reminds me of being a kid at Christmas with my family in the 90’s
u/DStew713
For me, Paint it Black by the Stones is the ultimate Vietnam song.
u/gukakke
I had Running Up That Hill on my playlist for years before Stranger Things and now it’s kinda annoying how overplayed it is.
u/F-O
Is this just Fanta sea?
u/Dean_Proffitt
Thunderstruck by AC/DC
A lot of other AC/DC songs have been overplayed, but this one takes the cake. It’s in so many movies when the hero is training, building a car or vehicle, enacting the
u/Nutshack_Queen357
She sometimes defrosts earlier than that.
u/Shadowzz1337
Seven Nation Army
We Will Rock You
Whatever Guns and Roses did
u/TheRealEkimsnomlas
It's called kitsch, and it's been a thing we do to certain works of art for a long time.
u/Superhereaux
I’ve spent years, YEARS, not having to think about it.
You’ve successfully ruined my morning.
u/Superhereaux
I’ve spent years, YEARS, not having to think about it.
You’ve successfully ruined my morning.
u/agnosticfrump
Australian here. They play it at my footy team’s home ground and it’s disgracefully annoying. The other is “Country Roads” played in our Florida of Australia capital of Brisbane.
So much go
u/1998tweety
It's a shame that this is the Mariah song that most people know because the rest of her discography is fantastic.
u/Limesmack91
2010's 9GAG made me hate bohemian rhapsody for how often it was quoted in comment strings
u/Posty_Baloney
I could go the rest of my life without listening to bohemian rhapsody ever again and be completely okay with that. Fantastic song. One of the best of all time. I've heard it to death at this
u/TheEnygma
isnt it in Forrest Gump? and possibly Kong Skull Island but cant remember
u/DStew713
For me, Paint it Black by the Stones is the ultimate Vietnam song.
u/WimVaughdan
I didn't dare put it in the list for fear of backlash, but "We are the champions" definitely came to mind for me as well.
u/TheShmegmometer
That's literally all I can think about when I hear it, but it makes it better.
Because fuck Tony, if there's one take away from that show it's that his fat gabadagool eating ass had it comin
u/Other_Log_1996
Or evert single movie about dogs with "Who Let The Dogs Out."
u/WimVaughdan
Flight of the bumblebee comes to mind. It's an impressive play, but is now associated with cheap comedies. "In the hall of the mountain king" as well.
Maybe flight of the concord as well, th
u/Jonaskin83
A whole lot of Queen songs were the first ones that came to mind, specifically:
- We Will Rock You
- Another One Bites the Dust
- We Are the Champions
- Bohemian Rhapsody
u/ThePerfectSnare
Upon seeing this thread, Gimme Shelter was the first song that came to mind for me. Martin Scorsese sure loves that one.
u/Shot_Policy_4110
When was the last time you listened to careless whisper really loud and kinda drunk? You can't tell me that song is ruined
I can't really think of a contribution right now? I guess dance mon
u/verbosehuman
And none of us thought to stop and understand what the song was actually about..
u/Rex_Suplex
The only movie that comes to mind that uses both songs.
u/PeopleAmirite
https://preview.redd.it/zp11ibnajdgf1.png?width=1272&format=png&auto=webp&s=59e1a9b2db37bb27f61ccbb68ba4ce88e7fe5312
u/cap10wow
And Sabotage became the shorthand for “rebelliousness”.
u/ALIENANAL
Will forever be T2
u/cap10wow
And Sabotage became the shorthand for “rebelliousness”.
u/grimsnap
I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred whenever an unassuming character gets a makeover.
u/VocalHotSauce
Martin loves the Stones period. Didn’t he direct a concert film for them?
u/Bloodstarvedhunter
Pretty much all the singles from Californication and By the Way, both excellent albums that I really enjoyed but just the big singles got played to death to the point I had to turn them off i
u/Max_Trollbot_
Wow I haven't seen somebody mention 9gag in like ...
u/Other_Log_1996
You pulled the pin on that grenade when you opened the post. Don't shoot the messenger.
u/TomRiker79
I had a job once at a small venue. We did a lot of graduation ceremonies. Everything from vet techs to drop out prevention programs. They all played time of your life.
u/bfsfan101
Are you British by any chance? It is played at every sports game, in every pub, every karaoke night, and I absolutely hate it. I didn’t love it the first time I heard it, but now it drives me
u/Bombast_
To me the problem with Sweet Caroline isn't really pop exposure though, it's the karaoke. Drunk people *love* to shout/sing along to Sweet Caroline and it's very obnoxious.
