New poll! "Royals" vs. "bad guy"

I guess you must mean young gen z because I have reverence for things that came out in the 2000s (especially the late 2000s) and that’s not including stuff from much earlier that my mom and dad got me into. I will say, though, that when royals came out, I liked it for a little bit but it never did that much for me. Ribs is pretty great, but the rest of that era of Lorde didn’t do much for me.

Katty Kit

I know I’m commenting after the episode and poll, but I will say, Gen Z has like, absolutely no reverence for anything from before ten years ago, AT MOST, so I’m not surprised the people Alina were asking said they don’t think Royals is important.

J.D. Laney

I couldn't vote in this one. Love them both too much

Hey There

Today I learned that there’s people that don't think that Lorde has had a successful career. Do I wish she released albums more frequently? Yes. Do I think Solar Power was a letdown after Melodrama? Yes. But that doesn’t add up to a subpar career imo

Josie

I can't believe you would pit Millenials and Gen Z against each other like this when we need to be working together more than ever.

Jeremy Hanna

I like Bad Guy better, maybe because I have a bias against songs where the title is negated in the lyrics

Martin Sternelius

I've always felt that "Bad Guy" is kind of a song that never starts. If you tuned in during any part it sounds like a slow burn intro

Peter Theriot

I'd vote for almost anything from "Melodrama" over "bad guy", I love that album so damn much. "Royals" is good and was undeniably a MOMENT, but it's one I need to be in the mood for. "bad guy" has infectious oddball energy that makes it more of an "anytimer". Also, question for our hosts, have we ever had a Carly Rae Jepsen episode?

Cameron Cook

I love both these songs but Royals has to take the crown, even if Billie's sometimes seen in it.

Chris Carline

Bad Guy is still great but it's kind of disappointing to actually read the lyrics and realize it's less of a song about being a bad guy and really just about being kind of a toxic girlfriend whereas Royals really is the thing it says on the tin

Dzee Szed

neither is either's best song (justice for Team) but Royals had a much bigger and more immediate (if not necessarily positive) impact on The Culture so it gets my vote

The Hand Of The People

I said this on Bluesky: Ughhh i like Lorde more overall (Solar Power notwithstanding), but I think “bad guy” is the better song. Billie might be the more consistent artist, but Lorde has the peaks and my heart. Since this is Song vs. Song though… duh.

shermanmi

royals is so distinctly 2013 and is deployed to MASTERFUL effect in the film hustlers. as much as i like billie, i don’t think bad guy sets the scene of 2019 the way royals does with 2013

es arg

Gotta be Bad Guy for the bass line alone. Sure Lorde's Royals came along at a time it was badly needed and Lorde inspired a load of wannabes who couldn't tie her shoes. But if you ask me which one would I rather listen to it's the song where a teen girl says she might seduce my Dad cos it's got a groove. Both women are very much appreciated in the popular music though

David Fisher

This was hard but I went with Bad Guy partly because of my preference for songs with a faster tempo and also because post-Billie-breakthrough music has been way better than post-Lorde-breakthrough

Lizzord

This poll keeps making me re-vote, so I don’t know if my vote will be counted. Stop the steal!

Richard Angle

Ok but please consider Miss Piggy singing Bad Guy.

Lanth

Green light is really good, you're not wrong. I think I would still have voted for bad guy but green light would have at least made me pause for a moment before I did so.

Lanth

Bad guy as a song oozes this 2019 e-girl edge thing that isn’t bad just out of ~style~ Royals is in that perfect sweet spot of just nostalgic enough that it wins out for me.

no one

I didn't understand why anyone liked Royals when it came out, I see no reason to feel differently now. Its so boring.

Felix O'Ryan

Like Billie needs another award

Gator McKinley

I’m officially too old to vote in this poll. Sorry!

Steph

Bad Guy annoys me anytime I hear it and it gets lodged into my brain for weeks. However, Royals gives me flashbacks to a middle school dance where an elderly teacher forced me to slow dance with her to this song. So I'll go third party and choose "Right Thurr" by Chingy. It's not at all related and it's terrible but it makes me happy, isn't that what matters at the end of the day?

