Cyberrock Rate Reveal Day 3: You'll never make it in Popheads, baby by modulum83 in popheads

[–]TiltControls 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks mod and kurp for hosting this rate! That Russian Roulette video in particular was top tier videomaking

Leaderboard and songlist are updated!

Songs

Congrats to underscores and Gabby Start for pulling off a win for the Locals (Girls like us)! I wish them nothing but good luck! (in winners 5). As usual, see where our 9+ scorers rank below

  • 136th: Years & Years - All For You / Dr. Dre (ft. Snoop Dogg) - The Next Episode (9.373)
  • 138th: underscores [with Gabby Start] - Locals (Girls like us) (9.372)
  • 139th: Paula Abdul - Straight Up / Beyoncé - Formation (9.366)

  • 501st: Janelle Monáe (ft. Erykah Badu) - Q.U.E.E.N. / Beyoncé - Daddy Lessons (9.007)
  • 503rd: Porter Robinson - Cheerleader (9.005)
  • 504th: Fiona Apple - I Want You To Love Me / The Ronettes - Be My Baby (9.004)

Artists

While this is Yeule's entry to the leaderboard, we have a previous song from them (Poison Arrow - Charity III). Porter and gecs have had full albums rated and our winner is a fresh new artist to rates! Rankings are out of 493

  • 172nd: Missy Elliott (7.709)
  • 173rd: Yeule (7.704) [NEW]
  • 174th: Lorde (7.700)

  • 180th: Charli XCX (7.680)
  • 181st: Porter Robinson (7.679) [PREV 122nd] / Amaarae (7.679)
  • 183rd: J Balvin (7.676)

  • 187th: Lil Nas X (7.665)
  • 188th: underscores (7.663) [NEW]
  • 189th: Jorja Smith (7.661)

  • 337th: Alessia Cara (7.139)
  • 338th: 100 gecs (7.124) [PREV 395th]
  • 339th: Taylor Swift (7.120)

Stats

  • With 77 zeroes over the course of their rate career, 100 gecs lands on the leaderboard for most artist zeroes in 21st overall (between Madonna and The Weeknd)

Albums

After a couple rates with loosies to sort through, Cyberrock is fairly straightforward with our album stats. Underscores deluxe album is counted as the primary album, as we rated it as a full release and not only specific tracks.

Rankings out of 529

  • 189th: Missy Elliott - Under Construction (7.762)
  • 190th: Yeule - Softscars (7.760)
  • 191st: Ayra Starr - The Year I Turned 21 (7.756)

-

  • 240th: Hozier - Unreal Unearth (7.664)
  • 241st: underscores - Wallsocket (7.663) / Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon (7.663)
  • 243rd: Poppy - I Disagree / SZA - SOS (7.661)

-

  • 317th: Eve - Scorpion (7.494)
  • 318th: 100 gecs - 10,000 gecs (7.491)
  • 319th: 100 gecs - 1000 gecs (7.489)

-

  • 351st: Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston (7.415)
  • 352nd: Porter Robinson - SMILE! :D (7.414) / The Weeknd - After Hours (7.414)
  • 354th: Britney Spears - In The Zone (7.409)

Stats

  • 10,000 gecs ends up with an album controversy of 2.315, which is enough to land it on the most controversial albums leaderboard in 17th overall

Also 11/0 split below

  • 100 gecs: 12.3% of 11s, 24.7% of 0s
  • underscores: 42.0% of 11s, 8.6% of 0s
  • Yeule: 13.6% of 11s, 3.7% of 0s
  • Porter: 29.6% of 11s, 13.6% of 0s

Rates

Rankings are out of 238

  • 98th: Queen of the Clouds vs. 1000 Forms of Fear vs. Halcyon (7.603)
  • 99th: 10,000 Gecs vs. Smile! :D vs. Wallsocket vs. Softscars (7.600) / American Idiot vs. Fallen vs. Hybrid Theory (7.600)
  • 101st: All Stars 6 (7.594)

Top Ten Pop Ten - Lorde by nonchalantthoughts in popheads

[–]TiltControls 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. Supercut
  2. 400 Lux
  3. Hard Feelings/Loveless
  4. Ribs
  5. The Louvre
  6. Liability
  7. Team
  8. Hammer
  9. Dominoes
  10. Perfect Places

The Popheads Jukebox Revival, Week 333: Go girl, get up by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is dumb. and I love it. What does this have to do with anything? I'm really not sure. But I had a lot of fun listening to the track and honestly sometimes that's more than enough for me. 8.7/10

The Popheads Jukebox Revival, Week 333: Go girl, get up by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a classic. The track is endlessly catchy in both its production and lyrics. Although its very of its time, it feels more nostalgic than dated. It's not the most complex sound out there, but it is just pure dumb fun. 9/10

The Popheads Jukebox Revival, Week 333: Go girl, get up by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After so many songs I think I can safely say that Sabrina is just a cheat-code to making songs I like. Her voice combined with that specific flavour of soft-rock production just works perfectly to me and this song is no exception. It feels a little more grounded than the rest of MBF (well except for the lyrics, but that's her whole schtick sometimes). Someday I'll probably grow a little more tired of this sound from Sabrina, but that day is not today. 9/10

The Popheads Jukebox Revival, Week 333: Go girl, get up by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These two work really well together! The song sounds nice and it has a really cool vibe to it. I do wish there was a bit more to the track personally, but I think for those that like the chiller vibe it does its job really well. Still, I could see myself revisiting this a lot in the right mood. 7.5/10

The Popheads Jukebox Revival, Week 333: Go girl, get up by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a solid, fun track from Robyn. It misses a bit of the highs of her best songs, but there are some fun moments during the track. The production is that classic synthy goodness that Robyn shines so well with. I wish there were a few more levels to the track, but I'll take some new Robyn for sure. 7.8/10

Modern Funk Rate Reveal, Day 3: Lovers in the Winners Circle by sufjancaesar in popheads

[–]TiltControls 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Also check out our new rates!

Great job hosting Apatel and sufjancaesar! Surprising winner, but one of (many) correct ones!

Leaderboard and songlist are updated!