Once you've hear
u/jerdle_reddit
The ba-ba-bargain bucket?
u/WimVaughdan
To be honest, I have watched Apocalypse now, Platoon and Full metal jacket. They all don't use Fortunate Son. I have yet to watch a movie with the actual track in it.
u/saucyfister1973
Happy by Pharrell
Holy shit they played that song to death when it came out. Was a decent, motivational tune until that.
u/Ghost_Of_Malatesta
Me with godsmack/the navy in the 2000s, that shit was every single commerical break
u/gruffbear
I blame Glee
u/potato_caesar_salad
Careless Whisper is a perfect song and it cannot be ruined.
u/deaconxblues
Everybody Wants to Rule the World is a timeless masterpiece resistant to playoutedness
u/OhSanders
Problem Child sort of earns it though. That kid was a piece of shit.
u/Bloodstarvedhunter
Pretty much all the singles from Californication and By the Way, both excellent albums that I really enjoyed but just the big singles got played to death to the point I had to turn them off i
u/Shot_Policy_4110
When was the last time you listened to careless whisper really loud and kinda drunk? You can't tell me that song is ruined
I can't really think of a contribution right now? I guess dance mon
u/Kale-Sagan
On the other end of the spectrum here —
Shaun of the Dead’s usage of “Don’t Stop Me Now” was absolute perfection
u/Other_Log_1996
It is much more tolerable when you start replacing it in your mind with Wierd Al's parody "Tacky". Rings true with a lot of songs he's parodied.
u/newbrevity
... And it's poignant in a way because that's what death by gunshot to the head would be like. The music's playing, then suddenly... nothing at all
u/strider85
Jess Glynne - Hold my Hand is the one and only pick for me here
u/GalaxyPatio
Still remember the 102 Dalmatians ad with the puppies falling from the sky to that song
u/Jonaskin83
A whole lot of Queen songs were the first ones that came to mind, specifically:
- We Will Rock You
- Another One Bites the Dust
- We Are the Champions
- Bohemian Rhapsody
u/TheShmegmometer
That's literally all I can think about when I hear it, but it makes it better.
Because fuck Tony, if there's one take away from that show it's that his fat gabadagool eating ass had it comin
u/Blow_Hard_8675309
The whole Journey resurgence got to be too much
u/jerdle_reddit
The ba-ba-bargain bucket?
u/Morningfluid
Fortunate Son - CCR
Often while watching a helicopter flying away in a Vietnam movie.
u/treefrog1318
I must say, having "Bounce" by System of a Down... in The Secret Life of Pets, was a refreshing change of pace.
u/deaconxblues
Tears for Fears is so underrated. Had so many brilliant songs. Wasn’t just superficial pop music like so many of their contemporaries.
u/Max_Trollbot_
Wow I haven't seen somebody mention 9gag in like ...
u/Nackon
The Neverending Story III has a cursed version
u/WimVaughdan
To be honest, I have watched Apocalypse now, Platoon and Full metal jacket. They all don't use Fortunate Son. I have yet to watch a movie with the actual track in it.
u/FredSecunda_8
lately i’ve found “let’s get it on” can still hit, you just have to skip the first 10 seconds cause that’s all anyone ever uses. i bet if a DJ faded into the bridge, most people wouldn’t even
u/VocalHotSauce
I feel like this is because of Guardians of the Galaxy, but Mr.Blue Sky was everywhere for a minute.
u/purpleitt
I’m. A believer
u/NopeNotConor
That song was Omnipresent during the SF Giants 2010-12-14 World Series runs, which especially sucked for an A’s fan that had to work a couple blocks away from their ballpark. I fucking hated
u/ikickedagirl
"Wow, she is rebellious because she likes rock music!"
u/deaconxblues
Everybody Wants to Rule the World is a timeless masterpiece resistant to playoutedness
u/Blow_Hard_8675309
The whole Journey resurgence got to be too much
u/Donnicton
Al Bundy here
u/1998tweety
It's a shame that this is the Mariah song that most people know because the rest of her discography is fantastic.
u/Typhon-042
I can name one that scares people when it's used every year.
**Mariah Carey - All I want from Christmas Is You**
u/ikickedagirl
"Wow, she is rebellious because she likes rock music!"
u/Kale-Sagan
On the other end of the spectrum here —
Shaun of the Dead’s usage of “Don’t Stop Me Now” was absolute perfection
u/Jollyollydude
Nah, the Rick Rolling has only enhanced this song and Rick’s profile
u/bambinoquinn
Let's Get it On by Marvin Gaye is such an incredible song, but, particularly in the late 90s/early 00s, it was used constantly in tv shows movies and adverts for so many sex scenes that it b
u/flaming_p1e
I actually like Isn’t She Lovely
u/Normal_Neck_2753
Everybody Hurts - REM
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
u/agnosticfrump
Australian here. They play it at my footy team’s home ground and it’s disgracefully annoying. The other is “Country Roads” played in our Florida of Australia capital of Brisbane.
