WMG / Todd in the Shadows

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Theories About Todd Himself

Todd is Brad the pianist.

He never shows his face so that people don't recognize him. Likewise, when he appears at the school he never speaks so that people don't recognize his voice.

• Todd is pretty vocal about his hate for Glee so.....
• And Brad the pianist hates the Glee kids so....
• He used Glee's version of Smooth Criminal as a stinge at him! He looks like one and dress like one. He hides in the shadows in order to hide his zombie nature from us. After he's done talking about the latest Lady Gaga song or whatever, he crawls out of his window and pounces on an unsespecting midnight jogger in the Alien Ant Farm episode

Todd in the Shadows is really a Hunter.

Just look.

Todd In The Shadow's face will be revealed for the third-year anniversary special.

It just makes sense. It would also be a great dramatic twist like with 3D Lee.

• Or, alternatively, he'll stitch screening into his hoodie.

• Jossed, like with his Magfest appearance, he was wearing a black cloth over the top half of his head.

Todd made an appearance in Arcade Fire's "The Wilderness Downtown."

While watching, take a close look at the "protagonist"...Gray hoodie? Check. The Faceless? Check. Seen in shadow most of the time? Check. Sound of a piano in the background? Check. Presumably, the reason he's running is that someone tried to force him to listen to BIEEEEEEEEEEBERRRRRRR.

Todd in the Shadows is actually Justin Bieber

This only derives from the fact of Todd and Bieber both wore gray hoodies. But here's the thing, Todd is the bitter adult version of Bieber and the reason he gets so mad is he regrets being that whiny kid that couldn't sing. He got some piano lessons and learned how to sing, and presumably got a TARDIS somehow to travel into the past and rail on pop music, including his shameful career.

• ...Which is why we never see his face!
• As explained here.
• Also, he mentioned having previously been a big fan of Usher...J-Bieb's producer!
• And creepily, I once saw a short little MTV promo featuring Bieber playing the piano...
• Someone must make a fanfic of this. NOW!
• Confirmed as of his "#selfie" review.

Todd in the Shadows is actually Tee Hee Tummy Tums

A.K.A The most beautiful man in the world. Hence why he must forever dwell in the shadows, lest he be crushed beneath a mass of swooning fangirls and fanboys eager to tear off a peice.

TITS is the guy who leaves Rube the envelope.

The sweatshirt is so he can be shot from behind without arousing suspicion. Alternatively, he might be Father.

Todd In The Shadows is BRIAN BLESSED

...it could happen.

Todd In The Shadow is Ke$ha

An alternative to his being Justin Bieber- Ke$ha, years later, drops out of fame utterly wasted and uncared about, however she is kidnapped by a team of mad doctors who completely alter her body, voice and remove the effects of years of alcohol consumption from her system. She escapes, then broods on her lack of talent and wasted life. She learns how to play the piano, finds a TARDIS and uses it, adopts a secret identity and becomes a pop song reviewer, in the hopes of making her former self and pop music associates rethink the music that got them executed by the Seahorses in the future.

• That scenario... is so... epic.

Todd In The Shadows is a former one hit wonder from the future

Going off above guesses, Todd is a former one hit wonder from the future. In fact, he might even be a one hit wonder who's one hit was a cover. He did say in his Top 10 Worst Songs of 1987 he felt sorry for those types of artists. Unable to deal with the fact his only claim to fame was off a cover of some "old" song instead of an original by him, Todd travels back to our time period to review "current" pop songs. His one hit might even be one of the songs he's reviewed.

• Then how is he so bad at predicting which songs will be successful and which won't?
  • It's because he's changing the future (and creating a time paradox). His predictions are scenarios that, in his timeline, DID come true, but in our timeline, are the exact opposite, or at least so different it looks like he's screwing up.

Todd is an albino.

He wasn't kidding about being black. The reason for his decidely light complexion (from what we have seen) is that he is albino. This also explains why he has to be covered at all times, because albinos have very sensitive skin.

• Jossed: He is, at least, Ambiguously Brown as further footage has shown.

Todd is Hiro Protagonist.

Apparently he's both black and Asian-American. Hiro is of African-American and Korean-Japanese ancestry. There's also the sword he uses to commit harakiri with...

• Unlikely. Todd has explicitly stated in his review of "This Is America" that he is not black.

Todd in the Shadows is really Monster in the Dark.

...it could be explained somehow.

• AWESOME.
• The Monster is Obfuscating Stupidity when it's around people like Xykon or Redcloak who it knows to be smart and cunning, because it also knows that if they should learn that the Monster is smart, logical and willing to use its powers for reasons it wants to, it might end up dead, enslaved or on the run. It occasionally uses its powers for things it wants, such as teleporting O-Chul, but whenever it does so it continues to Obfuscate Stupidity so nobody catches on. However, occasionally things become a little too much for the Monster, so it teleports to Earth and lets off steam in the most harmless way possible... reviewing pop music. To cover its tracks, the Monster changes shape to Todd, but because of habit, it/he always wears the hoodie and stays in the shadows. So far it's worked, but God knows what'll happen if anyone else on Earth (or in the OOTS-verse) finds out...
  • Fanfic. Now. Please.

Todd is the next regeneration of the Master.

He's been American before, and kept the liking for hoodies. After his last disastrous outing, the Master's taking a break dissecting the worst parts of Earth culture.

• Furthermore, the piano is his TARDIS.
  • No, it's the Event Synthisiser from Doctor Who Classics #7!

Todd is Elvis.

Hey, it could happen.

The next review will be of DEV 2.0

• From how he reacts to seeing them and his line "One crisis at a time" it would not be a stretch.

Todd will eventually marry Obscurus Lupa

• Just because "Obscurus in the Shadows" makes so much sense as a name.
  • Lupa is already married
    • ...OT3?
    • We've never seen Todd's face, maybe he is her husband. His Lupa-themed desktop wallpaper isn't a sign that he's a crazy stalker, just a devoted spouse.

Todd has red hair

Or some other recessive hair color like dirty blond.

• Jossed. The Head video showed his hair is black/dark brown. (Thought I supposed it COULD be dyed.)
• Confirmed on his Twitter.

Todd is in danger from The Slender Man

In his review of Chris Brown's "Deuces", there's a bit of static just before the "Valentimes" line. It's just for a split second. This digital distortion is similar to the distortion in Marble Hornets and Everyman HYBRID. Maybe Slendy's a fan of the songs Todd bashes?

• Slender Man does not approve of the hatred of Take It Off. Slender Man liked Take It Off.
• There's a theory that wearing a mask keeps Slendy from finding you. This is why Todd never shows his face.

Todd is Alex Mercer from [PROTOTYPE]

He has a hoodie, he recently came down with MRSA (often pronounced 'Mer-sah') he survived it, suggesting that he's resilient and refuses to die. He also goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge whenever people make extremely terrible pop music (e.g. Deuces, but also in 'Soul Sister' when he says that he will hunt down the lead singer). Gaga isn't the only monster who is mutating quickly.

• Wellll....MRSA itself isn't a killer. It simply fosters infections and is resistant to antibiotics. However, the staph infections that often appear in its wake can be lethal, so "resilient and refusing to die" both still apply.

Todd is The Shadow.

• The Shadow?
• The SHADOW!
• The Shadow.

Todd is a nazgûl.

It was said in the forum, and it's epicly awesome, so I added it here.

Todd will dress up like a normal person at Magfest and will not reveal to anybody that he is Todd In The Shadows

It will be a way to keep himself anonymous. He might also go by a different name or Todd might just be his stage name. He might also try to be mute or alter his voice so that nobody will recognize him.

• Jossed. He wears his hoodie and a full face mask.

When Todd finally unmasks himself, it will be a crowd shot

It's the best way to technically say he showed his face, while screwing with his fans. In a review or other TGWTG-affiliated video, Todd will be just an extra with no familiar clothes or features.

The crossover review of Head was imagined/hallucinated by Todd.

At the end of the review, we get a shot of Todd at his piano flanked by Paw and Roses, and they're all singing "Daydream Believer". Fade to black for the credits. Fade back in, it's the same shot but with just Todd. Could just be a coincidence, but the way it's edited seems to imply they were never there to begin with.

• Todd actually mentions this theory during this review's joint commentary with Paw and Roses, and it meets with their approval.

Todd hides his face out of fear of being killed by a Death Note.

Any other explanations he makes for hiding his identity are lies because if he made it public that he is in danger, he would only put himself at a grater risk. Not only does he make a point to hide his face, but he hasn't revealed his full name. As for why he's being targeted, and by who (Kira?), I can't say.

• He's actually L.
• He's being targeted by Justin Bieber, who managed to get his hands on a Death Note.
  • It's lucky YouTube usernames don't count, as it would be a bloodbath. Though, if you've ever read YouTube comments, perhaps it would be for the best.
  • Uh oh...◊
• Executives from major record labels, who feel Todd is becoming too big a threat. Executives have been known to posses Death Notes before.