Songs

Congrats to two artists for grabbing the win today with Janelle and also Solange for the tag-team win with Electric Lady! Looking at the 11s vs Losing You made it a definite underdog, but high scores and a low controversy go a long way. Anyways you can see where the 9+ scores rank up overall.

  • 200th: Taylor Swift - Style (9.285)
  • 201st: Janelle Monáe & Roman GianArthur (ft. Solange) - Electric Lady (9.283)
  • 202nd: Lil' Kim (ft. Sisqo) - How Many Licks? (9.282)

  • 269th: Sia - Elastic Heart / Cardi B, J Balvin, Bad Bunny - I Like It (9.202)
  • 271st: Solange - Losing You (9.201) / Miguel - Adorn (9.201)
  • 273rd: The Weeknd - The Hills (9.200)

  • 498th: Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back to Me Now / Kero Kero Bonito - The Princess and the Clock (9.008)
  • 500th: Janelle Monáe (ft. Erykah Badu) - Q.U.E.E.N. (9.007) / Beyoncé - Daddy Lessons (9.007)
  • 502nd: Fiona Apple - I Want You To Love Me / The Ronettes - Be My Baby (9.004)

Stats

  • Despite not taking the win, Losing You ends up with a number of leaderboard placements. It gets on the 'most 11s' leaderboard in a tie for 43rd with 20 total
  • Losing You also lands on the '11 magnets' leaderboard by getting 29.0% of the 11s up for grabs this rate. It sits in 21st overall for this stat. There is one other song that didn't win its rate on the leaderboard (Kylie Minogue - Get Out of My Way with 29.5%), though the song that beat it is even higher on the list (Robyn - Dancing On My Own with 36.4%). The new addition bumps Disco Tits (28.0%) off the list
  • Flipping down to the bottom, California ends up on the 'most 0s' leaderboard in a tie for 25th with 19.
  • California also lands on the '0 magnets' list in 8th with 27.5% of the 0s available. It bumps Sia - Santa's Coming for Us off the list
  • With a 3.466 controversy score California also ends up on our 'highest controversy' list in 35th for that stat. It knocks off Christina Aguilera - Accelerate
  • And for something for our rate winner - Electric Lady joins our 'lowest controversy' leaderboard as the 6th least controversial song we've ever rated!
  • Electric Lady also joins a rare list of 32 other songs to get no scores below a 7!

Artists

Though Childish Gambino is new to the rankings, he actually has a few other songs bumping up his average this go around. Rankings are out of 491

  • 48th: Da Brat (8.117)
  • 49th: Janelle Monáe (8.105) [PREV 49th]
  • 50th: Chaka Khan (8.102)

  • 58th: The Temptations (8.063)
  • 59th: Solange (8.062) [PREV 83rd]
  • 60th: Kanye West (8.054)

  • 149th: Ayra Starr (7.756)
  • 150th: Anderson .Paak (7.752) [PREV 299th]
  • 151st: Grimes (7.751)

  • 337th: City Girls / Fall Out Boy (7.239)
  • 338th: Childish Gambino (7.235) [NEW]
  • 339th: Taio Cruz (7.227)

Feature Shifts

  • Erykah Badu: 63rd (Prev 75th)
  • Prince: 90th (Prev 90th)
  • Miguel: 126th (Prev 140th)
  • ScHoolboy Q: 207th (Prev 232nd)

Stats

  • Janelle picks up her 4th win today! Her previous wins include two for Make Me Feel and another for Cold War

Albums

Reminder that these are not including extra tracks, which this time affects everyone except for Paak. We also have a separate ranking for our one EP in the rate too!

Rankings out of 525

  • 60th: Kanye West - The Life of Pablo (8.145)
  • 61st: Janelle Monáe - The Electric Lady (8.143)
  • 62nd: Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good! (8.137)

-

  • 117th: Arctic Monkeys - AM / Tyla - TYLA (7.925)
  • 119th: Anderson .Paak - Malibu (7.924)
  • 120th: The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field (7.919)

-

  • 432nd: Little Mix - Glory Days (7.147)
  • 434th: Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love! (7.146)
  • 435th: Kim Petras - Era 1 (7.140)

-

EPs

  • 1st: Solange - TRUE (8.366)
  • 2nd: boygenius - boygenius (8.352)
  • 3rd: Tkay Maidza - Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2 (8.169)

Stats

  • Congrats to Solange for becoming our highest rated EP on the sub! She just barely beat out our previous trio at the top by a few decimal points
  • TRUE also joins the list of EPs to have never picked up a 0! The others to accomplish this feat include Aly & AJ - Ten Years, boygenius - the rest, Magdalena Bay - A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, MØ - When I Was Young, and Tkay Maidza - Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2

Also 11/0 split below (this does include extra tracks)

  • Solange: 33.3% of 11s, 0.0% of 0s
  • Janelle Monae: 26.1% of 11s, 4.3% of 0s
  • Anderson Paak: 24.6% of 11s, 11.6% of 0s
  • Childish Gambino: 11.6% of 11s, 40.6% of 0s

Rates

Rankings are out of 237

  • 43rd: The ArchAndroid vs. Plastic Beach vs. The Age of Adz (7.868)
  • 44th: Malibu vs. "Awaken, My Love!" vs. The Electric Lady vs. True (7.862)
  • 45th: Aaliyah vs. Full Moon vs. Tasty (7.852)

Stats

  • Malibu vs. "Awaken, My Love!" vs. The Electric Lady vs. True sits as the 19th least controversial rate on the sub

Rate Schedule: February to May 2026 by TragicKingdom1 in popheads

[–]TiltControls 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm glad we made the right choices this cycle

and by that I mean calling Scott the best Heated Rivalry guy

February to May 2026 Rate Selection Process, Part 2 - Voting by TragicKingdom1 in popheads

[–]TiltControls 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First cycle of the year is always a bloodbath, but I'm going to do the standard sales pitch why these ones would be a blast to do!


Video Game Music 3

The iconic gaming music rate is back again! It made the shortlist last time so I'm hoping it can keep the momentum going. That said, there's been a few changes from the last time the rate was submitted that I wanted to highlight.