Kai

I wonder if LDR's "Video Games" is a better mashup against "Royals" considering how much they both completely redefined pop girl status and aesthetics in the 2010s

Distracting Myself From The Horrors

Before Royals, it was the time of the club jams. Song after song after song about going to the club, spending piles of money on drinks and girls, and partying until the sun came up. Royals was a knife to the heart of that musical era. People were tired. People were broke. They had neither the energy nor money to live that club life, and it got real old hearing about it nonstop. There were club jams post-Royals, but they were nowhere near as ubiquitous as they used to be. Unfortunately, in the great pop music explosion of 2013, the style of music that many folks tried to follow was Lorde's, and we got approximately ten billion imitators. Which has worn quite a lot of the shine off of Royals. But I think it's important to remember the sheer impact that it had, back when it was fresh. This one is tough. I think you can draw a line of heritage from Royals to bad guy pretty clearly. So which is really better? The one that laid a foundation, or the one that built on it? It's a close one, and I could go for either on any given day. But today, I feel I have to pay respect to the legacy and impact of Lorde, especially as a young adult who was only just getting into pop music at the time. It's Royals for me.

Joe Frangles

I chose "bad guy" because it's the better song, but "Royals" laid the foundation that Billie would later pave over. Not an easy choice.

AlmostCanadian

It feels hard to compare two songs that are six whole years apart. It feels like these came from entirely different worlds. I picked Royals because I feel like Billie and this song especially are just overexposed in a way I don't think Lorde was back in the early 2010s.

Chris Jackson

I love being nostalgic for time periods where I was straight up not having a good time. I graduated high school in 2013. Royals it is.

M. Spencer

Bad Guy for the bassline

trainboy

I guess as an elaboration, I had no problem even getting into stuff like hyperpop, but Billie Eilish was one of the areas where I really acutely felt like I didn't "get" a new pop star, and had to play catch-up, and I don't know why

Theo Gerome

I tried to come up with a deep reason for why I picked the one that I did over the other, but in the end, it really does just boil down to "I was the right age for one of these at release"

Theo Gerome

I put my stock into both these artists around the release of both these songs. Only Billie has returned my investment.

Mr Spaghett

I like both of them but unfortunately I live in Kansas and "Royals" came out just as the local baseball team got really good and I it somehow became their song even though the song is literally about how they're NOT ROYALS and it soured me on it forever.

Martha Boatright

The thought of voting on this gives me anxiety

Hilja

Duh.

Jeff

I’m shocked by how many people don’t like “Royals”. I really like both songs, but “bad guy” wins out for me. HOWEVER, if this were “Green Light” by Lorde vs “bad guy”, “Green Light” would win for me.

Insider2000

Another installment of "Oh no, I love this artist more but this song more." Royals.

Graeme

Royals is a slightly annoying teenager-level critique of commercialism I've heard a million times. Bad Guy's only flaw is the same flaw all early Billie had which was that she sang it like she was trying to avoid her parents hearing it. Still a fun song with an extreeeemely catchy bassline

Emily K (EmK Ultra 64)

this has to be the easiest answer of all time for the william shatner question

Sara

I know, but past tense is funnier.

Maxine - RaccoonRevolution

Not “fucked your dad” but “I can if I want to”

Sunny

Exactly...when he puts on the wig

David Fisher

no you don't get it, Randy Marsh IS Lorde

Evan Morgan

Song vs Song: Foil vs the first 36 seconds of Polkamania

TheMr.L01

The only thing bad about "bad guy" is that Billie got showered with awards immediately after. I can remember the six months when Billie Eilish had teenage rebel aura ! That happened ! I didn't dream it ! Sadly you can't be rebellious when you're covered in Grammys and Billie wisely chose to mature real quick. She's an excellent songwriter and musician, and possibly getting better, but I doubt she'll ever make something as exciting as "bad guy".