Todd is a Dementor.

Because they also wear hoods and it's as good as anything else?

You Cannot Grasp the True Form of Todd In The Shadows

Like Judge Fear from Judge Dredd or Black Mage of 8-Bit Theater, seeing Todd's face would drive you mad. That's why he wears masks and hides in the shadows.

• This may hold credence. In a recent The Nostalgia Chick review, the Makeover Fairy took his mask off. While it was The Unreveal for us, she freaked out looking at it.

Todd in the Shadows is actually this guy.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsveiPJcxlE

• Wouldn't that mean Todd is... DEAD?!

Todd in the Shadows is Michael Jackson

Hey, it could happen.

"Born This Way" will make Todd in the Shadows go totally batshit insane.

Come on, it's leaps and bounds more surreal than any of Gaga's earlier music videos. He's going to see it, and it can't be good for him...

• I'm going with Friday instead.
• Subverted, at least with "Born This Way". He's perfectly fine. "Judas", on the other hand.

Todd is a SMeyerpire.

He hides his face because his disco-ball skin would immediately reveal him as a vampire and attract an unfathomable amount of flamers

Todd is DJ Axis

He uses the hoodie to not let Handsome Tom notice that he is half-blind (apparently Tom has tried contacting DJ Axis to get him to join The Game Heroes) because he wants to try his hands on stuff other than remixing video game music.

Todd is That Aussie Guy in disguise.

If you’re wondering about the different humour styles, Todd mentioned stealing many of his jokes from friends and family. That's why he wears the hood: to prevent Doug from learning the truth.

Todd is The Mysterious Stranger.

Both don't show their real face and derive pleasure from mocking how horrible human culture is. But instead of painting broad strokes, he's decided to focus specifically on pop music.

Todd is Ruben Valtierra.

A pianist who gets no respect from his peers and frequently has to hide his face. Watch the video for "The Saga Begins" and tell me otherwise.

Todd is Erik.

That explains the hidden face and musical talent.

• That would also explain his Stalker with a Crush tendencies towards Lupa and the Nostalgia Chick's obsession with him (seeing as she was majorly infatuated with the musical before).

There is nothing special about Todd.

Since nearly everyone is convinced that he's someone important, it is possible that he's actually a nobody under that mask. He's just a well-spoken young man named Todd.

• Stupidest thing I've ever heard. Next you'll be suggesting Crookshanks is just a cat.

Todd is The Stig.

Well, why the hell not? Both men hide their faces; we've never seen Todd drive, and we've never heard the Stig talk; ergo....

Todd is a convict hiding from the law.

A bit darker, but we already know he's a magnificent stalker. What else could he be up to in his free time??

Todd's got an Omega deal going on under the hoodie.

• Again, why not?

Todd is a rogue or undercover Shade

• He says he once worked for Lord Vyce here. He joined the site shortly after Vyce was first foreshadowed (As a scout maybe?). The reason he hasn't been deactivated is that either Vyce cut the signal to protect him, leaving an extra ace up his sleeve in case he ever comes back, or he cut it himself as a result of enjoying his new job and wanting to distance himself from his old boss.
  • Perhaps he's from one of the universes Vyce invaded, and was hired to help eliminate the Entity. He may even be from Vyce's universe: the reason he cloaks himself is because the cloak itself is designed to keep him alive in our universe. Kind of like Vyce's own suit.

Todd is an Assassin taking a stand against the Templar-run music industry.

• I mean, he constantly wears a hood!

Todd is the Anti-Spiral or an avatar thereof.

• Why does he hide his face? Because he's a Humanoid Abomination with no real form; he butchered a random guy and made a skin suit out of him for when he needs to be seen in the light, but the only salvageable parts were the hands and lower face/upper chest, hence why he covers everything else. Why does he review bad pop songs? He wants to expose them to an audience that likely wouldn't hear them at all if it wasn't for him, hence inflicting soul-crushing despair among them. He can move in the space between spaces, he kills himself multiple times but gets better, and his pining for Obscurus Lupa is a Take That, Audience!, representing the face that Lupa is beloved by people who will never actually be able to even interact with her, much less date her, again making them despair. It's far from airtight, but if he starts ranting about the moon in a later video, be afraid...

Todd is quite possibly Slenderman, Jeff the Killer, or even a combination of the two.

• Hey, regarding the third option, black and white does make gray, and as far as we know, Todd might have a bleached-white face or even no face at all

Alternatively to the above, Todd is one of Slendy's Proxies...

• And the Slenderman itself just really hates pop music, so it uses Todd as a voice box for its views on pop music. This explains why Todd himself actually seems to like some pop music, yet still pokes fun at it. It also explains the mask, since there's definitely no shortage of mask-wearing amongst Proxies...

Todd is Meguka.

"Every day I'm sufferin'." Being meguka is suffering. He wears the mask to cover how off-model he really is.

Krin is the Anti-Todd

Todd's title-card artist appears in Linkara's Mr T #2, also obscuring her face with a hoodie, her features over-exposed into blank whiteness. Female to Todd's male, light to his dark, visual instead of musical, Krin is his opposite. If they met, they would either make a perfect couple or annihilate each other.

• Better yet Krin is the child of Todd and Lupa from the future. She has Todd's hoodie with Lupa's red hair.

Todd is a Weaver.

Keeps his face covered, wears a hood, works with music? Of course, the Weavers' eyes were always visible, and Todd's never are... but then again, the Weavers have blue sclera.

Todd is of Lefeinish descent.

Just listen to his thoughts as read by the Nostalgia Chick at the end of her What Women Want review. "Lu... pa... lu... pa..."

Todd is Asian.

He doesn't wear shoes inside people's houses!

• That could also make him Scandinavian, since most Scandinavians take their shoes off at the door as well...
• He once tweeted that half his family were refugees from a communist dictatorship, which would probably make him either half Chinese or half Russian.
  • Jossed. Confirmed that the communist dictatorship his family fled from was Cuba.
• Canadians also take their shoes off inside of other people's houses and a lot of Canadians have Scandinavian and/or Asian backgrounds. Maybe he's from Canada.
• It's actually quite common for people in Southern states like Virginia to be taught to take their shoes off inside.
• Well, him being Asian could be the reason why he wears a mask over eyes and nose as supposed to his mouth and nose. East Asians have very distinct looking eyes. So (even if he's not) he could be wearing it over his eyes to further the joke about us not knowing his race/ethnicity. That, or because it's funny.
• Confirmed, Todd explicitly said he was half-Vietnamese in his defense of Lindsay Ellis's opinions on Raya and the Last Dragon

Todd is a Sith Lord.

Todd hides his face because he doesn't want some people in real life to know he listens to pop music

Or it started that way, and he stuck to it because it's funny.

Todd is Banksy.

Both wear hoodies, both hide their faces with backlighting (Banksy does this in Exit Through the Gift Shop), both seem to have basic video editing abilities, and both make commentary on a specific kind of popular culture. The reason Banksy doesn't want to be revealed is because he'd lose his urban street cred if was caught making internet videos about Katy Perry songs.

Todd is secretly Gudda Gudda.

He put on a mask to hide his facial tattoos and made fun of his own silly verse in "Bedrock". Notice how in other reviews, he mentions the "grocery bag" line often. Gudda Gudda hopped online to mock his own verse to show that he's really a Stealth Parody of modern hip hop.

Todd is the Shadow Broker.

And he reviews pop songs to throw off nosy investigators, thus allowing him to continue his operations in secret. It's also the reason why he keeps his face hidden.

Todd is the Power of Pop Music.

He hides his face since proclaiming his love for his Estate is tantamount to a confession to breaking the Windflower Law. He tries to defend pop music from those who would destroy it. Also, Jessie J is an Excrucian, and the song "Domino" was a flower rite against the Estate of Analogies, by creating things that have the form and purpose of analogies, but don't actually work.

Todd and Lindsey will review Body of Evidence.

During Todd and Film Brain's review of Sunday School Musical, Todd tried to get other reviewers to watch three other movies. These movies were Crossroads, From Justin to Kelly, and Body of Evidence. He and Lindsey already reviewed Crossroads and From Justin to Kelly, so logically Body of Evidence is next.

• Alternatively, he also mentioned a "50Cent movie" (possibly "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", so that may come about. ...Of course, more than likely not with The Nostalgia Chick...

Todd is the 3D form of Mr. Game and Watch

• Confirmed.

Todd's face is nothing special, which is why he keeps it hidden.

Todd is Genre Savvy to know that an aura of mystery would add to his popularity, so he decided to craft the appearance of a mysterious man who women would flock to solve and men would try desperately to figure out who he is. Todd in the Shadows has probably written down some WMGs to add to the mystery, or he just thought it amusing. The reason why people freak out when they see him is because their standards about his mystery have been raised incredibly high. The fact that Mechakara didn't freak out when performing "surgery" is because he couldn't even begin to care about what a human looks like-they're all the same soggy haggis anyway.

Todd is actually Ichika Orimura.