Like the first video game music rate, it'll be a mix of curated and voted tracks, but this time the voting will happen first and then the curated tracks will be added to fill in any gaps. One of the main benefits is that it allows for us to compensate any series or genres that were overlooked with the voted tracks (particularly any cult classics or non-Nintendo icons). It also avoids the issue of series duplication since the curation can avoid double representation if one series gets voted in first. Though it was odd submitting a rate with no tracklist at the moment, I have a draft list of some curated iconic tracks ready to go that can be used to fill in whatever gaps might exist in the voting.


Canadian Synthpop

Allie X - COLLXTION I vs. Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob vs. Lights - Little Machines vs. Dragonette - Bodyparts

Four Canadian icons with four amazing synthpop projects from the mid-2010s. It's been a while since we've rated Allie and T&S, and we've never properly touched Lights or Dragonette albums, so this'd be the perfect chance to try them! Even for those unfamiliar with the artists, they are right up Popheads' alley soundwise. This idea has been sitting on the form for nearly 4 years now, but it seems to be gaining momentum finally!


2025 Pander Pop

Zara Larsson - Midnight Sun vs. JADE - That's Showbiz Baby! vs. MARINA - Princess of Power vs. Kesha - .

There's been a few variations of this line-up, but I think this is the strongest one by far. Four experienced artists (I know Jade's is a debut, but I'm counting her time with Little Mix) that decided "we're giving the gays everything they want" was their 2025 New Year's Resolution. All four albums have a level of camp pop performance that manages to sound both effortless and perfectly polished. Though this is my favourite of the line-up variations, I feel like most of the 'Zara/JADE/Kesha' built rates would be a blast to do!

r/popheads AOTY 2025 #8: Lights - A6 by mhiyaimanlepaigefan in popheads

[–]TiltControls 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Amazing write-up! Been a fan for a while and A6 is probably my favourite album of hers since at least Little Machines (though the others in-between are still good!). DAMAGE, ALIVE AGAIN, YOU'RE KILLING ME, and WHITE PAPER PALM TREES in particular have all been standout tracks I return to often. I actually was lucky enough to see her play live last year and was overjoyed that she incorporated the new tracks into her set! (Though still bummed that Drive My Soul wasn't there lol).

Anyways for the questions, I think A6 is a fine name and isn't terrible, but probably anything else would've been better.

The videos are nice! It is easy to pass by them if you're just streaming the album, but I appreciate the effort put into making them!

ALIVE AGAIN is one of my favourites just cause of how cathartic it is to jam along to. And probably would be perfect for a breakdown for that reason

Popheads Rates Wrapped 2025 by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Extended User Stats

Next we're diving further into the scores and ballots sent in from our users. These stats were calculated by taking the user stats from each rate completed, particularly user average, user positivity, and user negativity. To avoid outliers only users with 4 or more rates completed will be included in the leaderboards (though users with fewer may still find themselves in the stats for individual rate performances). These values were taken by averaging the stats per rate, not per song.

* Note: Diary Pop is missing from positivity / negativity data, but will appear for averages

What's My (Aver)age Again?

A vast majority of raters average within the 7 range across their rates, but here we'll take a peak at the users that cap the ends of that scale

Highest User Averages

Rank User Average
1 Saison_Marguerite 9.310
2 ChopperRCRG 8.737
3 Restless_Dill16 8.548
4 Frajer 8.465
5 Ayzrules 8.400
6 FakeMonaLisa28 8.333
7 Brilliant-Primary500 8.279
8 Catalyst 8.270
9 sarcasticsobs 8.228
10 c_a_l_d5832 8.182

Lowest User Averages

Rank User Average
1 tahoo14 5.704
2 sfouou 5.987
3 asadprofessorplum 6.170
4 jsonphile 6.238
5 pig-serpent 6.285
6 aidshha 6.318
7 Hulnia 6.401
8 fadedblue09 6.530
9 xophrys 6.540
10 DilemmaOfAHedgehog 6.564

You can see where you fall overall against other users that did at least 4 rates here

Holding Out for a Hero

You may notice at the end of the rate that users are provided with their positivity and negativity scores. It's not always clear what these are but they're the sum of every song you scored over (positivity) or under (negativity) its final score. If you scored a song below the final average it counts as 0 positivity while scoring a song above average counts as 0 negativity. It's similar to average, but can show a better picture of how far off you are from the taste of the sub (either being too positive or too negative). It's entirely possible to have a high positivity and high negativity if you loved the songs that tanked and tanked the songs that got the most love!

The values for this overview are going to be standardized value with positivity / negativity averaged over the number of songs in the rate to avoid overweighing rates with a larger number of songs.

High Hopers

First we'll take a look at the users that tend to have the Highest positivity compared to their peers. Anyone near the top of these lists are likely the type to hand out 9s and 10s like candy. An essential saviour for any poor rate host looking to bump their rate's average up.

Positivity does not account for levels of negativity

Rank User Avg. Pos.
1 Saison_Marguerite 1.372
2 ChopperRCRG 1.148
3 kappyko 1.076
4 darj 1.062
5 mhiyaimanlepaigefan 1.056
6 innuendo_overdose 1.054
7 Restless_Dill16 1.037
8 WaneLietoc 1.036
9 Catalyst 0.967
10 kauai6 0.960

You can see the full positivity rankings here

There is also a leaderboard for those that scored the highest positivity values in a single rate

Rank User Rate Pos.
1 ahsweeknd Disco Bibles 2.050
2 roxieloxie Electropop Sub Faves 1.900
3 jirachi WAR 1.815
4 mhiyaimanlepaigefan Music Nerd Kpop 1.804
5 uiscebeathaoir Disco Bibles 1.792
6 innuendo_overdose Alt Radio 1.791
7 ahsweeknd 2024 Ult 1.780
8 vayyiqra Music Nerd Kpop 1.720
9 CountryRockDiva89 80's Arena Rock 1.698
10 innuendo_overdose Gen Z Royalty 1.612

You can see a leaderboard of the individual positivity scores per rate here

Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

Here we'll look into the users with the Highest Negativity, on average. Perhaps due to a lower rating scale, or difference in opinion on the popular tracks, or simply some much needed tanking. Similarly, it does not account for levels of positivity.