Victor bucaille

Comparing these two songs feels like apples to oranges because of that time gap. Then you look around and see that everyone else on this analogy is vegetables, so it’s still the most fitting choice

Staghorn

I agree. Royals was one of the songs that defined the 2010s, bad guy is one of the songs that defined the 2020s

EvilImposterGeorge

My dad is pushing 80, Billie, please don’t make it weird

EvilImposterGeorge

Dark Horse was written before Royals blew up, so it wasn't Lorde influencing Katy to write boring bad music, she was already doing that by herself

Benji

Lorde has to put so much effort into coming across as cool and cynically detached in Royals. She uses all this flowery language, and goes on about all the stuff she doesn't have or care about... Meanwhile all Billie Eilish has to do is go, "lol i fucked your dad"

Maxine - RaccoonRevolution

I voted for Bad Guy, nothing beats that killer bass line not even Randy Marsh in a wig

David Fisher

I voted for Bad Guy, but Royals absolutely wins the Muppet Version question (as did My Sweet Lord in the last episode for the record)

TheMr.L01

Royals sounds like it laments not being a bad guy while Bad Guy revels in being one I picked Bad Guy

Matt

Maybe the final question should be: Which song would Adele put in her sad sack shit playlist?

Michael Murphy

If the choice is based on “Best use in a Movie”, Bad Guy has been used in at least 5 different movies but they are all dwarfed by how Royals is used in Hustlers, one of the most inspired uses of a licensed song in any movie ever. I do still prefer Bad Guy, but Hustlers makes this a razor-thin difference.

Adam Hicken

Both songs snap, but only bad guy slaps.

Joel Thomas

“I’m the bald guy” - Seth Everman.

Franco del Rosario

Voted bad guy, but only one of these has a Weird Al parody of it so that ought to count for something!

Dax

I'm voting for the shoulders of giants. (By which I mean Lana Del Rey.)

Mouser

I guess I just feel like i empathize a lot more with what Royals is about. poor with my poor friends, resenting and not aspiring to the bizarre glut of glitz movies and music want to sell us. & I dunno, maybe I've just known too many cool-mean-girl bullies for Bad Guy to make me feel anything but wary discomfort. also also I'd never looked at the lyrics before, and i didn't realize how much of it is actually about the guy?

Calla of Enby Forever

I think the tiebreaker this time should be: which song are you watching a toothbrush play?

Kevin James

One walked so the other could run. I’m voting for the runner.

Winnipeg Bisque

This is kind of like if you did Lana Del Rey vs Lorde. From my perspective, one would not exist without the other. So Lorde gets my vote, sorry Billie.

wjZephyr

This. This is a good joke.

Jakob Eyjólfsson

I’m going with Royals solely because of the outro on Bad Guy - it detracts from the rest of the song and it never fails to make me cringe.

Jakob Eyjólfsson

While I have a huge amount of respect for what both of these songs did for pop culture and the wider music scene, they’re still probably my least favorite on the albums they came from (for the record, my top picks would be Ilomilo and Buzzcut Season)

DIPDOP

Bad guy is fun and Royals isn't.

lukas

Lorde feels like she was both too early to become as big as she would've been if she hit at the right moment, and a necessary sacrifice to make sure the moment happened.

Alina

We're getting Lorde and Billie at different points in their career here. Lorde took another couple years to get great. This is the start of Billie being great

David P

The calendar tells me that you are accurate in saying these are from the same decade, but that seems utterly wild to me. "Royals" and "bad guy" feel like they are from completely separate generations. Billie definitely if it were artist vs artist, but it's not, so "Royals".

Jonathan P

That was silly

Connor Rankin

Damn! This is a good matchup. This is gonna upset a lot older Gen Z/young millennial women. I went with Royals cause Bad Guy is just a little too goofy, and mainly took off based on the success and hype from Ocean Eyes. Royals took the energetic twee sound from the underground to the mainstream. Imo she did better than Lana, but Lana would get better after her debut. Y'all should do Summertime Sadness by Lana vs New Americana by Halsey

Yurple

My vote goes to Bad Guy because it acknowledges that teen girls are scary! Fear and respect the youth.