Ichika grabbed the blindfold from episode 5 of Season 2, used his IS to travel back in time to America, destroyed it, bought a hoodie, and went under the name of Todd in The Shadows and decided to review bad pop music.

Todd is biracial or has an even more mixed heritage than that.

Well, he is Ambiguously Brown. It's possible that he inherited different ethnic traits from his parents.

Todd is a young SCP-096.

He can't have anyone look at his face, but is in the early stages of the Humanoid Abomination that is the Shy Guy so isn't psychotic about it. At some point Dr Insano's meddling with Hypertime will call him to fall out of the universe and mutate into what we see in the SCP Foundation.

Todd is Doctor Doom

And The Black Eyed Peas are the Fantastic Four.

Possible Pop Song Reviews

Predictions for future pop song reviews.

• "Talk Dirty" by Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz
  • Confirmed.
• "Happy" by Pharrell Williams: If Todd does review it, expect him to slip in the "Happy Happy Joy Joy" song somewhere, most likely as the end of video stinger.
  • Jossed.
• "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry featuring Juicy J
  • Confirmed.
• "Can't Remember to Forget You" by Rihanna and Shakira: Todd's made his disdain for Rihanna known, but his opinion of Shakira is not known. Such a collaboration is practically begging for Todd to review it.
  • Jossed.
• "Classic" by MKTO. Specifically Todd will do his best to avoid a molestation joke when he hears the line "Do you like Michael", even though the line is actually "Thrill you like Michael". And based on his Twitter rants, expect him to compare it to Rascal Flatts.
  • Jossed.
• "G.U.Y." by Lady Gaga: More specifically, he'll review the "G.U.Y. - An ARTPOP Film" video, much like he did with "Runaway", except not as a crossover.
  • Jossed.
• "Loyal" by Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne and Too Short, French Montana OR Tyga: It's been a while since Todd tore Chris Brown a new one; however, the song has three different versions, each with a different second guest rapper, and listening to all three versions for any extended period of time would likely drive Todd insane.
  • Jossed, but it did make #3 on his Worst of 2014 list.
• "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX
  • Confirmed.
• "Birthday" by Katy Perry
  • Jossed
• "Problem" by Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea
  • Jossed.
• "Am I Wrong" by Nico & Vinz: Just for the obvious "Ghostbusters" reference and so Todd can say "Yes"
  • Jossed.
• "Me And My Broken Heart" by Rixton & "She Looks So Perfect" by 5 Seconds of Summer: These are two songs that would make a perfect "head-to-head" episode. The former are a band whose members are in their early 20s, are managed by Scooter Braun, and make mature pop music, yet haven't achieved much success outside the context of the single. The latter are a younger band whose music is more teen-oriented and are already making waves on the charts with the rest of their work. It's pretty much The Wanted vs. One Direction 2.0.
  • Jossed for both, but “She Looks So Perfect” made his Top Ten Worst for 2014.
• "Sing" by Ed Sheeran ft. Pharrell: With that weird video, it's at least worth a mention.
  • Jossed.
• "Rude" by MAGIC!: He hinted at a review around the time the "Fancy" review was released.
  • Confirmed.
• "I'm Ready" by AJR: It samples Spongebob.
  • Jossed.
• "Maps" by Maroon 5: Heavily hinted at by a few of his recent tweets.
  • Jossed.
• A blanket review covering Bro Country, where he can dissect what makes it popular and thrash its sexism and other faults.
  • A lot of Todd's recent tweets have been complaining about this trend. Either he has a specific song in mind for a video or something bigger.
• "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift vs. "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor. Two songs that by white girls that recently hit #1.
  • Both Confirmed, but as separate videos.
• "Don't Tell 'Em" by Jeremih ft. YG: Todd put Jeremih's two other hits on his Worst lists in the past, so it may be high time for a full review.
  • On Twitter, Todd claims that he hasn't devoted enough time to Jeremih, so a review may be likely.
  • As of December 2014, Jeremih has not released an actual video (not even a live performance video) for the song and probably won't at this point. Without footage, it might make it hard to review it.
  • Ultimately jossed
• "Anaconda" by Nicki Minaj
  • Confirmed. Todd admitted it was past time that Nicki Minaj got a full review.
• "Take Me to Church" by Hozier. Now that the song is becoming popular, it may become time for Todd to talk about it. The cover would probably have Todd in front of a church.
  • Jossed.
• "God Made Girls" by RaeLynn. If the song becomes a big enough hit, he might do it since he's already stated on Twitter that he considers it So Bad, It's Good.
  • Jossed.
• "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars.
  • Jossed, but it was #1 of his Top Ten Best of 2014.
• "Love Me Like You Do" by Ellie Goulding.
  • Jossed.
• "Time of Our Lives" by Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo: Despite the implications of his "Feel This Moment" review, he's made a couple tweets about Pitbull recently, so it might happen.
  • Jossed.
• "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - He even commented on Twitter that if he were to review it, he would probably want to see Furious 7 first. And he was surprised it took Uptown Funk off #1.
  • Confirmed
• "Trap Queen" by Fetty Wap: He's tweeted that he has a lot to say about the song. He's also said that he can't organize his thoughts into an episode, but that hasn't stopped him before ("We Are Young" vs. "Somebody That I Used to Know," anyone?).
  • Jossed.
• "Dear Future Husband" by Meghan Trainor. Hated it from the moment he first heard it shortly after reviewing "All About That Bass," and it's currently in the top 20 and rising.
  • The song is currently declining as of late, but Todd has reviewed songs after they peaked (e.g., "We Are Never Getting Back Together"), so it's not off the table just yet.
  • Ultimately confirmed.
• "Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar: It's one of the biggest songs in the country right now, and he's discussed his hate for the song on Twitter.
  • He'd likely use the Bastille song with the same title for the closing credits.
  • Ultimately jossed; he said that he doesn't have enough material for the song for a review.
• "Cheerleader" by OMI: It dethroned "See You Again" (for good, unlike "Bad Blood") to become the number-one song in the country.
  • Jossed. He says he doesn't care about the song one way or the other.
• "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten: He tweeted that it was poorly written.
  • Jossed.
• "What Do You Mean?" by Justin Bieber: Bieber was one of Todd's old nemeses in the latter's early days, and given the absence of most of those nemeses at the moment, he can discuss some of his recent work.
  • Confirmed as a double review along with Shawn Mendes's "Stitches."
• "Hotline Bling" by Drake: He stated his dislike of the song on Twitter.
  • Confirmed as a double review along with Adele's "Hello."
• "Love Yourself" by Justin Bieber: Another Ed Sheeran-penned song, and arguably the pissiest of all of Bieber's recent singles by far. He even said on Twitter that while it's definitely pissy, it isn't angry enough.
  • Jossed.
• "Stressed Out" by twenty one pilots: He said that the song made him more stressed out, which is something he can explain in a review.
  • Jossed.
• "I Took A Pill in Ibiza" by Mike Posner: Todd thought he'd never hear from the guy again, so he'll want to check up on him.
  • Confirmed.
• "Cake by the Ocean" by DNCE: He's pointed out some elements in this one that baffled him, so I think a review can help him milk as much humor out of it as possible.
  • Jossed.
• "Work" by Rihanna featuring Drake: He hasn't said as much about Rihanna in newer times aside from "FourFiveSeconds", but with this song catching a lot of steam he could revisit her more thoroughly.
  • Jossed.
• "One Dance" by Drake featuring WizKid and Kyla: Given how much Drake has been dominating the charts since early 2015, Todd might consider looking into his first #1 hit as a lead artist, at least once it gets a music video.
  • He called it along with "Work", "Panda" and "Pillowtalk" "barely even songs", so it may not be that easy to talk about.
  • Ultimately Jossed.
• "Me Too" by Meghan Trainor: Another moderate Meghan Trainor hit, similar to "Dear Future Husband." Given its similarity in sound to a will.i.am song, its airs of egocentrism, and a possible hint at the end of his "This Is What You Came For" vs. "Cheap Thrills" review, it might be something that Todd could really tear a new one.
• "Cheap Thrills" by Sia featuring Sean Paul: He's tweeted about how Sia has had a "weird career", and it dethroned "One Dance" (for good, unlike "Can't Stop the Feeling"), so it may be worth a look into. Plus, Sean Paul's presence might help him bring back his Sean Paul impression from his "Do You Remember" review the same way "Turn Down for What" brought back his Lil Jon impression.
  • Confirmed as a double review with Calvin Harris and Rihanna's "This Is What You Came For".
• "Perfect Illusion" by Lady Gaga: Yet another act making a long-awaited comeback, and one that he stated favorably on Twitter, no less.
• "Treat You Better" by Shawn Mendes: He said that Shawn Mendes had fulfilled the potential to be "truly, punishingly terrible", and a review of this song could show why he believes that.
  • Confirmed.
• "Closer" by The Chainsmokers and Halsey: With this having been at #1 for well over a month, surely it's come to his attention.
  • Confirmed.
• "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd: Because of the Mannequin challenge.
  • Confirmed.
• "Scars to Your Beautiful" by Alessia Cara: This picture of Amy appears to show Alessia Cara on the computer screen, which might be hinting at his next review. It would give him an opportunity to go into more detail as to why he hates the song.
