Eight bangers remain. Five of them were among our quarterfinalists in 2020. The other three?
- In 2020, What’s My Age Again? lost to Wonderwall in the round of 16.
- In 2020, Mambo No. 5 lost to Smells Like Teen Spirit in the second round.
- In 2020, My Own Worst Enemy lost to Mambo No. 5 in the first round.
For four years, none of us realized just how much we like Lou Bega and Lit.
We’re on to the quarterfinals. Here’s the Spotify playlist, with the last eight songs at the top. Here’s the bracket:
The voting…
As has most often been the case with these brackets, there are three ways to vote:
- Instagram (voting is live in our stories)
- This Twitter thread
- This Google Form
The only rule is to not spam the votes. We admire enthusiasm, but if we find someone’s overloading the voting, we’ll remove those votes.
Quarterfinal voting is open until 11:59 AM EDT tomorrow, Wednesday May 22nd. The semifinals are planned for Thursday, but we’ll be back tomorrow with some information on our next bracket, so keep an eye out for that.
**
Round of 16 results:
Semi-Charmed Life 37, You Get What You Give 7
It was a great run for New Radicals’ greatest hit, the Cinderella story of our tournament. But our voters love songs about amphetamines. They love them so much. And we love that about them.
What’s My Age Again? 26, Tubthumping 18
Eventually, Tubthumping did not get up again.
Closing Time 24, Iris 22
Closing Time continues to eke out these close ones. Remarkable fortitude. I guess you could say it knows how to close.
My Own Worst Enemy 24, Zombie 19
This is an important example of banger vs. great song. Obviously, yes, Zombie is a very good piece of music. It’s an important one, too, calling for peace amidst The Troubles. But My Own Worst Enemy, a tongue-in-cheek song about a righteous hangover, simply bangs. It bangs! I want to meet a couple who used My Own Worst Enemy for the first dance at their wedding. I bet they’re fun to talk to.
All The Small Things 32, Jump Around 12
Blink-182 remains undefeated in this year’s Bangers Bracket.
Wonderwall 25, Mr. Jones 20
Wonderwall has its loyalists. We’re glad about that.
Mambo No. 5 (a Little Bit of…) 28, Gangsta’s Paradise 18
“Please send in the trumpet.”
Fun fact: Mambo No. 5 peaked at #3 on the American charts. What were numbers one and two at that time? Smooth, by Santana and Rob Thomas, and Satisfy You, by…Diddy (then known as Puff Daddy) and R. Kelly.
Yikes!
All Star 31, Smells Like Teen Spirit 15
I know this probably upsets a lot of Nirvana fans, but first, this is My Own Worst Enemy vs. Zombie again, and second, isn’t that what Nirvana fans want? Don’t Nirvana fans want Nirvana to be disrespected in favor of pop rock?
**