Joannasaurus rex

As a person who graduated in the very early 10s, a good percentage of my upbringing had in-your-face EDM Pop constantly playing. While my stance has greatly softened over the years, I hated that style of pop at the time. It was so homogeneous and in inescapable to where basically every modern pop station played it for what felt like all of my middle and high school years. While the late 10s might be some of the most boring eras of pop for me, I am appreciative of that specific paradigm shift for this reason. "Royals" is arguably the key song where that shift happened. My vote goes to Lorde.

JazzySpF

Surprised it's not a Lorde vs. Charlie episode. Ride the girlie drama.

Vaebeth

(Team Royals, for the record, I love Billie but I think she improved when she dropped her edgy shtick a little)

Shiny Skunk

This poll almost tore a rift in one of my friendships, which is how I know it's a good one.

Shiny Skunk

While they're both good songs, in terms of influence on pop music as a whole this is hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby. Are Billie Eilish imitators even a thing? Meanwhile Royals almost singlehandedly dictated like two and a half year of subsequent pop. Royals was countercultural but not transgressive, bad guy was transgressive but not countercultural. Royals has a bigger place in my memory so I'm going with that.

Dewot

…jeez I don’t think it’s that bad

Connor Rankin

And I find "Royals" incredibly boring to listen to! lol (And for that matter, ditto to "What Was I Made For")

Jon Heiman

She barely whispers in that song, unlike most of her later work.

Jon Heiman

Where were they for her last 2 albums? "Green Light" and "Solar" were bangers.

Jon Heiman

Thank you, I just find it extremely boring musically.

Jon Heiman

No strong feelings for me on this one; both are songs (and artists) that I appreciate, rather than love. I prefer to listen to bad guy, while recognising that Royals is probably the more influential song. I'll go for Billie.

Sam Potts

Nah, the Skatune Network cover does, bringing the horns and all that.

Jon Heiman

Goddamn it... I still have second-hand embarrassment from the "Gansta's Paradise" fiasco.

Jon Heiman

Strangely enough, "Bad Guy" might be the one song of hers I can understand all the lyrics to. I don't know a single word of "What Was I Made For" except the title.

Jon Heiman

No, the best version of "Royals" is the Puddles Pity Party/Postmodern Jukebox cover. Talk about elevating the material.

Jon Heiman

"Royals"' beat is boring as hell, I'm sorry.

Jon Heiman

I gotta be honest, in both cases it’s just going up and down on part of a scale with two notes preceding it moving differently. Like I understand what you’re saying but I would not call this ‘dangerously similar,’ just a really really basic motif lol.

Wagner Koop

Controversial and also correct take

Wagner Koop

Maybe if Royals sounded more like Crash Bandicoot music it would have secured my vote. Sorry, Lorde!

Wagner Koop

It's the 2001 Royal Rumble when The Rock and Steve Austin locked eyes from across the ring.

Gone

One of the hardest polls you've ever done. I think Pure Heroine is a top 5 all time album for me, but Royals is one of the weaker tracks, where ...Fall Asleep... is probably top 30 for me but Bad Guy is upper middle of the pack... Seriously hope this as close to 50/50 as we've seen

Eric J

Lorde will forever and always get my vote. Especially when up against Billie—the breathy singing/not singing is technically impressive, I get it, it’s just so incredibly boring to listen to

Josie

As the squarest of squares, and one of those people who only get music news from Todds channel, I first heard Billie when Todd put Bad Guy on his best of. I loved it and a lot of songs from that album. Teaching in rural high school, I also got to hear a lot of teenage boys and a coworker deride it as music for sad teenage girls. Well, it is also for a middleage cismale social science teacher, who loves sarcasm!

Nicolaj

three words; kick ass bassline

fae

Giving this one to bad guy. Royals put me off of listening to Pure Heroine for years, turns out it was basically the only song on the album I dislike.

Feliciaum

Didn’t Billie also claim to have grown up poor tho?

Richard Angle

My dad’s been dead longer than Billie’s been alive, so joke’s on her.

Richard Angle

Don’t dream it’s over … cause it will never end.

Richard Angle

Never liked Lorde even when she won the ESC with Hard Rock Hallelujah

undeednu

As a man old enough (47) that considers both whipersnapper's songs I have no particular attachment to either, though like 'em both. As such this was one of the few SvS times where I didn't immediately know and had to back to back it. And it's Billie. Duh.