So much go
u/NowoTone
"Hallelujah" - a song mostly about religion and sex used at the most inappropriate moments in Films and TV series. Covered by in any season of any casting show like American Idol. Don't they
u/Jollyollydude
Nah, the Rick Rolling has only enhanced this song and Rick’s profile
u/ikickedagirl
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett
Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
When a girl in an action movie is about to kick some ass, one of those songs are played 100% of the time.
u/Ganadote
I think most of these replies aren't actual answers because the song isn't ruined, you just don't want to hear it because you've heard it enough.
However, cassical songs are often ruined bec
u/Ghost_Of_Malatesta
Me with godsmack/the navy in the 2000s, that shit was every single commerical break
u/Other_Log_1996
Or evert single movie about dogs with "Who Let The Dogs Out."
u/strider85
Jess Glynne - Hold my Hand is the one and only pick for me here
u/Shadowzz1337
Seven Nation Army
We Will Rock You
Whatever Guns and Roses did
u/roland0fgilead
This might be the film douche in me coming out, but Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight". Great song, never need to hear it in a movie ever again.
u/wowbagger262
Sometimes I think Mr. Blue Sky is in every third movie.
u/Lithmancer
Is that the Christopher Walken cover?
u/Bombast_
To me the problem with Sweet Caroline isn't really pop exposure though, it's the karaoke. Drunk people *love* to shout/sing along to Sweet Caroline and it's very obnoxious.
Once you've hear
u/Syric13
Every kids movie in the 90s/early 2000s had "Born to be Wild" or "Bad to the Bone" whenever they showed the kids misbehaving or changing they look to include leather jackets and sunglasses or
u/UdoBaumer
I love Tears For Fears. No one can ruin them for me (as long as I don’t have to listen to a cover with an ukulele & cursive singing)
u/Superphilipp
That's the point. It's a good song that gets ruined by its overplayed-ness
u/Afraid-Coyote-9556
It was The Sopranos a few years earlier also.
u/livefast_dieawesome
Not until Halloween. She thaws on November 1st and rises from the depths after that.
u/Typhon-042
I can name one that scares people when it's used every year.
**Mariah Carey - All I want from Christmas Is You**
u/Nutshack_Queen357
She sometimes defrosts earlier than that.
u/UdoBaumer
I love Tears For Fears. No one can ruin them for me (as long as I don’t have to listen to a cover with an ukulele & cursive singing)
u/originalcondition
A girl in an action movie, or Shrek.
u/wtfisspacedicks
JUST TAKE THOSE OLD RECORDS OFF THE SHELF!
Sunglasses, shirt no pants. Socks for sliding. Singing into a hairbrush/carrot/hairbrush/garden sponge...
I first saw it on A.L.F
u/hewkii2
It was popularized in Forrest Gump (I think a documentary used it first) so it’ll mostly be in 90s and later media
u/Lithmancer
Is that the Christopher Walken cover?
u/Plebs-_-Placebo
E.L.O came in the radio and a co-worker asked if I recognized the song, I tell him the band name and song and he got confused and said, " no, it's from Guardians of the galaxy" 😐
u/O_J_Shrimpson
I had a musician friend whose work was somewhat Kate Bush adjacent. She had people comparing her music to KB’s fondly early in her live shows. After playing out for years she started working
u/TheRealEkimsnomlas
It's called kitsch, and it's been a thing we do to certain works of art for a long time.
u/hewkii2
It was popularized in Forrest Gump (I think a documentary used it first) so it’ll mostly be in 90s and later media
u/deaconxblues
Tears for Fears is so underrated. Had so many brilliant songs. Wasn’t just superficial pop music like so many of their contemporaries.
u/Portlander_in_Texas
Not pop culture but the Army made me loathe AC/DC with how overplayed it is at every single ceremony.
u/Dracofear
She's defrosting.
u/CeeArthur
The comedy bang bang podcast has a running gag where anytime someone tells a long story about their past, the host will start doing 'White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane in the background.
u/heidismiles
Or when a girl is doing a Very Edgy karaoke performance
u/EffinBobbyDeMarco
Don't stop believing - Journey
u/Normal_Neck_2753
Everybody Hurts - REM
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
u/potato_caesar_salad
Careless Whisper is a perfect song and it cannot be ruined.
u/FredSecunda_8
lately i’ve found “let’s get it on” can still hit, you just have to skip the first 10 seconds cause that’s all anyone ever uses. i bet if a DJ faded into the bridge, most people wouldn’t even
u/CeeArthur
The comedy bang bang podcast has a running gag where anytime someone tells a long story about their past, the host will start doing 'White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane in the background.
u/ragu96
Don’t stop-*Tony’s brain gets blown out*
u/livefast_dieawesome
Problem Child came to mind.
u/Superhereaux
The fact that you’re 100% correct makes this even worse.
u/bandswithothers
Feeling fortunate to have only heard it in Arrival.