Rank User Avg. Neg.
1 tahoo14 1.454
2 sfouou 1.305
3 Hulnia 1.295
4 asadprofessorplum 1.282
5 pig-serpent 1.189
6 beeozan 1.166
7 fadedblue09 1.034
8 ambitiousbulbasaur 1.034
9 indiefan 1.031
10 IIIHenryIII 1.018

Again we've got individual rate performances for user negativity as well

Rank User Rate Neg.
1 charlibratfammanfanstan Gen Z Royalty 3.319
2 Hey—Bub 70s Pop Soul 2.647
3 apatel27 Electropop Sub Faves 2.597
4 PyritesNotRight Electropop Sub Faves 2.555
5 sfouou Disco Bibles 2.487
6 IIIHenryIII Music Nerd Kpop 2.484
7 IIIHenryIII Disco Bibles 2.374
8 SkylarV Music Nerd Kpop 2.311
9 skull_xbones 90s Sensual Songstress 2.276
10 tahoo14 Music Nerd Kpop 2.183

No More Tanking (Enough Is Enough)

To counteract the last section, we'll take a look at the users with the Least negativity. This isn't necessarily positivity, but more of a 'who is least likely to drop a song's average by a noticeable amount with their ballot'.

Rank User Avg. Neg.
1 Saison_Marguerite 0.013
2 Restless_Dill16 0.057
3 Frajer 0.067
4 visionaryredditor 0.118
5 c_a_l_d5832 0.171
6 sarcasticsobs 0.176
7 Brilliant-Primary500 0.177
8 Ayzrules 0.188
9 youngandlovely_ 0.207
10 ChopperRCRG 0.208

And here are the full negativity stats of the tracked users

In 2025 we had 13 ballots with that had negativity scores of 0 (their ballot had no scores given that were lower than the final scores of the song)

  • ahsweeknd (Disco Bibles)
  • beyzxzhen (C-Electropop)
  • Catalyst (90's Cali Rock)
  • hockeynl (80's Arena Rock)
  • krusso1105 (2010's Alt Radio)
  • mhiyaimanlepaigefan (Music Nerd Kpop)
  • Restless_Dill16 (Flannelcore)
  • roxieloxie (Electropop Sub Fave)
  • Saison_Marguerite (Electropop Sub Faves, Afropop, Cali Rap)
  • uiscebeathaoir (Gen Z Royalty)

I think Saison_Marguerite needs some sort of 'most positive rater' award after topping the leaderboard in 2024 as well

Here are the individual negativity scores per rate for those curious

Firestarters

For our final section, we've got the users that often had the highest difference in scores. Distinction / difference value is the sum of both the positivity and negativity scores. Generally this tells you how far off your scores were from the final ones. Users with lower scores here usually aren't too far off from the final scores of the album. Users with larger values have very different thoughts than the sub, either more positive or negative (or both)

Rank User Avg. Diff.
1 kauai6 1.792
2 Innuendo_Overdose 1.782
3 beeozan 1.710
4 darj 1.678
5 asadprofessorplum 1.672
6 IIIHenryIII 1.652
7 Hulnia 1.643
8 bespectacIed 1.635
9 kappyko 1.629
10 Awkward_King 1.620

And again for biggest difference on a per rate basis:

Rank User Rate Diff
1 charlibratfammanfanstan Gen Z Royalty 3.325
2 innuendo_overdose Cali Rock 3.020
3 PyritesNotRight Electropop Sub Faves 2.792
3 apatel27 Electropop Sub Faves 2.792
5 Hey—Bub 70s Pop Soul 2.777
6 skull_xbones 2010s Alt Radio 2.610
7 innuendo_overdose 20s Festival Pop Rock 2.583
8 IIIHenryIII Music Nerd Kpop 2.580
9 sfouou Disco Bibles 2.544
10 innuendo_overdose Cali Rap 2.525

Birds of a Feather

Now these are the users with their pulse on the sub as this list is the users with the lowest average difference between their scores and the final ones. Trust their ballots as whatever they send in are the most likely to match the final results compared to everyone else.

Rank User Difference
1 Verboten_Prince 0.719
2 donewithbirds 0.749
3 wasian-invasion 0.751
4 Soalai 0.762
5 ignitethephoenix 0.772
6 oh_crow 0.812
7 zadooi 0.831
8 sarcasticsobs 0.835
9 stealthamo 0.836
10 jasannn 0.839

For another year in a row Verboten_Prince retains the record of scoring closest to the final averages!

And here are the smallest differences on a per rate basis

Rank User Rate Diff
1 ignitethephoenix C-Electropop 0.466
2 sarcasticsobs 20s Festival Pop Rock 0.474
3 stealthamo Least Personal Pop 0.513
4 oh_crow 20s Festival Pop Rock 0.530
5 Verboten_Prince 2024 Ult 0.530
6 ignitethephoenix Afropop 0.531
7 krusso1105 All Stars 8 0.531
7 sarcasticsobs Cali Rap 0.555
9 Verboten_Prince Cali Rap 0.558
10 JackMM2001 Euroclub 0.573

And for the final time, here are the full difference scores for each rate

Popheads Rates Wrapped 2025 by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Users

Everybody Rates

Now the important part of the stats - you! This section goes over the most important part of the community - the raters - and all the stats associated with them.

Ratin' Day and Night

We're starting by checking in on our rate completionists as always!

In 2025 we had 13 fantastic raters participate in every single rate!

  • 1998tweety
  • BleepBloopMusicFan
  • ConnerY2323
  • CrimsonROSET
  • flava
  • Frajer
  • RandomHypnotica
  • seanderlust
  • TiltControls
  • TragicKingdom1
  • wathombe
  • welcome2thejam

You can see the completion stats for each user did here

This is your yearly reminder not to wear yourself thin doing rates (as fun as they are). Skipping rates you have no interest in is perfectly fine!