Fly, My Winged Monkeys!

Noted music YouTuber Todd In The Shadows once worried that bad guy could become ruined by overplay and being featured in too many commercials. It was definitely overplayed. And I’ve seen it being used badly by commercials and shows all the time. There’s also not great covers that people have told me are better than the original. But, 5 years later and bad guy still rips. Toddstradamus strikes again! (I jest. We love you, Todd! (and Lina)).

Ally M

I feel like this is very close and I could go either way, but ultimately Bad Guy was a bit too gritty for me I guess I not much of a likes it rough guy.

Allan Olley

Just turn on closed captioning.

Allan Olley

Waiting patiently for more Lorde.

Stacyswirl

Trans Lives Fucking Matter

Zero

Despite Royals being this "anti-pop song" at the time, its the one of the few songs i can recall seeing ADS for on TV, which meant its message always felt hollow to me

Tristan

Lorde is my "called it" like Todd did with Sabrina Carpenter. I was completely transfixed the first time I heard it on my alternative rock station and after noticing a few songs over the years make the jump from alt radio to actual mainstream radio hit, I called my shot that Royals would be the next one to do so. Also not sure if this is a hot take anymore, but Pure Heroine > Melodrama.

Jason Lee

Can I vote for neither

Roughhousin By Proxy

How bizarre...

Subspace Jet Witch

I need to rep my local girl Lorde, but honestly I had never heard Royals until that perfect needle drop in Hustlers (Tennis Courts and Team were what I usually heard in the wild)

Kiwi Kink

I couldn’t decide. My girlfriend’s vote and comment, “Royals because I can understand what she’s singing.”

Why We Watch

Lorde vs Carly Rae Jepsen would have made more sense. Both of their biggest songs are also their worst

Jason Smyth

any of Pitbull's hits >>>>>> Royals

A Bucket of Water

Royals ruined pop music by making it uncool to have big, loud, fun hooks. Goodbye maximalist anthems, instead every pop star had to chase Pitchforkian standards of subtlety, restraint, and boredom. As if it wasn't enough to make pop a snooze fest, it brought the energy and excitement of other genres to an all time low along with it. Royals was close enough to alternative that rock music put the final nail in the coffin of 00s scream-along big-guitar movements like minivan rock and pop punk and heralded the dominance of Imagine Dragons, and "mumble rap" non-coincidentally started taking over post-Royals as well. Since this is a Todd show, here's a Katy Perry example- Teenage Dream is pop music pre-Royals, Dark Horse is pop music post-Royals. bad guy moved things in the right direction by making it cool for pop music to be goofy again, plus it has a catchy bass riff, as opposed to the sonic void of nothingness that is Royals.

A Bucket of Water

I played guitar in jazz band in college, but was out of commission the week before a show with a migraine. Barely coherent, I managed to drag my ass to the gig only to learn we threw in a lounge soul cover of Royals in the last week of rehearsal and that change never made it to me until we were counting into it. That's when I learned that entire song is just D maj except for when sometimes it's a G maj for a bit and rarely a C and no one remembered I never rehearsed. This is not a brag about my playing ability, or a knock against the song, but Royals will never sound like anything but a lazily strummed D chord except when my brain goes "oh that's the G, start playing that now" followed by "oh fuck you're playing a D over C but it kinda works anyway. So yeah I voted Bad Guy

a smith

One of these songs became a Weird Al parody and the other was part of a Weird Al polka medley but oddly enough, the medley part really did it for me and the song Foil did nothing. My vote goes to bad guy.

Nico Niconi

for me it's easily "bad guy" and that last 20 seconds is what clinches it for me. one of the most batshit drops ever put in a pop song and it's insane that a song (and album, for that matter) with that sonic palette ended up in the mainstream. "royals" is a fine track but billie and finneas really pushed the genre forward with this era.

bail harp

I admire Billie Eilish as a pop artist and young star But I just can't with the whisper singing man. I don't like it, I don't like how she does it, and the first time I heard bad guy I thought my radio was broken.