  • Confirmed.
• "Sign Of The Times" by Harry Styles: With the most well established member of One Direction getting his big breakthrough, this is one Todd might look into.
  • Jossed.
• "Taste" by Tyga ft Offset: Tyga's first hit in a long time.
  • Jossed.
• "Delicate" by Taylor Swift: Hinted to hate this song.
  • Jossed.
• "I Like It" by Cardi B ft Bad Bunny, J Blavin: Todd might have to dicuss Cardi B, at some point.
  • Jossed
• "Thank You, Next" by Ariana Grande: Used as a transition on his Worst of 2018, and hinted at in the "Happier" review.
  • Jossed.
• "Without Me" by Halsey: This became her first solo #1 hit at the start of 2019, cementing her as the only Lorde-a-like from the mid-2010s whose career distinguished itself in its own right.
  • Confirmed.
• “7 Rings” by Ariana Grande: Since the release of “No Tears Left to Cry”, Ariana has been easily the biggest figure in pop music, with this being her second consecutive #1 hit, which, like her previous, has held the top spot for multiple weeks. Todd also seems to have less than fuzzy feelings about this particular song, which he could easily elaborate on in a full review, contextualizing it with Ariana’s personal life and the rest of her Thank U, Next album.
  • Confirmed.
• "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X: It has become one of the most talked about rap songs in recent times, due to its Tik Tok-fueled success, extreme country influence, and surrounding controversy of Billboard removing it from the Hot Country Songs chart. If Todd covers this, he'll surely compare it to bro-country, which he now barely considers country music whatsoever. A discussion about race in country is also probably inevitable.
  • Confirmed, specifically the remix with Billy Ray Cyrus.
• "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish: Todd considers her a significant new artist who encapsulates the genuine experiences of being a teenager. Also, this song is notable for being arguably the most potent of the numerous challengers to "Old Town Road"'s claim to the #1 spot on the Hot 100, which it finally achieved in mid-August 2019.
  • Jossed.
• "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi: A clear contender for Todd's #1 Worst Hit Song of 2019, if these are any indication. Lewis Capaldi is currently one of the biggest superstars in his native UK, where this track sat atop the pop charts for several weeks. Todd will likely compare him to Lukas Graham, another piano-driven singer/songwriter with self-centered lyrics and a huge tendency to oversing (who also topped Todd's Worst List for 2016 with "7 Years").
  • Confirmed.
• "Señorita" by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello: He was tweeting about it not long after it became a #1 hit, so he may be preparing to cover it.
  • Jossed.
• "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I: Since it didn't make Todd's Worst list for 2019, he'll likely dedicate a full review to it instead because it's by far one of the weirdest songs to become a hit in a long time. It set the record for longest-running #1 by a solo female act in the UK and emerged a sleeper hit in America. His tweets about the song suggest that he doesn't like it, but it'd be interesting to see if he considers the lyrics (about Tones's experiences with busking) a saving grace.
  • Jossed.
• "Roxanne" by Arizona Zervas: It didn't appear on either of Todd's year-end lists for 2019, but Todd definitely has thoughts about it.
  • Jossed.
• "The Box" by Roddy Ricch: The first new #1 single of the 2020s.
  • Jossed.
• "Futsal Shuffle 2020" by Lil Uzi Vert: It became a notable viral hit.
  • Jossed.
• "Yummy" by Justin Bieber: It has quickly become the "Filthy" of 2020, being a near-universally panned sex song by an veteran pop star named Justin that dropped at the very beginning of the year. Like "Filthy", Todd absolutely despises it. If Todd reviews this song, expect him to mention Bieber's desperate attempts to make it a big hit.
  • Confirmed.
• "Trollz" by 6ix9ine & Nicki Minaj: Todd hasn't gotten the chance to say a whole lot about Tekashi yet, but this going to #1 will surely give him a great opportunity to finally unleash his fury onto the rapper whose career most people assumed was dead in the water last year.
  • Confirmed.
• "Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)" by Jawsh 685 x Jason Derulo x BTS: With some help from a BTS remix, this song became Jason Derulo's first #1 hit since his breakout "Whatcha Say" in 2009. Derulo is of course one of Todd's O.G. punching bags, and he asked his Twitter followers if they actually liked it, so it seems very likely he'll do a Pop Song Review of the track.
  • Jossed, but it did make an appearance on his Top 10 Worst Songs of 2020 list.
• "Bang!" by AJR: After years of only niche success, AJR finally managed to get a major pop hit. The band has a highly infamous reputation among music nerds and the song's general reception isn't much better. While Todd spoke of not hating it, he does find the song "alien", and its continued chart success might convince him to do a review.
  • Jossed.
• "driver's license" by Olivia Rodrigo: Like BENEE, she's an obvious Billie Eilike, but unlike "Supalonely", this song was an immediate monster smash. Todd will surely thank it for unseating "Mood" from the #1 spot on the Hot 100 at the very least, but it remains to be seen whether or not he really considers it up to Billie's standards. Since it has been extremely talked about though, a Pop Song Review is probably in order regardless.
  • Confirmed.
• "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)" by Lil Nas X: It's a #1 hit with a video and lyrics that sparked both a ton of controversy and lots of think-pieces (in this case, regarding the representation of queer themes in popular music), so it's virtually guaranteed that Todd will do a Pop Song Review of it.
  • Confirmed.
• "Fancy Like" by Walker Hayes: It's one of the biggest country-pop crossover hits of the past decade, but also one of the most panned, and Todd is no stranger to covering these as he'd previously reviewed "Cruise (Remix)" and "Body Like A Back Road".
  • Confirmed.
• "abcdefu" by GAYLE: Todd gave it a dishonorable mention on his Worst list for 2021, stating he would've put it on the list had it not been such a last-minute hit. Now that it has nestled its way into the Hot 100's top 10, a Pop Song Review would be the perfect opportunity for him to unleash all his negative thoughts about the track. If he reviews it, expect him to mention the more rock-oriented "angrier" version of the song.
  • Jossed.
• "We Don't Talk About Bruno" by the Encanto cast: It's the first song from a Disney animated movie to reach #1 on the Hot 100 since "A Whole New World" 29 years earlier. The Encanto soundtrack is also one of the biggest blockbuster movie soundtracks in a long time, harkening back to the late '70s, '80s, and '90s, when hit-producing soundtracks were common. Surely this could make for an interesting episode, especially considering how much the prerequisites for chart success have changed in recent times.
  • Jossed. Todd briefly talked about it during his "Sweetest Pie" Pop Song Review, but dismissed it as a show-tune for 8-year-olds and thus presumably not worthy of further dissection.
• "Sweetest Pie" by Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa: Todd hinted at being interested in this for being the first "event single" in a long time, failing to debut in the top 10, and Dua Lipa's current star power.
  • Confirmed.
• "Unholy" by Sam Smith and Kim Petras: A song with a lot of potential discussion points: not only is it Sam Smith's biggest stateside hit in quite awhile, it's also the first time openly-transgender indie pop singer Kim Petras has appeared on a hit single. The track is also notable for its heavy influence from the growing hyperpop movement. As with "Montero", Todd may feel the song is not to his tastes, but that its huge success is an important milestone for the LGBTQ+ community.
  • Apparently jossed, as Todd is so intimidated by the discourse surrounding the track that he's afraid to share a single thought about it.
    • Ultimately confirmed.
• "Anti-Hero" by Taylor Swift: It's been three years now since he reviewed a Swift song, so surely he has something to say about her return to full-fledged pop music.
  • Jossed, but it topped his Best of 2022 list.
• "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus: It's the first big event single of 2023, and one which Todd already has a lot of strong negative feelings about.
  • Jossed.
• "Karma" by Taylor Swift: He questioned how Ice Spice made the song so much worse and said the song was fine on its own, so digesting both versions might allow him to answer that.
  • Jossed.
• "Vampire" by Olivia Rodrigo: It's an event single, and one which Todd has a lot of bad thoughts about. He may end up forgoing it, due to his plans to feature it in the year-end episode of Song vs. Song.
  • Jossed.
• "Try That in a Small Town" by Jason Aldean: The blatantly jingoistic lyrics that have been interpreted as being pro-lynching and controversy surrounding the music video could definitely make it a shoehorn for a full Pop Song Review in similar fashion to "Am I the Only One?" in 2021.
  • Jossed, he has no plans to review it at the moment.
• "Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony: A lot has happened in music since Todd gave the Luke Combs cover of "Fast Car" a Pop Song Review. Once Todd returns from his break, an episode focused on this song and artist would not only give him a record amount of content to discuss, but also allow him to address the general music trends that led to its out-of-the-blue success.
  • Confirmed.
• "Selfish" by Justin Timberlake: The lead single from the follow-up to Man of the Woods, one of the most-requested albums by viewers for Trainwreckords, and one Todd has strong negative feelings about.
• "Too Sweet" by Hozier: He was torn apart for hating "Take Me To Church" in 2014, so a sudden return from Hozier almost a decade later might necessitate some discussion to see how this compares.