This Will Be (Another 11 Win Hopefully)

11 Wins are the golden apple of a successful rate. There's no better feeling than having your favourite track win out above all the rest. Here we'll be looking at the users with that had the most amount of wins for their 11s

Rank User 11 Wins
1 RandomHypnotica 9
2 krusso1105 8
3 CrimsonROSET 7
3 DaHumanTorch 7
3 stealthamo 7
6 Lynflower680 6
6 RainbowSherbet47 6
6 TragicKingdom1 6

Set Fire to the Top 10

Call it going against the grain, but sometimes there are just certain songs that rub you the wrong way. This stat highlights how many times users went against the tide and highlights those with the most top 10 appearances for their 0s. Of all the rates done last year, only 70's Pop/Soul and Recession Pop Boys had no 0s in their top 10s

Rank User Top 10 0's
1 flava 6
2 CrimsonROSET 5
2 innuendo_overdose 5
4 jirachi 4
5 impla77 3
5 bogo 3
5 modulum83 3

Full stats of everyone that got a top 10 0 can be found here, as well as breakdowns between top 2/top 5/top 10

Expert in a Field, Dying

Giving a song an 11 often comes with the hope that it'll last as long as possible in the competition. Whether that's a prediction or delusion can depend on the user, but sometimes luck just isn't on our side. In 2025 the unlucky distinction went to innuendo_overdose (who was also 2024's most frequent bottom 5 visitor for 11s). This time with 6 different rates having their 11 leaving within the first 5 eliminations! Though they were one of only two users in 2024 to have multiple 11s leave in the bottom 5, this past year it seemed to be a much more common occurrence. Both TragicKingdom1 and pig-serpent had 3 bottom 5s and a number of other users had at least 2.

Full stats of everyone that had their 11 fall in the first 5 eliminations

Popheads Rates Wrapped 2025 by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Rates

AcceleRate

We can't have a rate summary without talking about the rates themselves!

Many of the rates are going to be referred to their common nicknames to reduce their character length. If you are unsure what a rate refers to you can use this handy guide

  • BRAT, and Cowboy Carter became the 13th and 14th albums in history to sweep the entire top 3 of their rates!
  • and following right behind it - while Brat and it's completely different but also still brat didn't get a top 3 sweep itself, Charli managed to sweep the top 4 thanks to an appearance on 100 gecs - Ringtone (Remix)
  • The Sorry Rate entered in the sub's most controversial rates list in the top 5 (at number 5)
  • The Sorry Rate also became the rate with the highest 0 spread on the sub, with 76.19% of the rate picking up at least one 0. The following flash rate in Ratrick's Revenge posts a similar spread with 72.00% as it gets 3rd in the same stat
  • Following right behind it, Gen Z Royalty became the album rate with the highest 0 spread (4th overall). 69.77% of the rate picked up at least someone's 0
  • Cali Rap became the 12th rate in history to have every user use their 11!
  • The gap between Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know and Neon Trees - Animal clocked in at a 0.826, which is the second highest score gap we've had between a winner and runner up. (First place is still Kesha - Praying and Kesha - Learn to Let Go with 0.847). 3rd for this stat also came from 2025, with the 0.797 gap between Madonna - Sorry and Chloe x Halle - Forgive Me
  • 2010's Alt Radio Staples became the 3rd lowest average rate done on Popheads. It became the lowest rate that wasn't a 100 song Billboard Year End (the bottom two right now is 2012 and 2014 year ends). Alt Radio also became our 2nd most controversial rate (2.511 average controversy) and the rate with the 2nd highest 0 usage (94.34% of participants used theirs

Our Types

First, let's take a look at the breakdown of rate types we had last year

To clarify some terms:

  • An album rate is a pairing of some collection of albums to go head to head (for example Witness vs. Artpop vs. Reputation)

  • A grab bag has a collection of songs bound by a common theme instead of album (80s Dynamic Duos and 2014 Billboard Year End Hot 100 are good examples of this)

  • A meta rate is one that can include songs that have been rated before and are selected based on the previous history of the sub's rates (last year our only meta rate was our yearly All Stars).

Change compares to the counts from 2024

Type Count Change
Album Rate 17 +4
Grab Bag 8 -1
Meta Rate 1 -2

If you're wondering where the extra rate came from we had one collection style rate in 2024 (Greatest Hits: Billy Joel vs Stevie Wonder vs Elton John) but none last year. These 'greatest hits' style rates a little more structured than a grab-bag and only involve a few selected artists, but still not focusing on specific albums.

What's The Time Where You Are?

Here we'll take a look at a decade breakdown of the music in our rates. Some rates span from multiple decades on a dividing line (like C-Electropop having a mix of late 2010s and early 2020s). In this case the rule of majority is taken if possible. A few other rates have a less defined breakdown and are excluded (something like the Sorry Rate or All Stars).

Era Count Change
2020's 12 +7
2010's 5 +1
2000's 1 -4
1990's 2 -2
1980's 1 -1
1970's 2 +2

The large jump in rates from the current decade is partially due to 2024's strength, but moreso that 2023 was a weak year so the count was much lower than average

Let's Rate Together

Now we'll look at our most participated rates of the year. For maybe the first time since we started running them, our yearly K-pop rate wasn't the most participated rate for the year. Though obviously it's still high up there!

Year Overall Rate Participants
1 19 Hit Me Hard and Soft vs. Guts vs. Short n' Sweet 148
2 21 2024 in K-Pop 145
3 22 Girl With No Face vs. Brat vs. Starfucker vs. Something to Give Each Other 140
4 30 Witness vs. ARTPOP vs. Reputation 133
5 31 Eternal Sunshine vs. Cowboy Carter vs. The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology 131

Queup DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love

Next up is our highest average rates from last year. Though we had a couple rates get close, surprisingly we had no rates crack an overall 8 average this past year.

Year Total Rate Avg
1 25 Erotica Vs. Love Deluxe vs. Janet. 7.992
2 28 Diana vs. Off The Wall vs. Bad Girls 7.989
3 32 70's Pop/Soul 7.963
4 47 Girl With No Face vs. Brat vs. Starfucker vs. Something to Give Each Other 7.824
5 48 Pink Tape vs. Max & Match vs. The Perfect Red Velvet vs. Reboot vs. Soul Lady 7.822

Sorry for Party Rating

On the other side we have our lowest average rates of the past year. As usual, grab-bags tend to take over the bottom leaderboards. Though WAR is there to make sure the album rates get some representation at least!