FunFawn21

Royals is responsible for the decade of minimalist stomp-snap songs that plagued 2010s radio from pop to rap to country. I will never forgive it for that.

EmperorTigerstar

“bad guy” is the better song, duh. (truly I think the “duh” epitomizes what makes me like bad guy more than royals, it’s the attitude)

Elanor Harris

A mash-up on Youtube overlaid Royals with Imagine Dragons’ Thunder, Taylor’s You Need to Calm Down, and Adele’s Send My Love to Your New Lover. They are ALL the same song. I love Lorde, but this was enough to knock down Royals from a 7 to a 3.

Franco del Rosario

I like breakfast cereal a lot. Shoutouts to Eilish.

Joseph Bergeron

Where are all these Lorde fans coming from and where the hell have they been for the past 10 years?

Kidd Campbell

Royals felt like a real revolutionary break from pop as it was at the time, and it's a pretty good song on top of that. I honestly found bad guy so annoying it turned me off billie entirely for a while. Happier Than Ever made me revisit her later and now I like her better than Lorde as a whole, but song to song, no competition for me here

Zety Scouse

Royals was a revelation to me, with its hushed vocals and sparse, dark instrumentation. Lorde and Lana Del Rey created a new sound, a weird soft girl powerhouse thing that I absolutely fell in love with. Billie came along 7 years later and gave it a bit of a punk sneer and edge, without losing any of the honesty inside the irony. I went with Royals as it's one of my favorite songs, and as great as Bad Guy is it just can't quite compete. That said, by now I'm much more of a Billie fan, and not in small part because she's been much more prolific. Lorde made only 3 albums in the last 12 years, and I wasn't a huge fan of the most recent. Billie made the same amount of albums in only 5 years, as well as two of the best soundtrack songs ever. And while Lorde peaked, IMO, with her sophomore album, Billie is only getting better with each new release. I'd love a Lorde comeback, but for now my allegiance has shifted.

Stacyswirl

It's still completely neck and neck when I'm voting, at 436 votes! As it should be, I love both these songs. I voted Royals just because it felt SO different from everything I'd heard in years. Not that Bad Guy didn't do the same thing, it just felt like that was part of the natural progression of the pop landscape at the time.

Emma Breslauer

I think there is something genuinely wrong with my brain that I just can’t care about Billie Eilish’s music. Bad Guy the only song I like by her, and even then I’ve listened to that “Horse Girl” musical improv bit from Game Changer more times.

Katie Gunn

I mean, hey, New Zealand gave us some classic hits

Connor Rankin

I have never liked Royals for no particular reason. Just don't like how it sounds.

Raye

Every time I stay in a crappy hotel for work I hear her saying "You wanted yogurt? Wake up at 4, bitch!"

Sarah Niskanen

As a New Zealander, we can't escape Royals. It's omnipresent to the point of madness. It'll play on local radio for the rest of time.

Jim Brown

I was 15 in 2013 when Royals came out. Do you know how many off-key ukulele performances I had to sit through of that song? Nightmares linger!

Kynan Clarke-Chancellor

Finally! Pitting two women against each other based on their music! It’s about time! 2025

Zero

Unbeknownst to me my wife was listening to Taylor Swift Midnights. In walks I, commenting “huh, I don’t recognize these Lorde songs. Is this new?” I’m voting for Billie but I gotta pay respect to Lorde.

Zero

I like the lyrics of Royals better but the instrumental of bad guy much better. It does make me really uncomfortable to hear a 17 y/o tell me they're gonna fuck my dad though, but I suppose that's the intent.

seedmunch

Honestly I’m really shocked it’s so close. I voted for royals because frankly I can’t stand Billie’s voice and to me lorde was more groundbreaking. There would be no billie eilish without lorde. And she put an end to the party phase of pop at the time, good riddance

Dani Moor

"Royals" is counter-mainstream because it criticizes classism and consumerism. "bad guy " is anti-mainstream because Billie is vaguely emo. No comparison.

nic

I feel like Billie and Lorde would vote for each other. Don’t know why, I just feel it

Sarah Bee

Definitely have to go Royals, it’s a good song that came recommended from a great YouTuber who never shows his face and body and has a supposedly has good taste in music. Love you Todd

Phillip Fry

Billie feels more like the true maverick.

