18 Songs About Rejecting Someone & Getting Rejected
It is a known fact that rejection hurts really bad and can inflict damage to our psychological well-being but it is part of everyday life which everyone will experience at some point. You may be the one rejecting someone/something or on the receiving end. Here is a list of songs that talk about rejection on either end of the stick.
1. TLC – No Scrubs
The song is the lead single of FanMail that topped the charts in 1999. It earned the girl group their second Grammy nomination for “Record of the Year” and claimed the #2 spot in NME’s top tracks in 1999.
Lyrically, TLC are specific in the type of partners they don’t want in terms of romantic partners. As strong independent women with a lot of success, they would rather give their love to men who have their life together as opposed to one who doesn’t.
2. Cassie – Long Way 2 Go
This is a song from her debut studio album Cassie. Its cool and playful nature made it receive a lot of positive reviews from critics. Lyrically, Cassie is rejecting different guys who are hitting on her. She claims they are not good enough to handle her and they still have to work on themselves some more to be at her level.
3. Madison Beer – Home With You
The person Madison talks about in the song is interested in having a one-night stand with her but despite his persistence Madison insists she does not want to go home with him. She instead asks him to respect her and not treat her like an object meant to satisfy him.
Madison had this to say about how she was inspired to do the song:
So much of what inspired this record was experiences that I’ve seen other people have. But over the summer, I was going out a lot, and I was going to this one place in particular that I could get into because I’m not 21 yet. It was a restaurant that turned into a club at night, but if you were eating at the restaurant, you were able to chill. So I used to go there all the time, and there’s a really big bar in the middle of the restaurant, and I would just always sit and observe the craziness that went down of people just being messy. That’s what inspired it. I think I just saw so many people, and I saw so many also funny interactions of how a friend got her girlfriend away from some dude or whatever, so that definitely had a big take on the lyrics.
4. Chris Brown – Don’t Check On Me
This is a mellow guitar-driven track where we see Chris reflect on a past relationship and not wanting his ex to call him to check up on him. He feels that since they are not together they should have less communication. He doesn’t want the ghosts of his past to hinder his future as he moves on. She broke his heart so he doesn’t want any empathy from her hence he won’t reply to her texts.
5. Keri Hilson – Turnin Me On
The song is from the album In a Perfect World and it peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Keri said that it is the song that probably describes the type of girl she is. She states the traits that would get her interested in a man and how she would like to be treated. She also stated that men who disrespect her personal boundaries, sexually violating her body and repeatedly touching her behind would automatically be rejected.
6. T Pain – Chopped and Screwed
7. Demi Lovato – Really Don’t Care
The track accumulated the most views of all the songs Lovato streamed from the album before its release and it ended up being the best-selling song on the album. Lyrically, she sings about an ex who dumped her and then went ahead to start dating someone else. He started rubbing it in her face. However, the new girlfriend dumped him, prompting Demi to state that should he come asking her to take him back she would never let him.
8. Tove Styrke – Vibe
The track is from Vibe’s third studio album Sway. Speaking to Wonderland Magazine about how she was inspired, she stated, “…like, you really thought that there was something, but things just didn’t work out.”
Lyrically, Vibe sings about a relationship that had gone sour. It used to be amazing till one day her partner started getting cold towards her and eventually leading to a breakup. She adds that she would reject him should he come crawling back because he felt lonely.
9. Taylor Swift – We Are Never Getting Back Together
Taylor Swift in the song refuses to continue her on-and-off relationship with her boyfriend. Speaking to USA Today, she explained this about the song’s background:
It’s a definitive portrait of how I felt when I finally stopped caring what my ex thought of me. He made me feel like I wasn’t as good or as relevant as these hipster bands he listened to…So I made a song that I knew would absolutely drive him crazy when he heard it on the radio. Not only would it hopefully be played a lot, so that he’d have to hear it, but it’s the opposite of the kind of music that he was trying to make me feel inferior to.
10. Beyonce – Why Don’t You Love Me
The song was co-written by Beyonce and her sister Solange Knowles together with the trio Bama Boyz. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Lyrically, Beyonce asks the guy she is interested in her why he keeps rejecting her yet she has beauty, style, a big behind, book smart, talented in the bedroom and she is even financially independent. She claims she makes it so easy for him to love but he doesn’t even notice.
11. Avril Lavigne – Sk8er Boi
The track is about a sk8er boy who liked a girl who was too stuck up and too worried about her friends’ opinions to admit that she liked him back. She ended up regretting the decision as the skater boy became a successful musician whereas the girl ended up a single mother living alone.
12. Justin Bieber – Baby
This is the lead single off of Justin Bieber’s debut album My World 2.0 and is one of his most popular songs of all time after being certified 12 times platinum by the RIAA. Lyrically, Justin sings about being rejected by a girl he is in love with. Instead, she states that they are just friends and nothing more.
13. Meghan Trainor – NO
The song is part of her sophomore album Thank You. It’s a sassy women’s anthem encouraging women everywhere to say ‘no’ to men they are not interested in. Meghan was inspired by a rejection in L.A. Speaking to Elle Magazine, she had this to say:
As the CEO running my life, running Meghan Trainor, I have to say ‘no’ to things all the time, and it’s been very uncomfortable and very difficult. I’ve said ‘no’ and it’s actually worked—even when I never thought it would work. Even something as simple as saying, ‘I want this for my album cover’ and my label would be like, ‘Nah, we like this picture.’ And I would say, ‘No. I want this picture.“ And they got it, like, ‘Understood.’ There’s a lot of power in the word ‘no,’ and a lot of people, like myself, need to know that.
14. Tate McRae – You Broke Me First
The single is about Tate confronting an ex who returned and wants to rekindle their relationship after he broke up with her. Talking about the song, she had this to say:
Who do you think you are? And any person in the entire world, like, you can’t treat someone like that and then just expect them to welcome you back with open arms. It’s so weird, it’s like this weird feeling of emotions when I talk about these lyrics because they are so personal to me. It’s so greedy and so selfish and so, like, just unaware of not putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and not understanding what the other person is feeling. And also, recognizing your self-worth too. That was the, kind of what the chorus feeling about was. I took so long to get over you and now it’s like, no matter how hard you try to get back in, I kinda know who I am now and know what I deserve and I know that you don’t need to be back in my life again.
15. Tate McRae – R U OK
Tate sings about an ex who broke up with claiming he wants more space. She took a while to heal and move on with her mind. However, he is now back in her life wanting her to take him back. He has tried to contact her friends and her father begging them to help him win her back. She rejected him and didn’t want to go back down that path.
16. Charlie Puth – That’s Hilarious
Charlie’s ex-girlfriend has realized how wrong she was when it came to ending the relationship with him and is now going back to him declaring her love again. He rejects her and states that she took away a year of his life which he can no longer get back. He added this about the song on social media:
I’m very bad at expressing my feelings, which is why I usually just hide them in music.
I went through a very bad break-up one time, and I felt like I’d lost a year of my life.
17. Usher – You Remind Me
Usher has to reject a girl due to some form of PTSD from a previous relationship. It was with a girl who put him through a lot of negativity that left a big negative mark on his life. When he met a new girl, he couldn’t proceed to start something with her since she had many similar things to his ex.
18. Marshmello & Anne-Marie – Friends
The song is mainly about friend-zoning someone. Anne Marie shares her experience warding off unwanted romantic advances from a friend and repeatedly reminding them that they are nothing more than friends.