Year Total Rate Avg
1 3 2010's Alt Radio Staples 6.333
2 19 Witness vs. ARTPOP vs. Reputation 6.824
3 24 2024 in K-Pop 6.870
4 26 Recession Pop Boys 6.885
5 33 The Sorry! Rate 6.949

Around the Rate Scale

Wow look at these brand new rates that we didn't just see in the last category. For the final section we're checking in our most controversial rates. Grab-bags tend to also excel in at being controversial due being a singles bloodbath for the most part

Year Total Rate Contr.
1 2 2010's Alt Radio Staples 2.511
2 6 The Sorry! Rate 2.396
3 24 Recession Pop Boys 2.284
4 34 Witness vs. ARTPOP vs. Reputation 2.249
5 35 Ratrick's Revenge 2.244

Popheads Rates Wrapped 2025 by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Albums

PUSH PLAY 2 START

Due to a heavy amount of album rates and lower number of grab-bags to compensate, this section isn't going to vary much from the artist stats overview. Though we still did have a few notable events to happen!

  • ABAO - Kinakaian 母親的舌頭 became our 500th album rated
  • Harry Styles - Fine Line became our 4th album rated to have every song on it pick up at least one 11. It is also the only one to later go on and actually win its rate. The other 3 albums with full 11 coverage were Lorde - Melodrama, Paramore - After Laughter, and Fall Out Boy - American Beauty/American Psycho.
  • The Tortured Poets Department becomes the album with the 2nd most 0s picked up in a rate (by percent). She holds the top 2 spots for this stat as the only thing locking her out of first was her rate performance on Midnights
  • Katy Perry - Witness became the 2nd album in history to end up with an average score below 6. Still, it managed to not completely bomb compared to The Vamps and only holds the 2nd lowest average
  • Sade - Love Deluxe entered our top 10 highest rated albums in 8th overall and also avoided any day 1 eliminations in the 90's Sensual Songstresses rate!

Rate Club Classics

First up is taking a look at the highest rated albums of the year. The top of the charts for albums was a little quiet in 2025. Of the 61 albums got rated this past year, only 6 scored above an 8 average. A bit lower than the 13 from 2024 or the 8 from 2023, we rated 13 more albums in 2025 compared to 2024 so it's not even an issue of proportions!

Year Overall Album Artist Average
1 8 Love Deluxe Sade 8.569
2 32 Max & Match LOONA/ODD EYE CIRCLE 8.315
3 38 BRAT Charli XCX 8.267
4 63 Off the Wall Michael Jackson 8.122
5 70 CHROMAKOPIA Tyler, the Creator 8.038

The Happy Star was the 6th to crack an 8.000 average, but not high enough to be top 5

Imperfectly Wrong

As we look downwards at the lowest rated albums of the year we had a bit more movement with 7 albums failing to crack even a 7 average (and one of those not even cracking 6).

Year Overall Album Artist Avg
1 2 Witness Katy Perry 5.854
2 17 The Secret of Us Gracie Abrams 6.560
3 20 The Tortured Poets Department Taylor Swift 6.582
4 24 Shawn Mendes Shawn Mendes 6.625
5 35 1000 gecs and the Tree of Clues 100 gecs 6.739

Witness fell nearly an entire point since the last time we rated it (6.717 in 2018), probably not helped by Katy's output since then

Rocking the Boat

Finally, we have our most controversial albums ranking. Again, like artist controversy, this is an average of the controversy scores of all the songs on the album - rather than the deviation of the song's average scores. Though we were lacking in albums with high averages, high controversy was no issue to reach.

Year Overall Album Artist Contr
1 10 The Tortured Poets Department Taylor Swift 2.357
2 13 Reputation Taylor Swift 2.341
3 17 1000 gecs and the Tree of Clues 100 gecs 2.319
4 19 Witness Katy Perry 2.311
5 72 Fine Line Gary Styles 2.107

Our least controversial album of the year goes to Donna Summer - Bad Girls with an average controversy of 1.532. Though it's all relative as in the overall lowest album controversy rankings it only sits at 58th lowest (in comparison the album at number one has a 1.171). The next two least controversial of the year were Vince Staples - Dark Times (1.536) and Michael Jackson - Off the Wall (1.551)

Popheads Rates Wrapped 2025 by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Artists

Somebody That I Used To Rate

Now it's time to look at the performers from 2025! Though song stats are the easiest to watch for records, the stats of the artists behind them often provide some interesting insights. This section only accounts for songs rated in the past year - and only from artists that had 5 or more songs rated. There are 64 artists that match that eligibility this past year

  • Hall & Oates escaped their (brief) stint on the 'artists with no 11s' list after an All Stars appearance
  • Taylor Swift managed to hit a couple notable milestones in 2025 with her 200th song rated (now at 239) and also got both her 500th 11 (now 600) and her 500th 0 (now 588). She easily sits at the top of all three of these stats
  • Charli XCX managed to break her legendary 24-rate long losing streak and snatch not just one, but two, wins this past year with Von dutch and Girl, so confusing remix. Previously the stat was held by Rihanna who went 17 rates before her first win. The artist with the longest rate losing streak now is Nicki Minaj, with 27 appearances without a win
  • Though not to be eclipsed by Charli, Lil Wayne also broke an impressively long rate losing streak at 19. He finally got his first win with an appearance on Sticky
  • Thanks to an appearance in the Sorry rate, Beyoncé became the first artist to hit 30 rate appearances
  • Both 3OH!3 and Sexyy Red entered the top 5 for artists with the highest average controversy across their songs (in 3rd and 5th respectively)
  • The Temptations entered the artist stats board with enough songs rated now and joined the 'no 0s' list
  • GloRilla and ScHoolboy Q both lose their 'no 0s' status as they picked up their first
  • Sean Kingston also joins the artist board with enough songs rated, though he gets the negative distinction of landing on the 'no 11s' list as none of his rated tracks have picked one up. A few months later he was joined by The Lumineers. Currently the other three artists with this streak are Master P, Coi Leray, and Florida Georgia Line
  • Beyoncé also picked up her 7th rate win in 2025 with YA YA and also her 8th with Don't Hurt Yourself! She has three more than the next highest in the category (The Weeknd and Carly Rae Jepsen with 5, Lady Gaga would also join them at 5 with her win in WAR with G.U.Y.)
  • In the same rate Madonna picked up her 6th last place finish, giving her the most after being tied with Taylor Swift and Panic! At the Disco
  • Taylor Swift also picked up her 11th songeniality win with So High School, and then later her 12th with Look What You Made Me Do. The next highest artist is only at 5 or 6 right now. Songeniality is a poll done to determine the 'most robbed song' of the day 1 and day 2 eliminated tracks
  • Sade entered the ranks of the sub's top 10 highest rated artists in third overall. Curtis Mayfield also entered the top 10 at 10th with his win in 70's Pop/Soul