Albert Farkas

Wait until those artists are young enough to be your kids.

Lanth

I feel like Royals tore pop music apart (in an era when it needed to be dismantled), and bad guy rebuilt it in a new form.

Loyal Deserter

I’m voting bad guy even though and/or because of that synth line - you know the one, sounds dangerously similar to the main riff of “Animal I Have Become” by the band formerly known as Three Days Grace and now known as Three Days Grace 2X (Yes, Animal is in C minor and bad guy is in G minor, just play the two riffs back to back in the same key on a piano lol)

NoU

This was really hard. I picked Royals because it felt more like a true shift to the landscape of pop, and everything Lorde has done since feels like it lives in the shadow of her first album in a way Billie’s later work doesn’t. That might be because Lorde helped create a world where Billie could flourish or it might be just that Billie benefited from have the radio playing less of a role in her success.

Kathleen

Thanks to this podcast I had to consider what it would be like if William Shatner told me that he was planning on seducing my dad so thanks for that I'm glad I give you guys money

Kyle B

I think Royals needed to be said to the culture as a whole at the time, while Bad Guy is a bit more personal. Bad Guy is a better song as a song, but Royals takes it for impact.

Rhiannon Alwen

Bad Guy sounds like We Are Number One from Lazytown therefore it’s the winner

Hannah Matronic

ah the crispy finger snapping, the real reason these songs ought to be compared to each other

no

Bad Guy still hits. Love Lorde, but after the hype died Royals is just giving Kiwimore vibes.

drd

The poverty cosplay of Royals annoys me. Lorde grew up in an affluent suburb, the daughter of a civil engineer and a published poet... I'm pretty sure she'd seen a diamond in the flesh.

MJS

You guys did this on purpose right? Billie is the type of person that Lorde is talking about in Royals.

Kage M

OK so y'all are telling me that the problem is much more immanent & thus worse; fun.

Daniel Shaltes

The age that Lorde and Billie were when they released these songs stand as harrowing confirmation that I am now old enough that artists who write era-defining music can be multiple administrations younger than me. Happy 32nd birthday to me.

David Yurch

I think this should've been Royals vs. Video Games or Summertime Sadness by LDR. Both artists are credited with ushering in the soundscape of 2010s pop and influencing artists like Billie Eilish.

Kim P.

Todd said it last year's Worst list.

Russet Burbank

I worked with a 21 year old who did say this. Often. Girl couldn’t get enough of mr worldwide

ol bill

If I hadn't heard Royals, I wouldn't have accidentally come across Lorde's other single from that album Tennis Court which I legit do love so Royals by association.

Aurone86

Guess this is another episode where Weird Al is a deciding factor. Fasten your seatbelts.

Connor Rankin

Royals just passed me by somehow. I think I only listened to it to see what the Weird Al version was based on. Bad Guy though I listened to a lot, even though it almost immediately started turning up on advertisements.

Steve Harper

When I first heard Royals, I wasn't quite paying attention and thought the line "My friends and I, we've cracked the code" was "My friends IN IOWA have cracked the code".

Dork Mode

I should point out that both songs sound much better when actually listening to them in earnest lol

Charlie L

I just had a vivid flashback of everyone making fun of Lorde for looking ugly/weird while lip-syncing in that video, and watching it now, she looks totally normal? I know times have changed and pop stars are weirder on average now, but even by 2013 standards I don't know why people latched onto that...

Natalie Koppen

I am judging these songs under the harsh criteria of 'how did they sound to me on the crappy, withered radio boombox at work when I didn't have control of which station to put on'. Royals wins hand down since it actually sounded good. Bad Guy sounded like a minute of whispering followed by the synth line in a Sonic the Hedgehog rip-off game

Charlie L

I would not say that is in the not too distant future. It's already just about happened.

Niall Heaphy

Two modern pop songs that I *like*? When did you start doing *that*? Anyway, the tiebreaker is always who did a better job hosting SNL, which Billie wins by default. (She was actually quite good. Almost as good as Shatner.)