If Todd ever does a full album review, it will be Katy Perry's Prism.

Todd stated that 2013 killed his hate-crush on Katy Perry, and he wanted to do a full review on "Roar" but claimed that it was too bland and boring to cover in a 15 minute video.

• Likely jossed, since Todd states towards the end of the "Dark Horse" review that he's going to stop listening to Katy Perry.
  • Todd ultimately did do a full Katy Perry album review with his Trainwreckords episode on Witness, during which he called Prism a "delayed flop", meaning it was successful upon release but has a much cooler reception in hindsight.

Possible double reviews

• "Habits (Stay High)" vs. "Chandelier": Indie-dance-pop songs that largely focus on drinking.
  • Jossed
• "Loyal" vs. "Don't Tell 'Em": Top 10 hits by R&B/rap singers from 2014.
  • Jossed
• "Steal My Girl" vs. "Jealous": Two songs, one by the biggest boy band in the world, the other by the ex-frontman of what was once the biggest boy band in the world, both about jealousy.
  • "Jealous" confirmed as a single review; "Steal My Girl" is jossed.
• "Love Me Like You Do" vs. "Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)": Two songs in the top ten that are part of the soundtrack to the same movie, one that Todd could go into detail about his hatred for.
  • Jossed
• "Trap Queen" vs. "Nasty Freestyle" vs. "Watch Me": Three hip-hop songs that achieved their popularity through Vine. He could do a double review using any combination of the two, or perhaps even a triple review.
  • "Watch Me" has been confirmed as a single review. The other two have been jossed.
• "Honey, I'm Good." vs. "Fight Song": Two crossover hits from adult-pop radio onto pop charts.
  • Jossed
• "Bad Blood" vs. "Fight Song": Two hits by solo female artists that Todd has expressed dislike for on Twitter. It'd also be a decent excuse to apply the "Four-Chord Song" Running Gag to both songs.
  • Jossed
• "Can't Feel My Face" vs. "The Hills": Two songs by The Weeknd that are currently in the top five.
  • "The Hills" has been confirmed as a single review, although Todd does briefly discuss the former song in it.
• "Can't Feel My Face" vs. "Want to Want Me": Two songs Todd likes by singers he hates.
  • Jossed
• "Where Are Ü Now" vs. "What Do You Mean?": Two Justin Bieber hits this year.
  • "What Do You Mean?" has been confirmed as a double review, but with Shawn Mendes's "Stitches." "Where Are Ü Now" is Jossed
• "Roses" vs. "I Took a Pill in Ibiza": Two EDM hits that were unexpected comebacks by seemingly irrelevant acts.
  • "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" has been confirmed as a single review. "Roses" is jossed.
• "Stressed Out" vs. "7 Years": Two songs about growing old that are slow and low-key.
  • "7 Years" confirmed as a single review, although Todd does briefly mention the former song in it.
• "Work" vs. "Work from Home": Two songs that repeat the word "work" in their choruses.
  • Jossed
• "Cold Water" vs. "Closer": Rapidly growing songs by two of the biggest names in EDM right now—Major Lazer and The Chainsmokers, respectively.
  • "Closer" was confirmed as a single review. "Cold Water" is pretty much jossed at this point.
• "Bad Things" vs "I Don't Wanna Live Forever": Steamy male-female duets featuring a former member of a teen quintet.
• "This Town" vs. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever": One Direction solo songs.
• "Sign of the Times" vs. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever": Ditto.
• "Slow Hands" vs "Strip That Down": Same deal.
• "Despacito" vs. "I'm The One": Hit collaborations featuring Justin Bieber.
  • Jossed. "Despacito" was reviewed separately, and "I'm The One" was reviewed with "Wild Thoughts."
• "Something Just Like This" vs. "Stay": Two EDM hits by acts Todd has expressed mixed feelings about.
  • Something Just Like This" confirmed as a single review.
• "It Ain't Me" vs. "Stay": Two EDM hits featuring a popular female vocalist.
  • Jossed.
• "Apeshit" vs. "I Like It": Two female rapper songs.
  • Both songs jossed.
• "Happier" vs. "High Hopes": Two alternative bands who came back this year.
  • "Happier" confirmed for a single review.
• "7 Rings" vs. "break up with your girlfriend, I'm bored": Two "Thank U, Next" singles following in the wake of the success of the title track.
  • "7 Rings" confirmed as a solo review. "break up with your girlfriend, I'm bored" got a dishonorable mention on his Worst list.
• "Roxanne" by Arizona Zervas vs. "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I: It's been a long time since Todd last did a double-Pop Song Review, but he mentioned these songs in the same breath with a pretty interesting insight, so it's possible they'll be covered together after both missing his year-end lists for 2019.
  • Jossed.
• “Don’t Start Now” vs. “Physical”: With how much Dua Lipa has been gaining steam, and how positively Todd has been towards most of her hits, he might take two of her current reps and decide which is better.
  • Jossed.
• "Say So" by Doja Cat feat. Nicki Minaj vs "Savage" by Megan Thee Stallion feat. Beyonce: Two female rap songs that shot up the chart after their remixes with even bigger female artists. The two songs have already been attracting comparisons, including by Todd himself.
  • Jossed.
• “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift vs any other song off of Midnights: His opinion on the album was that it “sounds like an album that was made during moments when Taylor couldn't sleep”, which makes it sound “samey and formless, but it also captures insomniac derangement in a way I find very relatable”. The lead single, which debuted at #1, encapsulates the best aspects of that, so he might see how any of its successors, like “Lavender Haze”, hold up by comparison.
  • Jossed.
• "Vampire" vs "Bad Idea Right?" by Olivia Rodrigo: Todd hated Olivia Rodrigo's long awaited return single, but tweeted praise for its successor. A double review could highlight what makes it better.
  • Jossed.
• "HISS" by Megan Thee Stallion vs. "Big Foot" by Nicki Minaj: The biggest female rap diss tracks of 2024 so far; one of which was heavily praised, while the other was heavily panned, in a similar manner to "Break My Soul" and "Falling Back".

Todd will review Best Song Ever

And it'll be snarktastic.

• Confirmed. And as much as he wanted to rip it a new one, HE LIKES IT!

Todd will review an Ariana Grande song

And accidentally reveal that he loves Victorious

• Seeing as how Ariana's album hit #1 in the country in only 6 days to a week after its release, I think it's high time that he does so. Plus, after his gushing on the Nickelodeon stars and shows the past few times he's reviewed Disney stars, I think it would make sense if he went into detail, much to his disagreement.
  • "The Way" was in Todd's honorable mentions for Best of 2013, and Todd flat out stated he felt Ariana was a powerhouse.
  • However, in October 2014, he tweeted that "she sounds like a little girl wearing her mom's makeup". This could mean in Todd's opinion, Ariana Grande could be squandering her early promise as Imagine Dragons did in 2013.
  • Sort of confirmed. He said that Victorious was better than Disney shows, but didn't love it.

Future Spinoff ideas

Todd will make a Trainwreckords spin-off that focuses on career-killing singles, performances and other incidents

This would allow Todd to talk about artists whose careers ended before their first flop album, and artists whose careers were destroyed so quickly that they never even got to release another album (or, in extreme cases, their debut album). Some of these don't really deserve full episodes, but he could still make a video featuring multiple artists/bands.

Singles

These are essentially Trainwreckords, except that they're singles instead of full albums.