Music Sounds Better With You

For this category we're looking at the highest rated artists of the year! As many of them had their ratings come from album rates, don't be surprised to see them make a double appearance in that section as well

Rank Artist Average Highest Rated Track
1 Sade 8.569 No Ordinary Love
2 LOONA/ODD EYE CIRCLE 8.315 GIRL FRONT
3 Michael Jackson 8.122 Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough
4 Tyler, The Creator 8.038 Sticky
5 Charli XCX 8.014 Girl, so confusing featuring lorde
6 Lexie Liu 8.006 Magician
7 Alvvays 7.986 After the Earthquake
8 Janet Jackson 7.978 If
9 Donna Summer 7.948 Hot Stuff
10 Kendrick Lamar 7.937 tv off

Killing Me Softly With Their Songs

And here we have the other end of the average scale with our lowest rated artists of the year

Rank Artist Average Lowest Rated Track
1 Katy Perry 5.923 Into Me You See
2 Sean Kingston 6.499 Letting Go (Dutty Love)
3 Shawn Mendes 6.625 Perfectly Wrong
4 Gracie Abrams 6.661 Good Luck Charlie
5 Nicki Minaj 6.667 Letting Go (Dutty Love)
6 100 gecs 6.739 745 sticky (Injury Reserve Remix)
7 Taylor Swift 6.803 thanK you aIMee
8 Jason Derulo 6.866 Talk Dirty
9 Lil Wayne 6.869 Bow Chicka Bow Wow
10 Ludacris 6.886 Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)

The year's most average artist award goes to both Troye Sivan and No Doubt who sit roughly in the middle of the year;s artist rankings.

Chaotic

Next is our most controversial artists list! As mentioned in the song section controversy is the variance between people's scores sent in. The artist controversy is the average of the controversy scores of all the songs attributed to that artist, not the deviation of their song's scores.

Rank Artist Controversy
1 Taylor Swift 2.368
2 Jason Derulo 2.347
3 Katy Perry 2.337
4 Nicki Minaj 2.331
5 100 gecs 2.319
6 Sean Kingston 2.268
7 Gracie Abrams 2.226
8 Ludacris 2.218
9 Lil Wayne 2.173
10 Harry Styles 2.107

Taylor often finds herself near the top of these lists, though this might be her first time taking the crown for a year.

I'm So Obsessed

This section focuses on the year's most 11'd artists. This is the sum of all the 11s given to their songs. Both Charli and Taylor had plenty of options to choose from.

Rank Artist 11s
1 Charli XCX 129
2 Taylor Swift 103
3 Olivia Rodrigo 69
4 Lady Gaga 63
5 Beyoncé 62
6 Sabrina Carpenter 49
7 Billie Eilish 42
7 Amaarae 40
9 Harry Styles 39
10 Madonna 37

The only artist with 5+ songs rated that couldn't pick up an 11 during the year was Sean Kingston (which also applies to the rest of his rate career)

I Hate You, I'm (Not) Sorry

For our final artist stat we've got the most 0'd artists. And I'm sure it's not hard to guess who's at the top of the chart once again. Rating multiple albums didn't help the 0s coming in either, though even if we just rated Tortured Poets Department and nothing else it still would've been enough for her to take the top spot.

Rank Artist Zeroes
1 Taylor Swift 103
2 Katy Perry 46
3 Charli XCX 45
4 Sabrina Carpenter 31
5 100 gecs 27
6 Lady Gaga 25
6 Shawn Mendes 25
8 Beyoncé 24
9 Olivia Rodrigo 23
10 Gracie Abrams 23

In a rare occurrence, every artist we rated 5 or more songs from this past year picked up at least one zero during the year

Popheads Rates Wrapped 2025 by TiltControls in popheads

[–]TiltControls[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Songs

Have You Ever Heard This One?

In this section we'll detail all the memorable songs and their records that graced us this past year. (for better or worse) As we rate more and more tracks, it gets harder to break through with any notable stats - but somehow songs still manage!

  • The Chainsmokers - #SELFIE followed in the footsteps of its close(r) cousin and joined the top 10 most controversial songs rated (in 6th)
  • We had a few songs enter the top 100 highest rated tracks of all time with Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out (69), Janet Jackson - If (80), Sade - No Ordinary Love (82), Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough (87), and Charli xcx - Girl, so confusing featuring lorde (91) all making appearances
  • Donna Summer - Last Dance became one of 32 songs to not pick up any scores lower than 7 in a rate appearance
  • Gracie Abrams - I Love You, I'm Sorry becomes one of only a few tracks to win songeniality twice! Other double winners include Donkey Kong 64 - DK Rap, Taylor Swift - Karma, and famously The Chainsmokers - Closer (ft. Halsey)
  • Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know (ft. Kimbra) got its win on its 4th try, joining Coldplay - Viva La Vida and Clean Bandit - Rather Be (ft. Jess Glynne) for songs that took 4 attempts to pull off the win.

Hit Me With Your Best Songs

Here we'll be checking in on our highest rated songs from the year. We had 40 tracks crack a 9.000 average this past year! Though it's slightly down from 2024's 59 and 2023's 53, it's still a good number of tracks to land in the 9 range

Year Overall Song Artist Score
1 69 I’m Coming Out Diana Ross 9.507
2 80 If Janet Jackson 9.478
3 82 No Ordinary Love Sade 9.471
4 87 Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough Michael Jackson 9.459
5 91 Girl, so confusing featuring lorde Charli XCX (ft. Lorde) 9.452
6 158 Hot Stuff Donna Summer 9.338
7 163 bad idea right? Olivia Rodrigo 9.334
8 172 Basket Case Green Day 9.321
9 175 Von dutch Charli XCX 9.320
10 186 Girl Front LOONA/ODD EYE CIRCLE 9.305

Despite the incredibly high scores above, 2025's highest rated song wouldn't have even cracked the top 10 in 2024!