Beau Dure

I wouldn't refer to Lorde as gamechanging but "Royals" will always have a special place in my heart, as does any song that calls BS on the BS.

Jonathan Baker

Lorde? Nepo baby industry plant? What the hell are you talking about?

Brandon Hay

"Royals" but specifically the Mayer Hawthorne version

StuTheShoe

When two songs are so equally good as these that I don't have a preference I vote in line with the First Question. For me, Royals just edges it out by having what I feel is the slightly larger footprint for what I'm sure is the dumbest reason I or anyone has ever had for their vote: it came out first.

James Smith

Billie Eilish saved pop music with that album, everything during the first Trump era was abysmal.

Mariana Gallegos

The best version of Royals is Foil, by Weird Al. Bad Guy needs no help from Al to stick in my brain

rethgaal

I dunno Lorde, I kinda like party songs

Brandon Hay

Sorry Lorde, you will always be associate with the summer vacation in which I slept in my cousins room in which he had Florida pop radio on all day. Dark Horse, Fancy, Boom Clap, Happy, All of Me, etc on repeat. Every. Fucking. Day. So yeah, go Billie!

Cole Cox

The 20 year nostalgia cycle indicates that we are rapidly approaching the era that Lorde was targeting; "man, I really miss Pitbull" is a sentence that will be unironically uttered in the not too distant future & voting for Lorde is my only way of coping with this impending nightmare.

Daniel Shaltes

Charlie

Bad Guy is destined to be in every movie trailer until the end of time and, oddly, that doesn't ruin it for me

Lucy Daughter of None

I'm giving my vote to the one with the brat remix

Charlie MCM

two songs i hate by two artists i generally like but am consistently frustrated by

pigeonb0y

Duh.

Joni Shapiro

Royals is more my generation then Bad Guy. I was already an old music curmudgeon by the time Billie Eilish became a thing Anyway, third party vote for Bye Bye Boyfriend by Fefe Dobson if we're going with out of nowhere teen girl hits.

Angela

Any song inspired by a picture of George Brett in National Geographic is going to get my vote

JDL

Lorde is my favorite pop artist but Royals is one of my least favorite of her discography. Bad Guy is one of Billie Eilish's best songs - it gets my vote

Distracting Myself From The Horrors

I almost want to give a third-party vote to "Thrift Store", simply because of how much I despised pop music in the 2000s for being so overly adult in a very materialistic and douchebaggy manner. So glad that kind of hustler culture has been erased from pop and hiphop, now taking refuge in Nashville where it honestly deserves to be. Good fucking riddance.

Subspace Jet Witch

Royals is a drunken sing a long dirge.... Bad Guy has a groove that takes control of your entire body. Both have incredible merit.. Both are nods to the importance of being comfortable in your own skin. The tie breaker is bad guy is an unstoppable force, a trampoline. And you never see anyone sobbing uncontrolled on a trampoline. It's an all encompassing bop. I can't wait to hear Shatner complain about the bruises on his knees.

Sladen377

I'm so sorry, I will never get Billie Eilish. I just do not understand why people are so into her music, like you do you but that couldn't be me 🤷‍♂️

flibbertygigget

Royals gets the vote. Next round should be "Green Light" vs "Vroom Vroom"

nic

Both great songs and both feel like pivotal moments in pop culture, but I think without Royals, there's no Bad Guy. It's also just the song I personally prefer.

Leslie

these are two of my favorite songs of the decade, this poll is evil 😭bad guy SLIGHTLY won for me but it was really close

Austin F

Both.

Yvette

You know, for two songs that changed the course of pop music during their eras, I feel bad that I don’t really care about either of these songs

Michael Martin

Can I pour one out in the chat for Lana Del Rey? Because she’s the real winner here, both of these songs and artists would not be what they are without her influence I feel

Nolan Thompson

Could just be me, but seeing how far Billie has come really aged that first album. Royals is timeless

(William) Patrick Hodges

Royals is so early 2010s and bad guy is so late 2010s that they don't feel like they come from the same decade even though they do

Keirik

Is neither an option ?

Ryan McPherson