• "Sexy Bitch" by David Guetta feat. Akon: Despite launching Guetta's career in the United States, "Sexy Bitch", in Todd's words, "made America finally say, "yeah, you know what? Maybe this whole Akon thing was a mistake"".
• "psychofreak" by Camila Cabello feat. Willow Smith: One of the major singles released for Camila's third solo album Familia, "psychofreak" was released in the aftermath of her breakup with Shawn Mendes, as well as the revelation that she had reblogged several racist posts on Tumblr in her teens, not helped by fellow Fifth Harmony member Normani claiming it took several years for her to take accountability for her past actions. This song charted poorly on the Hot 100, the rest of the album flopped (its only true success due to the assistance of Ed Sheeran), and Todd put Camila at #8 on his list of biggest stock drops for 2022. Todd blasted this track on Twitter, citing it as an example of pop singers trying to write personal songs when they're not equipped for it. While Camila would eventually chart another song on the Hot 100 with "I Luv It" in 2024, it's likely this is more due to the guest feature from Playboi Carti rather than Camila's own starpower.
• "Maybe I Mean Yes" by Holly Dunn: Although the song was merely about a flirtatious woman playing the By "No", I Mean "Yes" trope, it killed her career because some listeners felt that the lyrics, especially the line "When I say 'no' I mean 'maybe', or maybe I mean 'yes'", were a condonement of Date Rape.
• "M.I.L.F. $" by Fergie: After leaving the Black Eyed Peas to focus on her family, Fergie finally released a comeback single at the turn of 2015, "L.A. Love (la la)", which was only a modest success. A year and a half later, she put out this tragically misguided song, which quickly became infamous for its clumsily sexualized music video and lyrics so neanderthal that they made "My Humps" sound poetic. While it charted in the top 40 upon release, it fell off the Hot 100 extremely quickly and got an atrocious like/dislike ratio on YouTube. By the time she released her second solo album, Double Duchess, a year later, her career was so dilapidated that the new LP barely charted and none of its new singles even came close to being hits.
• "Tonight (I'm F***ing You)" by Enrique Iglesias feat. Ludacris: In the Worst of 2011 countdown, Todd noted that this song not only irreparably damaged Enrique's reputation as a sensitive man of romance, but was also not followed by any more hits. While "Bailando" with Gente De Zona and Descemer Bueno was a decent hit in 2014 and did excellently overseas, Enrique himself wasn't anywhere near as relevant after "Tonight" as he was before. Coincidentally, "Tonight (I'm F***ing You)" was also the last real hit that Ludacris ever appeared on, despite the song itself not tarnishing his image nearly as badly for most people.
• "Hello Kitty" by Avril Lavigne: This infamous single destroyed most of the remaining goodwill she had with the public. It awkwardly tried to get "hip with kids" by slapping together genres like EDM, Dubstep and J-Pop because they were popular with teens around 2013, and Lavigne's attempts to capitalize on her fandom in Japan (with the music video being filmed in Tokyo and Gratuitous Japanese thrown in the lyrics) drew controversy. While her 2018 single "Head Above Water" temporarily redeemed her damaged reputation, the subsequent album of the same name was poorly received and squandered her chance for a comeback.
• "White Privilege II" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: While Macklemore was already falling out of style by 2016, when downbeat trap music was taking over America, the intense backlash to this clumsily misguided commentary on systemic racism destroyed his reputation for good in that country. His career did survive in parts of Europe and Australasia, but he's nowhere near being the biggest rapper in the world like he was in 2013. Ryan Lewis, meanwhile, parted ways with Macklemore, having not featured on his 2017 album Gemini.
• "Donkey" by Jerrod Niemann: Its Double Entendre lyrics about the ass caused the song to go over abysmally in the traditionally conservative-minded country fandom, which did a lot of damage to his career.
• "Accidental Racist" by Brad Paisley featuring LL Cool J: By 2013, Brad Paisley was one of the biggest stars in country music, with several #1 country hits over the course of over a decade. Unfortunately, his career took a permanent hit after he put out this horribly misguided response to the Confederate flag controversy boiling up at the time. Intended to find common ground with African Americans and mend the wounds left by the legacy of slavery, the track instead exposed Paisley as insincere, completely out of his depth, and oblivious to the impact of the flag's racist connotations. Since the backlash, Paisley has only nabbed three more top 10 country hits and has failed to get any of his new albums certified by the RIAA.
  
  LL Cool J's guest part wasn't any more positively received, either. He was trounced for essentially equating the guilt of black assumptions towards whites with centuries of slavery and systemic hate crimes. The line, "If you don't judge my gold chains, I'll forget the iron chains," was especially thrashed as LL failing to stand up for himself as a black man in America, and while Todd appeared sympathetic towards him in his Pop Song Review of the track with The Rap Critic, he later put the line on his Top 10 Iconic Bad Lines of the 2010s list on Twitter. While LL Cool J's career was pretty much over since 2006's Todd Smith, his new album that same month, Authentic, became one of his most hated ever, largely due to the recent controversy, and he has given up music almost completely since, focusing instead on his acting career.
  
  Since Todd already dedicated a full episode to this song when it came out, it's unlikely he'd review it as a Trainwreckords spinoff, but since a lot has happened since 2013, he could possibly have a fresh perspective on the track and how it holds up even worse today.
• "Both Ways" by Liam Payne: While never released as a single, this song caused a huge controversy and was accused of being biphobic.
• "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" by The Police: All five of the band's studio albums are widely beloved, with the last one, Synchronicity, being widely revered as one of the best albums of all time. However, escalating Creative Differences that already plagued that record's production would come to an ugly head here, when an attempt at re-recording a Zenyattà Mondatta cut for a Greatest Hits Album caused them to dissolve after an argument about which drum machine to use. The single remains divisive, and though the band themselves conceded that their collapse was inevitable, the track's production is generally agreed by analysts to have accelerated it.
• "U.O.E.N.O." by Rocko ft. Future & Rick Ross: Although this song technically qualifies for One Hit Wonderland, Todd might be more likely to cover it as a Trainwreckords spin-off considering the most infamous part didn't come from Rocko, but instead from Rick Ross's verse about drugging a girl and taking her home, which was seen as condoning Date Rape. The controversy over this lyric caused Ross to be dismissed as a Reebok spokesperson, the cancellation of many concerts, and the line being censored on most formats.
• "Spectacular" by Kiely Williams: Williams had some success as a member of 3LW and The Cheetah Girls, but her solo debut "Spectacular" killed her solo career before it even began. She apparently tried to reinvent herself as Darker and Edgier to cash in on Rated R-era Rihanna, but it backfired horribly — "Spectacular" became highly controversial for portraying binge drinking followed by unprotected sex with strangers as fun, and it didn't help that it's easy to interpret the plot as "a woman was raped and enjoyed it". Williams eventually had to respond to the complaints, but people didn't buy her explanation that the song was intended to bring attention to the issue of women getting intoxicated and having unprotected sex. Additionally, general consensus seems to be that even if you ignore the subject matter, the music itself just isn't very good. Williams hasn't released any new music since (though the song that was expected to be her debut single leaked in 2018 — expect Todd to say that it was at least better than "Spectacular").

Performances

This includes both performances that killed careers for being terrible, and performances that tainted careers due to scandals involving them.

• Andy Abraham: The former X Factor contestant had an embarrassing performance on Eurovision in 2008, and his last place performance turned the UK into a complete joke in the contest ever since.
• DaBaby: Went under fire for making homophobic comments while performing at the Rolling Loud Festival in July 2021, which resulted in his scheduled appearances at Lollapalooza, the Governors Ball Music Festival, Parklife Festival, Day N Vegas, Austin City Limits Festival, Music Midtown and the iHeartRadio Music Festival being cancelled. BoohooMAN also terminated their collaboration with him, along with many radio stations pulling the single version of Dua Lipa's "Levitating", which he was the featured artist from their airwaves as a result and replaced it with the solo album version, and Billboard solely crediting Dua Lipa for "Levitating" topping the Year End Hot 100. He eventually topped Todd's list of artists whose stock fell the most in 2021.
• Dixie Chicks: The concert where lead singer Natalie Maines told the crowd that she was ashamed that President George W. Bush came from her home state of Texas. This infuriated many Americans — American Country Music in 2003 was filled with pro-war jingoism almost to the point of parody, and many fans saw Maines' opposition to the war as borderline treasonous. Virtually overnight, one of the biggest country acts and all-female music groups in history was all but blacklisted from American country radio, with the band's singles rapidly falling off the charts, Maines receiving death threats, and at least one radio station holding a promotion where listeners could bring their Dixie Chicks albums and merchandise to be crushed by a bulldozer. They only recorded one more album afterward (Taking the Long Way in 2006), one that was heavily informed by the controversy at that, and while it was commercially and critically successful, this was in spite of a near-total rejection from country fandom and radio. The album's hit single "Not Ready to Make Nice" peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 and won both Record and Song of the Year at the 2007 Grammys, but it only reached #36 on the country chart. Two years later, they went on hiatus. The rise of a culturally progressive new generation of country music fans later gave them an audience who are sympathetic towards them, but it hasn't translated to success with newer music.
• Janet Jackson: Her Wardrobe Malfunction during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show caused her to suffer a career downturn that lasted into the 2010s. Todd will probably argue that it was wrong for her to take the blame for the incident instead of Justin Timberlake, who was the one who ripped off her bra.
• Jemini: Their off-key Eurovision performance of "Cry Baby" got them the dreaded nul points, which led to their label dropping them and their album never being released.
• Sinéad O'Connor: Her 1992 Saturday Night Live peformance that ended in her ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II to protest allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. At the time, she was seen as insane, but she would be vindicated nearly two decades later. To this day, the SNL performance remains one of the first things that comes to mind when discussing her, to the point where the announcement of her death in 2023 was quickly met by discussions about the performance and its aftermath.
• Ashlee Simpson: After two major blows — first the infamous SNL performance where she was caught lip-syncing, and then the half-time performance at the Orange Bowl where she sang very poorly — her music career was all but over.
• Sugarland: The duo's popularity was already going downhill in 2011, but it looks like the fatal stage collapse during one of their concerts at the Indiana State Fair finished off their career, as they went on hiatus soon afterwards. While the stage collapse was an unfortunate accident, they were still sued over it, being held as The Scapegoat for the incident and were accused of ignoring warnings about the potentially dangerous weather that day.
• Donna Summer: Her allegedly calling AIDS God's punishment against homosexuality at a 1983 concert. As Todd noted in the Weather Girls OHW and scrapped content for the "You Need to Calm Down" Pop Song Review, the Queen of Disco supposedly did not love her enormous gay fanbase back due to her religious beliefs, despite their support being a major reason her career survived the downfall of disco in the early '80s. Her next album Cat Without Claws underperformed as a result, and she struggled to maintain relevance as her old fans migrated towards more openly pro-gay pop divas such as Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. She had one more hit in 1989, produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, but was firmly past her days of trend-leading relevance by then.