The whole Blue Notebooks album is pretty cool.
u/F-O
Is this just Fanta sea?
u/Maleficent-Drive4056
This song is also fantastic. Overplayed, but still fantastic
u/flaming_p1e
I actually like Isn’t She Lovely
u/heyhowsitgoinOCE
I heard time of your life by greenday about a million times at various high school events that I attended, especially graduation. Also heard Whitney Houston’s when you believe at all of the d
u/IrateBarnacle
Queen is my favorite band of all time. Yes, these are very much overplayed. BR is still a very good song that pushed many boundaries, but I’d argue their best work is in their deep cuts.
u/VocalHotSauce
I feel like this is because of Guardians of the Galaxy, but Mr.Blue Sky was everywhere for a minute.
u/ikickedagirl
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett
Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
When a girl in an action movie is about to kick some ass, one of those songs are played 100% of the time.
u/bambinoquinn
Let's Get it On by Marvin Gaye is such an incredible song, but, particularly in the late 90s/early 00s, it was used constantly in tv shows movies and adverts for so many sex scenes that it b
u/Other_Log_1996
It is much more tolerable when you start replacing it in your mind with Wierd Al's parody "Tacky". Rings true with a lot of songs he's parodied.
u/EffinBobbyDeMarco
Don't stop believing - Journey
u/wowbagger262
Sometimes I think Mr. Blue Sky is in every third movie.
u/HowlingHipster
Or "Atomic Dog"
…
I can still hear "bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yay" in my nightmares
u/PeopleAmirite
Nowadays "Bad to the Bone" also has the association with 💀 and hillbillies thanks to memes.
u/hixen77
Came to say this. Rick Astley had such bangers and gets written off as a meme. His other songs are just as good if not better, I bet hardly anyone has even heard this one: [https://m.youtube.
u/heyhowsitgoinOCE
I heard time of your life by greenday about a million times at various high school events that I attended, especially graduation. Also heard Whitney Houston’s when you believe at all of the d
u/PeopleAmirite
Nowadays "Bad to the Bone" also has the association with 💀 and hillbillies thanks to memes.
u/Donnicton
Al Bundy here
u/heidismiles
Or when a girl is doing a Very Edgy karaoke performance
u/ThePerfectSnare
Upon seeing this thread, Gimme Shelter was the first song that came to mind for me. Martin Scorsese sure loves that one.
u/dragula15
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
But Indy girl voice version ad nauseum
u/Ganadote
I think most of these replies aren't actual answers because the song isn't ruined, you just don't want to hear it because you've heard it enough.
However, cassical songs are often ruined bec
u/treefrog1318
I must say, having "Bounce" by System of a Down... in The Secret Life of Pets, was a refreshing change of pace.
u/GalaxyPatio
Still remember the 102 Dalmatians ad with the puppies falling from the sky to that song
u/kenmogg
u/grimsnap
I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred whenever an unassuming character gets a makeover.
u/jefufah
There are so many reference tropes that I know are a reference to something, but many of them (like this one) are from films I’ve never seen… (Risky Business?)
u/verbosehuman
And none of us thought to stop and understand what the song was actually about..
u/gruffbear
I blame Glee
u/Bobbi_fettucini
Unpopular opinion around these parts but I don’t mind that song at Christmas, reminds me of being a kid at Christmas with my family in the 90’s
u/Plebs-_-Placebo
E.L.O came in the radio and a co-worker asked if I recognized the song, I tell him the band name and song and he got confused and said, " no, it's from Guardians of the galaxy" 😐
u/livefast_dieawesome
Not until Halloween. She thaws on November 1st and rises from the depths after that.
u/salted_hobbit_feet
Sweet Caroline. Get it right in the bargain bucket music taste bin
u/Syric13
Every kids movie in the 90s/early 2000s had "Born to be Wild" or "Bad to the Bone" whenever they showed the kids misbehaving or changing they look to include leather jackets and sunglasses or
u/Limesmack91
2010's 9GAG made me hate bohemian rhapsody for how often it was quoted in comment strings
u/Posty_Baloney
I could go the rest of my life without listening to bohemian rhapsody ever again and be completely okay with that. Fantastic song. One of the best of all time. I've heard it to death at this
u/AverageKaikiEnjoyer
I swear people hate it because they work retail. If you're the average person and only hear it on the radio or in playlists then I don't see why you'd have an issue with it.
u/salted_hobbit_feet
Sweet Caroline. Get it right in the bargain bucket music taste bin
u/bambinoquinn
I absolutely agree. You would think the amount its used would hurt it, there was a while when every movie set in the 80s would pump it out non stop, but its just absolute perfection