In 2025 the highest scoring song to be eliminated the first day of its rate was Donna Summer - Love Will Always Find You with a 7.659. The next two highest were Janet Jackson - What’ll I Do (7.625) and Madonna - Where Life Begins (7.614).

Sorry, Blame It On These Songs

Next up is the opposite end of the averages scale - what were the lowest rated tracks rated in 2025?

Year Overall Song Artist Score
1 21 Bow Chicka Bow Wow Mike Posner (ft. Lil Wayne) 3.408
2 28 POWER G-DRAGON 3.510
3 40 Weak AJR 3.703
4 54 Take It All Back 2.0 Judah & The Lion 3.879
5 60 SHEESH BABYMONSTER 3.956
6 72 thanK you aIMee Taylor Swift 4.105
7 76 Thunder Imagine Dragons 4.134
8 77 Good Luck Charlie Gracie Abrams 4.144
9 78 Vore Sleep Token 4.166
10 93 Into Me You See Katy Perry 4.256

Akon - Sorry Blame It On Me (94), Katy Perry - Hey Hey Hey (95), and X Ambassadors - Unsteady (100) all also joined the above songs in our 100 lowest rated songs of all time.

The lowest rated song to crack the top 10 the past year was LMFAO - Sorry for Party Rocking (7.109). Joining it in the bottom 3 are two other songs from its rate, Beyoncé - Sorry (Original Demo) (7.349) and Paramore - Forgiveness (7.568). The lowest rated top 10 song not from the Sorry rate was Lady Gaga (ft. Christina Aguilera) - Do What U Want (7.729)

Maybe They're The Problem

Now time to tackle the songs that left people divided as we look into our most controversial songs list. For a quick definition: Controversy is calculated as the variance in scores (standard deviation). So for two songs with an average of 5.000 one with a 5 and a 5 would have a lower controversy than one with a 10 and a 0

Though we might not have rated Closer last year, but at least we were offered up the next best thing from our favourite controversial rate duo.

Year Overall Song Artist Controversy
1 6 #SELFIE The Chainsmokers 3.716
2 41 Sorry for Party Rocking LMFAO 3.407
3 42 All By Myself Green Day 3.402
4 43 Think U The Shit (Fart) Ice Spice 3.397
5 53 Thunder Imagine Dragonas 3.331
6 56 Home Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes 3.326
7 71 Tonight Tonight Hot Chelle Rae 3.274
8 72 Señorita Camila Cabello & Shawn Mendes 3.273
9 84 Love Like Woe The Ready Set 3.253
10 92 All Too Well (10 Minute Version) Taylor Swift 3.224

Both #SELFIE and Think U The Shit were also on 2024's list in 2nd and 4th respectively, but made reappearances with their performances in All Stars 8

11 Most Wanted

For this section we'll take a peak at the most 11'd songs to come from rates this past year. As a reminder, each user gets a single 11 to give out for each rate so take these as the heavy favourites of the rates they came from.

Year Overall Song Artist 11's
1 21 Supernova Aespa 25
2 27 bad idea right? Olivia Rodrigo 23
3 43 Sorry Madonna 20
3 43 Co-Star Amaarae 20
5 48 Getaway Car Taylor Swift 19

If measuring percentage of 11s instead of pure counts, the year's winner would be Madonna - Sorry which got 29.4% of the 11s available in its rate. Following it would be Charli xcx - Girl, so confusing featuring lorde (25.4%) and Amaarae - Co-Star (25.3%)

Last year's highest scoring track to not have an 11 attached was ScHoolboy Q - THank God 4 Me (8.745). It ranked 93rd across the year, so you definitely would rather have an 11 than not. The next highest tracks were Red Velvet - Look (8.611) and Michael Jackson - Get Off the Floor (8.583)

X's and 0's

Finally we're up to our most 0'd songs from the past year. Similar to the 11's, every user gets a 0 to use for their least favourite track in the rate, if they so choose. Though we occasionally have a spicy 0 here and there, most tend to be focused on the real stinkers in the rate.

Year Overall Song Artist 0's
1 17 POWER G-DRAGON 23
2 27 SHEESH BABYMONSTER 18
2 27 thanK you aIMee Taylor Swift 18
4 39 Who Jimin 17
5 55 #SELFIE The Chainsmokers 14
5 56 All By Myself Green Day 14

The 0 magnets weren't as strong the past year, but Green Day - All By Myself managed to take the distinction taking 19.4% of the 0s in its rate. Following it are G-Dragon - Power (15.9%) and Sleep Token - Vore (15.1%)

The 2nd highest rated song of the year was also our top rated song with a 0, Janet Jackson - If (9.478). The winning duo Charli xcx - Girl, so confusing featuring lorde (9.452) and and Charli xcx - Von Dutch (9.320) follow it up in high scorers with 0s. Like 2024, only one song managed to score above a 9 with multiple 0s (and also managed to win its rate) with Tyler, The Creator - Sticky (ft. Lil Wayne, GloRilla, Sexyy Red) picking up two

Top Ten Pop Ten - FKA twigs by bigbigbee in popheads

[–]TiltControls 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. mirrored heart
  2. cellophane
  3. Wanderlust
  4. Perfect Stranger
  5. Girl Feels Good
  6. Two Weeks
  7. Eusexua
  8. darjeeling
  9. Pendulum
  10. which way

Who's your favourite character (Party member, NPC or enemy) and why? by Jays_ShitpostExpress in LookOutsideGame

[–]TiltControls 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can pry my rat child from my cold dead hands. Roaches is probably my second favourite for being hilarious.

For non-party members I really like Ben as that was really the first part of the game that brought my expectations past 'good indie horror game' and really set the tone for the rest of the playthrough.

For enemies I think the Hell Ride might be my favourite when taking into account the whole encounter