Music Videos

• "Shush Up" by Alison Gold: She was only "popular" for being So Bad, It's Good, but the music video to this song was too offensive to even be that. It sexualized her while she was still a preteen — it features her being pregnant, committing robbery with murder implied and thus given death sentence via electric chair, being tortured, committing suicide, and dancing in skimpy (lack of) clothing and doing extremely inappropriate dance moves. The video's dislikes went through the roof and it received a record number of complaints about its barrage of offensive content, such that it was swiftly pulled and Gold hasn't done anything noteworthy since then. It also seems to have left a black mark on the Ark Music Factory's reputation too, especially when founder Patrice Wilson awkwardly defended the video as "art". With the lone exceptions of Rebecca Black (who has managed an active online and musical presence) and Patrice Wilson (who released a bizarre music video in 2015), none of its acts have done anything noteworthy ever since.
• "Rock Me Tonite" by Billy Squier: While the song was his biggest hit single, the video killed his career. The footage of him arising from satin sheets and prancing around in a pink tank top made people think he was gay, and he stopped selling out shows. He then fired his manager and didn't release another album for two years.

Other / Combination

• Ryan Adams: His career came to a screeching halt in 2019, when when multiple women (including Phoebe Bridgers, his ex-wife Mandy Moore, and an anonymous teenage musician) accused him of controlling behavior, sexual misconduct and harassment in a New York Times article, causing several radio stations to immediately drop his work, the cancellation of a scheduled tour, and plans to release four albums over the course of the year to be shelved. While Adams would later resurface with a public apology and surprise released two of those planned albums from December 2020 onwards, nearly all major media outlets refused to touch them, indicating that the damage to his reputation still hadn't been undone.
• Anti-Flag: They suddenly disbanded in July 2023 amidst many accusations of rape and sexual assault made against frontman Justin Sane, leading the other members to cease all ties with him and directly condemn his actions. Several bands also left their record label A-F Records in the coming days as a result.
• As I Lay Dying: Frontman Tim Lambesis was arrested after hiring a hitman to murder his ex-wife.
• The Black Eyed Peas: The poor reception to their album The Beginning, their video game The Black Eyed Peas Experience and their Super Bowl performance led to their hiatus.
• Blood on the Dance Floor: Lead singer Dahvie Vanity had over 21 alleged victims in 2009 alone.
• Blue: At least in the US, where member Lee Ryan made insensitive comments downplaying the severity of the 9/11 attacks, which made the band come off as an Animal Wrongs Group.
• Anita Bryant: Backlash against her anti-LGBT crusade did significant damage to her career.
• Daughters: While never mainstream, their reputation was destroyed in late 2021 when frontman Alexis Marshall was accused of sexual and emotional abuse by his ex-partner, Lingua Ignota (which she explained in graphic detail).
• Dr. Luke: Got into tons of controversy after revelations that he sexually abused Kesha during her time on his record label. However, he continued finding work producing for indie-pop favorite Kim Petras, eventually culminating in his #1 production for Doja Cat, "Say So". His reputation remains badly tarnished, though.
• Gary Glitter: The popular glam-rock singer was arrested after child pornography was discovered on his computer, and his career went downhill. Later on, allegations of child sexual abuse surfaced.
• Cee Lo Green: He was arrested on sexual battery charges, which, while awful, was hardly unique in the world of hip-hop. The bigger controversy happened when he tweeted that he can't be held liable because his victim was unconscious at the time. This led him to both lose his coaching job on The Voice and not be brought back for the Hotel Transylvania sequels.
• Rolf Harris: Yet another career ended due to child molestation charges.
• Hedley: Lead singer Jacob Hoggard was put on trial since 2018, the band is on hiatus and have no plans on returning anytime soon.
• Iced Earth: The band’s reputation was destroyed overnight when guitarist Jon Schaffer participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
• R. Kelly: The '90s R&B superstar saw his career go down the drain due to rape accusations, especially after the documentary Surviving R. Kelly was released. His star power had fallen so hard that he topped Todd's list on the top 5 artists whose stock fell the most in 2019, by a large margin.
• Natalia Kills and Willy Moon: Husband and wife, they simultaneously destroyed their careers during their gigs as judges on the New Zealand version of The X Factor. On the first live show of the season, Natalia horribly bullied a contestant simply because she thought that he had copied his style from her husband, with Willy joining in with her. The outrage against the two was immediate and scathing, with Natalia and Willy being booted from the show and replaced the very next day. Natalia had to drop her stage name and start using her legal name Teddy Sinclair in order to keep working in the music industry at all, and while she still works as a songwriter and with the band Cruel Youth, her career as a pop star in her own right ended with that incident. Willy vanished from the public eye as well and has not released any new music since then.
• Tory Lanez: Though he was never a mainstream superstar like Chris Brown, his career took a major hit in 2020 when allegations surfaced of him shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot. The accompanying album Daystar, which saw him deny these, didn't help increase his decreasing reputation, which led to him topping Todd's list of artists whose stock fell the most in 2020.
• Lostprophets: The rock band's reputation was destroyed overnight after lead singer Ian Watkins was arrested for attempted child rape and child pornography.
• Marilyn Manson: He was named by Evan Rachel Wood as her previously-unnamed abuser in 2021, followed by at least 15 other women (including Esmé Bianco and Phoebe Bridgers) coming forward with very similar stories, resulting in Loma Vista Recordings throwing him off their label and ceasing all further promotion of We Are Chaos^note his most recent full-length album at the time of the accusations, Creative Artists Agency removing him from its roster, and his scheduled appearances in American Gods and Creepshow being cancelled, with the former's filmed footage being cut from the final product.
• Milli Vanilli: The revelation that they lipsynced their live performances and didn't even sing on "their" albums caused massive backlash. They had their Grammy for Best New Artist revoked, and the affair triggered a strong backlash against dance-pop.
• Ted Nugent: His increasingly far-right political views made him anathema to most people to his left, Todd included.
• Pink Lady: In early 1980, they were caught in a scandal involving a New Year's special and a school for the blind. Then they tried to save their careers with Pink Lady and Jeff... which killed not only their careers, but the entire Variety Show genre in the US.
• Michelle Shocked: Her coming out against gay marriage. As an alternative folk singer with a tomboyish aesthetic, she naturally had a sizable lesbian fanbase, which felt disgusted and betrayed by her backwards political views.
• Ten Walls: A popular EDM musician who made a homophobic Facebook post where he called LGBT people pedophiles. He was quickly dropped from virtually all festivals he was a part of.
• Trapt: Previously best known for their 2002 one-hit wonder "Headstrong", the band became notorious for a different reason in 2020 with frontman Chris Taylor Brown's (no, not that one) social media presence, which all came into a head in March when he went on a lengthy spree of controversial posts and attacks on others using the band's account via Twitter, before being suspended from the platform in early December 2020 when he appeared to defend statutory rape. Todd himself doesn't think too highly of Brown's social media presence, even claiming that he ruined "The Diary of Jane" for him.
• Kanye West: Todd quote retweeted a tweet from Pop Base about his streams, sales and airplay declining following antisemitic comments. In addition, his collaborations with Vogue, CAA, Balenciaga, Gap and Adidas were also terminated, which Forbes reported his newly reduced worth to be $400 million, less than half of the money he had before the terminations. Following further comments where he praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, there was major demand online to remove all of his music from streaming services a-la R. Kelly, ensuring his reputation will likely never recover.
• Wiley: While mainly a superstar in his native UK and a pioneer of UK grime, his reputation was also ruined for antisemitic comments on social media, which resulted in him being de-platformed from social media and A-List Management cutting ties with him.

Todd will review the filmographies of other notable musicians-as-actors in the vein of Cinemadonna.

