A Dose of Buckley – ‘The Ten Worst Songs of 2018’

As part of our ongoing Music Journalism Course, our music team was asked to choose, listen to and write a reaction to an episode of a music podcast. 

Adam Buckley is a Canadian who uses Youtube for comedic purposes, not be confused with the popular Youtuber. Buckley is better know under his handle @adoseofbuckley where he has several different videos on a variety of subjects, but a personal favorite of mine are his Musical Autopsy videos. 

I’ve been listening to Buckley’s videos since 2012/2013 and started with the annual “Top Ten Worst Songs” video. Now, I’d like to consider myself a lover of music across many genres, which includes pop music. Regardless of how you feel about pop music, the comedic value of Buckley is hit no matter what. 

I listened to the most recent one,”The Worst Songs of 2018.” I decided on this one because it is the newest and the least known in my mind as it’s only been out for a month and I watched on my laptop while jotting down notes and parts I wanted to remember. 

Even though I am a fan of these videos, I will say I have a love/hate relationship with them as well. It boils down to a love though as I’ve been watching  these videos for almost a decade. When I first started watching and he would pick apart my favorite song, I would always think”Hey, I like this song! It’s not that bad!” But then I would actually listen to the opinions and critiques that he had and I found myself laughing and realizing the points that he made were k hard to disagree with. Yes, they were first and foremost his own honest (very honest) opinions, but he backed them up with actual research and knowledge of the music industry and how a song is created. 

Another low point for me is the language and sometimes vulgarity of the videos. I’m not a person who is sensitive to that sort of thing, but after so much of it it can become annoying and tiresome. I understand that it’s part of his shtick, but I think the point of what he’s doing could be toned down. Over the years, I’ve always wanted to share these videos with my mom, but she is one of those people that would find the language and vulgarity of these offensive. In that aspect, it hinders an audience he could potentially reach based on something as simple as wording. 

A major highlight for these videos is that the quality of audio has stayed the same because it was already quite good all those years ago. I’ve watched older videos, even the very first video, and his voice is just as clear in the video I watched today. Also, the overall quality of the videos has improved year after year. Usually the growth of quality happens overtime, but Buckley stood out from the beginning.  

 He has a niche for what he’s doing and the big thing for me is that he’s just flat-out honest. Some other podcasts might try too hard to flatter a certain group of people. Buckley just lays it all out; a you don’t have to decipher if he’s being real or not. 

A favorite point that Buckley makes over and over, especially any time he’s picking apart a rap song, is that “oh great, another song about being filthy rich and banging hoes.” I appreciate that he points that out every time because it’s a tiresome subject. He’s showcasing how many times that’s prevalent in that genre of music today and how hard it is to not only find a “good” rap song but one that has some originality. 

Buckley’s tagline for his YouTube page is “angry humor, from an angry man.” Which is a perfect representation of any of his videos and gives you just enough to ask the question “Well, what is he so angry about?”

Next thing you know, you’re five hours deep into his videos needing a tissue because you’re laughing so hard.