If you were anywhere near a radio or a gym playlist in late 2016, you couldn’t escape it. That high-pitched, slightly raspy hook. The rapid-fire rap verses. The feeling that you’d heard the melody before but couldn’t quite place it. Camila Cabello’s Bad Things wasn’t just a hit; it was a tactical strike on the music charts that changed the course of her career—and Fifth Harmony’s—forever.
Honestly, it feels like a lifetime ago. But looking back at the track now, it’s wild to see how much of a blueprint it was for the "edgy pop" era that followed.
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The Hook You Already Knew
The secret sauce of the song was actually a throwback. A lot of people didn't realize at the time that the chorus is basically a reworked version of Fastball’s 1999 hit "Out of My Head." If you listen to both back-to-back, it's undeniable.
The Futuristics, who produced the track, were smart. They took a melody that was already hard-coded into the brains of Gen X and Millennials and paired it with two of the fastest-rising stars in the industry. It was a "pop-rap" mashup that felt dangerous but stayed catchy enough for Top 40.
Machine Gun Kelly (long before he was a pop-punk vampire or a movie star) brought this gritty, Cleveland-bred energy. Camila, still officially in Fifth Harmony when the song dropped on October 14, 2016, provided the "innocent-but-not-really" vocal that made the track pop.
Breaking the Group: The Drama Behind the Scenes
You've gotta remember the timing. When "Bad Things" started climbing the Billboard Hot 100, the tension inside Fifth Harmony was at a boiling point.
The song peaked at number four. That’s huge. It was Camila’s second solo venture (after the Shawn Mendes duet), and it proved she didn't need the group to find the Top 10. For the other four members—Normani, Lauren, Dinah, and Ally—this was a neon sign that the end was near.
- The Timeline: "Bad Things" drops in October.
- The Performance: They play it on The Tonight Show in November.
- The Split: By December 18, the group announces Camila is out.
It was messy. There were notes from therapists, missed meetings, and a lot of subtweeting. But from a purely business perspective? Camila Cabello’s Bad Things was the proof of concept her label needed to go all-in on her as a solo powerhouse.
Why the Lyrics Caused a Stir
It wasn't just the chart positions. People were obsessed with the lyrics.
The song follows a "Bonnie and Clyde" narrative. MGK raps about "nails scratching back tats" and "breathing you in 'til my face numb," while Camila counters with the hook: "If you only knew the bad things I like."
It was a massive departure from the relatively squeaky-clean image Fifth Harmony had at the time. It romanticized a toxic, "us against the world" kind of love. Critics at the time, like the folks over at Plugged In, were a bit worried about the message it sent to younger fans—especially with the music video ending on a ledge with the police closing in.
The Cultural Impact in 2026
Looking back from 2026, the song feels like a time capsule. It was the bridge between the "X-Factor" girl group era and the "Havana" global superstar era. Without this specific collaboration, we might never have seen Camila's transition go so smoothly.
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It also solidified MGK's place as a versatile collaborator before his eventual genre-hopping. The song eventually went 5x Platinum in the US. That’s four million units. Not exactly a "bad" thing for their bank accounts.
What We Can Learn From the "Bad Things" Era
If you're a fan of pop history, there are a few takeaways here that still apply to the industry today:
- Interpolation is King: Taking an old melody (Fastball) and making it new is the fastest way to a hit.
- Timing is Everything: Releasing a solo hit while in a group creates a "narrative" that the media loves to cover.
- Visuals Matter: The Hannah Lux Davis-directed video turned the song into a cinematic experience that fans watched over and over.
If you want to dive deeper into how this song paved the way for her debut album, you should definitely check out the live performances from early 2017. You can see the shift in her stage presence as she realized she could hold the stage without four other girls.
Check out the original Fastball track "Out of My Head" to see just how much the producers leaned on that 90s nostalgia. It'll give you a whole new appreciation for how "Bad Things" was constructed.
Stay tuned for more deep dives into the tracks that defined the last decade of pop.
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Actionable Insights:
- Compare the vocal layering in "Bad Things" to Camila’s later work like "Havana" to see her vocal evolution.
- Watch the music video through the lens of 2016 "edgy" aesthetics—it’s a perfect example of the era's cinematography.
- Research The Futuristics' other production credits if you like the "Bad Things" sound; they have a very specific way of blending genres.