• David Bowie: Like Madonna, Bowie managed to sustain a lengthy film career in addition to his better-known music career. Also like Madonna, the films Bowie appeared in were wildly variable in quality, from classics like The Man Who Fell to Earth to cult favorites like Labyrinth to ones subject to Creator Backlash like Just a Gigolo. Similarly to how the American Life Trainwreckords episode acted as an epilogue to Cinemadonna, a series about the Bowie filmography could also act as a prolonged lead-in to a review of Tonight or Never Let Me Down.
  • Unlikely, as he suggested Bowie was always too much of a cult darling to be killed by his '80s Audience-Alienating Era.
• Ice Cube: While not the first rapper to have a prolific film career, he's considered one of the most notable. As his filmography is generally seen as having made a good start before growing shakier as time went on, a series on Ice Cube's movies would provide interesting comparisons with the Madonna filmography, which Todd portrayed in Cinemadonna as starting poor and generally getting worse barring a couple decent appearances. That said, as his film career is still ongoing, Todd may shy away from reviewing his screen work compared to other artists listed here.
• Elvis Presley: He's not a likely candidate for Trainwreckords because he made a huge career comeback in the late '60s with the Elvis NBC TV Special and "Suspicious Minds" and subsequently remained successful all the way until his death in 1977. However, his '60s filmography is widely regarded as an embarrassment in his career, and Todd hinted at the poor reception of his movies in the "Monster Mash" OHW and in "The Top Five Worst Things About U2's 'Rattle and Hum'".

Todd will make a One-Hit Wonderland spin-off about artists who didn't get big until changing careers from music to another, or artists who tried to balance music with another career but ended up more well-known for the other career

Entertainment

• Russell Crowe: As a teenager based in New Zealand, he attempted a music career under the name Russ Le Roq. However, his singles flopped without a trace, and he moved to Australia to pursue his acting career.
• Travis Knight: he released the album "Get Off Mine", but it sunk without a trace after its debut. However, after his father bought shares in Will Vinton's studio, he got a job there and became a rather successful animator and director, creating hits like Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee.
• Brie Larson: At 16 years old, she released the album Finally Out of P.E. during her early acting career. Even though the single "She Said" got frequent airplay on MTV and she opened for Jesse McCartney, Larson decided not to continue her music career.
• Seona Dancing, emphasis on Ricky Gervais

Todd will make a One-Hit Wonderland spinoff about artists whose only hit is through a featured credit

• "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John ft. Kiki Dee: She had a few other hits in her native UK, and she and Elton collaborated again in 1993 for a cover of Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly's "True Love", which was a #2 hit in the UK.
• "Stay" by Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko: None of his own songs have charted at all, but he wrote the Christina Aguilera song "We Remain" for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack.

Other

Todd will declare 2013 the worst year of his reviewing career.

During his 2013 reviews, he noted that several songs in Billboard's Top 100 in 2013 were middle-of-the-road, easy listening ballads or electronic dance music. Todd hates both genres for being boring and emotionless, respectively, which makes them hard to review, since Todd likes to talk about personalities and emotions.

• Definitely confirmed.
  • From Todd's Twitter: "'Wrecking Ball' replaces 'Roar' as the number one song in the country. My god, this has been a shit year for pop."
  • As he introduced his Worst of 2013: "GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE!! No, seriously, 2013 can go screw itself. Just burn the yearbooks for this one." Also, he said he had difficulty finding 10 songs worth raging about.
    • He ends the Worst of 2013 video with "SCREW 2013."
  • He starts his Best of 2013 video with a mental breakdown, with Kyle, Paw, and Elisa having to give him a pep talk to do the list.
  • In November 2015, he stated that he may have been too hard on 2013, then in July 2016 he said that in hindsight it wasn't that bad at all.
• 2014 may not look much better for Todd. From Late January to April, the Top 10 remained more or less unchanged, and in August, he declares on Twitter that he may have to do more One Hit Wonderland and Cinemadonna episodes since he finds the Hot 100 at the moment to be "Dullsville".
  • Matter of fact, I'm thinking Todd will actually declare 2014 even worse than 2013. In his review of "#Selfie", he talked about how the charts were barely moving for a few months, and in one of his One Hit Wonderland episodes he talked about how Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)'s soundtrack had basically became Album of the Year ^note For what it's worth, that was before a few select albums like My Everything, 1989 and Hozier's debut came along, though.
  • I think it is unlikely that he will do so. In his Twitter, he recently stated how much he was surprised how dull the year-end list was, but in his reviews he had a lot of praise to how fun and upbeat many of the hits of the year were ("Talk Dirty", "Rude", "All About That Base", "Shake it Off" and "Bang Bang"), with only "Dark Horse", "Wiggle" and "Fancy" really getting the harsh treatment for sounding bad, as opposed to the boring charts and songs he reviewed in 2013. So, he will probably say it was better than 2013, but still worse than the previous years he has been reviewing.
  • Confirmed on his Twitter: "God, this was a bad year for pop music. Legitimately worse than last year."
    • Not only that, but he stated that in addition to the fact that he had roughly 15 hit songs tied for the penultimate slot of his worst list, it was going to be difficult for his best list to even get to ten.
• However, 2015 is already looking a lot better for Todd. Not only did he mention how exciting Uptown Funk being the first new #1 of the year was, but he said on Twitter that he already had three contenders for the #1 spot of his best list. Seems there will be a good chance of him enjoying this one.
  • ...or possibly not, considering that he was confused when "See You Again" dethroned "Uptown Funk" from the number-one spot, and then that song was replaced for a week by "Bad Blood," a song he despises. Beyond that, there seem to be more of songs he'd dislike than of songs he'd like, judging by the larger number of possible candidates for his worst list of 2015.
    • Not to mention in the "Thinking Out Loud" review, he talked about how he's discovering that pop music has been starting to get tasteful. At the same time, however, he might still at the very least call it better than 2014, which is probably the least he can ask for.
    • He said on Twitter that he may very well already have his #1 picks for both the Best and Worst set.
    • The verdict on 2015 on his Twitter: "I actually think it's a lot better than last year." Not only that, but as previously mentioned, he even admitted that he felt like he was too hard on 2013, but not 2014.
• 2016, on the other hand, is not looking to be quite as good yet. So far Todd has not seemed to be in great favor of a lot of the hits that have surfaced, and there are definitely more candidates for songs he'll dislike than songs he'll like. If that wasn't the case in 2015, it surely is here.
  • Case in point...
  • He lamented in the "7 Years" review that he doesn't 'get' a lot of pop music in 2016, and that most of the hit songs sound half-assed and are "barely even songs".
  • He said on Twitter in response to a question that overall, this year blows while musically, it's the worst one in his lifetime. This basically eliminates any doubt about whether or not he hates 2016.
  • Given "Closer", a song he liked but didn't exactly love, was his top song of 2016, there's a good chance he says so.
• 2017 looks like another lackluster year for Todd; as with 2016, there appear to be more songs he dislikes than songs he likes.

Todd will discover that Florida Georgia Line is really 3OH!3 after face transplants.

Both are incredibly annoying and meatheaded, so it'll make sense that they're the same people.

• alternatively, they could also be The Chainsmokers. It's a bro-ception! Or Twenty One Pilots, perhaps.

Is Todd actually getting bored of reviewing?

Because we're halfway through 2015 and Top Tens notwithstanding, he's only had three pop song reviews so far. Previous years have had him do around 14/15 a year, not counting One Hit Wonderland. If he keeps up this slow pace, he might not make that amount this time around.

• He's commented a few times that a major factor in a review is how much material he can work with. Given his opinion of pop music having a really boring phase the last couple of years, it may just be that he feels he has nothing new to add - the singers who usually get his attention, like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, are between albums at the moment, which has left the field open for a lot of future contenders for One Hit Wonderland, who he probably isn't bothering to be paying attention to because they won't be around long.
• Also, Todd's slower output is due to the shut down of Blip.tv. Several of Todd's newer videos are almost immediately blocked on YouTube due to Todd not yet being white-listed by Maker Studios to bypass Content ID checks, and the record labels are getting more aggressive with copyright claims on YouTube, even though Todd's videos are completely within Fair Use. Todd uses Vimeo as an alternative mirror, but Vimeo doesn't have the same strength as YouTube.

Todd will review the animated movie Strange Magic

Although Strange Magic is still a very new movie it is full of pop songs, which makes it seems like the kind of thing Todd would review. Though he would probably not like the movie he will praise the part of the movie where Merianne sings "Stronger" because she sings it more forcefully than Kelly Clarkson does.

Todd will make a Take That! to the Prince Estate for its adamant opposition to the use of the singer's music in commentary videos

Judging from Todd's highly negative reaction to Bryan Adams's threatening to sue AllMusic.com unless every bit of information about him was erased, he may make a Take That! to the Prince Estate for similar reasons. If he wants to praise a Prince song, he might say something like "If I say his music is awesome, I can't even play snippets of it to back it up! What the hell is wrong with you?". If he wants to criticize a Prince song, he'll probably chew them out for not being able to accept criticism of their dear Prince. While Prince being dead might make him hold back, his putting Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight" on his Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1991 shows that he is willing to criticize the music of deceased artists.

Todd will make an April Fools' Day episode about "Like the Wind", The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

It will be full of fake tongue in cheek information about it and its creator, out of whole cloth.