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New poll! "Royals" vs. "bad guy" (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-31 23:02:35
Imported:
2026-06

Poll

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

  • Royals 1041
  • bad guy 1149
  • 2025-01-31
  • 2190 votes
{'title': 'New poll! "Royals" vs. "bad guy"', 'choices': [{'text': 'Royals', 'votes': 1041}, {'text': 'bad guy', 'votes': 1149}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2025, 1, 31, 23, 1, 28, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 2190}

Content

In the 2010s, an unknown teenage girl came out of nowhere and upended the entire pop scene. Twice. Vote for your gamechanging song of the 2010s, "Royals" by Lorde or "bad guy" by BIllie Eilish!

Comments

Keirik

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

(William) Patrick Hodges

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

Nolan Thompson

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

Michael Martin

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

Austin F

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

Leslie

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.

nic

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

flibbertygigget

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 🤷‍♂️

Sladen377

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.

Subspace Jet Witch

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.

Distracting Myself From The Horrors

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

JDL

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

Angela

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.

pigeonb0y

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

Charlie MCM

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

Lucy Daughter of None

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

Daniel Shaltes

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.

Cole Cox

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!

Brandon Hay

I dunno Lorde, I kinda like party songs

rethgaal

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

Mariana Gallegos

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

James Smith

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.

StuTheShoe

"Royals" but specifically the Mayer Hawthorne version

Jonathan Baker

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.

Beau Dure

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.)

Niall Heaphy
>>163156833

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

Charlie L

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

Natalie Koppen

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...

Charlie L
>>163157818

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

Dork Mode

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".

Steve Harper

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.

Connor Rankin

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

Aurone86

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.

ol bill
>>163156833

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

Kim P.

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.

David Yurch

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.

Kage M

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

MJS

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.

drd

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

no

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

Hannah Matronic

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

Rhiannon Alwen

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.

Kyle B

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

Kathleen

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.

NoU

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)

Loyal Deserter

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.

Lanth
>>163158270

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

Albert Farkas

Billie feels more like the true maverick.

Phillip Fry

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

Sarah Bee

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

nic

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

Dani Moor

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

seedmunch

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.

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

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

Kynan Clarke-Chancellor

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!

Jim Brown

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.

Sarah Niskanen
>>163157593

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

Raye

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

Katie Gunn

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.

Emma Breslauer

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.

Stacyswirl

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.

Zety Scouse

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

Kidd Campbell

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

Joseph Bergeron

I like breakfast cereal a lot. Shoutouts to Eilish.

Franco del Rosario

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.

Elanor Harris

“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)

EmperorTigerstar

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.

FunFawn21

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.

bail harp

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.

Nico Niconi

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.

a smith

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 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.

Jason Smyth

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

Why We Watch

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

Kiwi Kink

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)

Jason Lee

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.

Tristan

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

Zero

Trans Lives Fucking Matter

Allan Olley

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.

Ally M

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)).

Fly, My Winged Monkeys!

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.

undeednu

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

Feliciaum

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.

fae

three words; kick ass bassline

Nicolaj

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!

Josie

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

Eric J

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

Gone

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

Wagner Koop

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

Wagner Koop
>>163161280

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.

Jon Heiman

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

Jon Heiman
>>163156927

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

Jon Heiman
>>163157818

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
>>163158023

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

Sam Potts

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.

Jon Heiman
>>163170908

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

Jon Heiman
>>163215615

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

Dewot

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.

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
>>163237753

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

Vaebeth

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

JazzySpF

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.

Joannasaurus rex

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

Yurple

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

Jonathan 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".

David P

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

Alina

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.

lukas

Bad guy is fun and Royals isn't.

DIPDOP

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)

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.

wjZephyr

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.

Winnipeg Bisque

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

Kevin James

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

Calla of Enby Forever

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?

Mouser

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

Dax

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

Joel Thomas

Both songs snap, but only bad guy slaps.

Adam Hicken

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.

Michael Murphy

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

Matt

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

TheMr.L01

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)

David Fisher

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

Maxine - RaccoonRevolution

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"

Benji
>>163177106

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

EvilImposterGeorge

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

EvilImposterGeorge
>>163289147

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

Staghorn
>>163289147

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

Victor bucaille

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".

Sunny
>>163535229

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

Sara

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

Emily K (EmK Ultra 64)

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

Graeme

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

Insider2000

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.

Jeff

Duh.

Hilja

The thought of voting on this gives me anxiety

Martha Boatright

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.

Mr Spaghett

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

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
>>163884623

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

trainboy

Bad Guy for the bassline

M. Spencer

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.

Chris Jackson

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.

AlmostCanadian

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.

Joe Frangles

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.

Distracting Myself From The Horrors

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

Kai

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?

Steph

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

Felix O'Ryan

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

no one

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.

Lanth
>>163824681

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.

Richard Angle

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

Lizzord

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

David Fisher

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

es arg

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

shermanmi

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.

The Hand Of The People

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

Dzee Szed

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

Chris Carline

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

Cameron Cook
>>163824681

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?

Peter Theriot

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

Martin Sternelius

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

Jeremy Hanna

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.

Josie

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

Hey There

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

J.D. Laney

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.

Katty Kit
>>164739915

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.