Guilty Pleasures?

e.g. I'm deliberately and enjoyably guilty when people catch me listening to Alexander O'Neal and genuinely embarassed when it's Madder Rose...

Hurrah!

Mine is Phil Collins-Easy Lover, it was on the radio once when I was driving home and I realised I'd started tapping my hands on the steering wheel. I felt like a 40 year old accountant and hated myself for the rest of the day.

1. ELO - Livin' Thing
2. Boston - More Than A Feeling
3. S Club 7 - Don't Stop Movin'
4. 10cc - I'm Not In Love
5. Gary Glitter - Rock'n'Roll Part 2
6. Foreigner - Cold As Ice
7. Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
8. Status Quo - Whatever You Want
9. Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
10. Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Source: Q Magazine

S CLub 7 is the one most likely to be played somewhere like Poptimism (which rejects the notion of 'guilty pleasures' entirely). Boston, ELO and Idol I can imagine hearing there too but only once in a blue moon.

Some of the lesser ELO is pretty naff.

I think my "guiltiest" pleasure is probably Big Country, in that almost everone seems to think they're absolute shite. I don't think you can go around parading it, like Kylie or whatever.

This isn't exactly true, though.

Wasn't it 'unguilty pleasures' on the old flyer?

Someone else can do the guilt/shame difference comment I guess.

but guilt post-play is different to this idea of guilty before playing it

i did compile about 4 volumes of personal 'guilty pleasures' on ILM once.

Who is ashamed of pleasure anyway? It's unhealthy.

xpost

and in the case of arctic monkeys they would be QUITE RIGHT to feel guilty. yuck.

except the category of 'widely accepted and liked music among people our age'.

FAP!!!!

here are some 'official' GPs.

last track = '9 to 5'.

is 2manydjs sort of GP-ish? 'dreadlock holiday' and all that.

sorry, that's NOT how it's being marketed at all

it may still be how it's being received by the majority of GP punters nthough. I wouldn't know.

It's not quite "this stuff is crap REALLY", more "My other car's a porsche".

i do think there was an element of 'we genuinely love this song but would prefer to hear it in a cooler context'. i do this a lot with my own mixes.

"I couldn't play records with an ironic twist. I HAVE to love these records. It's a liberating celebration."

Saying that, I've never been, so maybe it is full of sneering 20 year-olds.

i'm proud to say the concept is pretty lost on the city.
long may it remain so.

we're not guilty about our pleasures.

the club night is essentially school disco for middle class guardian readers,

theres not much sneering, but its more the comedy hat brigade.

(xpost)

"Guilty Pleasures Rides Again" is a good title, I think.

I don't think guilt can be a pleasure. Pleasure can lead to guilt, but not the other way round. I read a book about it.

actually, come to think of it, I feel more guilty about liking that one Keane song than I do about anything else I've ever done in my life

This is the thing though! Pretty much everyone says the same thing, a club night called 'Guilty Pleasures' notwithstanding

Don't ask! I don't know!

1. ABBA (mindless pop, but good for a few laughs)
2. Steely Dan (slick studio pap, but has some hooks)
3. MIA (I always had a soft spot for novelty acts)
4. Joy Division
5. Sly and the Family Stone
6. Pavement
7. Beatles
8. Beethoven
9. Prince
10. REO Speedwagon

I know what you're talking about! Guilty pleasures.

It's a bit less music-oriented than this thread, a bit more East v. West, Sensual v. Puritan. But it does relate to guilty pop pleasures. It basically asks whether the guilt is integral to the pleasure -- even creating it -- or whether the guilt will, over time, disappear.

Actually, I suppose guilt would disappear at either extreme:

a) Guilt disappears if guilt and pleasure become the same thing, because guilt becomes pleasure (a bit like irony becoming totally unironic when you put every single word in "inverted" "commas").

b) Guilt disappears if there is no guilt in pleasure. If we all became Epicureans and threw off the shackles of puritanism, there would be an end of all guilt about consuming the things we enjoy.

So, for guilty pleasure to continue, there has to be a situation in between a) and b), a perpetual tension, a vacillation, unresolved. We have to "know" something's bad, yet still like it. We have to both agree and disagree that something's bad.

It's quite similar to the idea that property is theft. To agree with that sentiment, you really have to think that property is property and theft is theft. Otherwise it makes no sense.

Psychological explanation: guilt occurs when we look at ourselves indulging in pleasure from the point of view of someone else, someone who wouldn't approve.

Sociological explanation: guilty pleasure is just slumming it, consuming below your social rank.

Recap:

Sainsburys Taste the Difference Quadruple Chocolate Cookies... The copy on this box of Sainsbury's "cookies" reads:

"Decadently rich chocolate cookies, bulging with milk, white and dark chocolate chunks and finished with a base of smooth milk chocolate."

"Decadently rich"... It's a little odd when products are actually sold to us as something 'sinful" or "decadent", isn't it? What does it say about the Western psyche that pleasure has to be corrupt, unfair, destructive? Will this get worse over time, or will it look like a silly puritan anachronism soon? Will the biscuits of the future be labelled "murderous crispy shells filled with selfishly fondant racist chocolate"?"

I just checked the Sainsbury's site, and I see that things have changed since I wrote that last year. The decadently rich Quadruple Chocolate Cookies have gone, replaced by Sainsbury's Chocolate Chip Cookies (Organic).

Actually it has some quite weird "aquatic" guitar, which might disqualify it, but anyway.

Oddly enough, my guilty pleasure is thuggish Oi! music, although I stay away from the really fascist ones, I do like a few borderline cases like Condemned 84, who may not be full-on fascists but are definitely WAY right wing and totally opposite politically to me. I just love dumb songs about drinking and fighting for some reason.

*I have never heard Gentle Giant.

It is ungrammatical.

But of course taken to its logical conclusion, i.e. nice Supertramp so much better than those horrible dated Pistols etc., it really will mean that punk never happened.

ELO top 'guilty secret' song list

ELO's 1976 single Livin' Thing has topped a Q magazine list of uncool records it is okay to love.

"ELO may never be fashionable but, in terms of sheer aural elation, this betters more revered bands' entire back catalogues," says the magazine.

The top 10 "guilty pleasures" also includes More Than a Feeling by Boston, S Club 7's Don't Stop Movin' and 10cc's I'm Not In Love.

Q says it aims to "restore a veritable treasure trove of music to glory".

TOP TEN GUILTY PLEASURES
1. ELO - Livin' Thing
2. Boston - More Than A Feeling
3. S Club 7 - Don't Stop Movin'
4. 10cc - I'm Not In Love
5. Gary Glitter - Rock'n'Roll Part 2
6. Foreigner - Cold As Ice
7. Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
8. Status Quo - Whatever You Want
9. Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
10. Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Source: Q Magazine

Have Your Say: What are your guilty pleasures?
Other records in the list include Never Ever by All Saints, and Life is a Roller Coaster by Ronan Keating - both of which reached number one in the UK.

Manic Monday by the Bangles and Status Quo's Whatever You Want also make the Top 20.

The Electric Light Orchestra, led by multi-instrumentalist Jeff Lynne, had a string of hits in the 1970s, including Roll Over Beethoven and Don't Bring Me Down.

They also had considerable success in the US, becoming a staple of the stadium rock circuit.

Q described Livin' Thing, from their 1976 album A New World Record, as "gloriously bonkers".

Guilty Pleasures was an idea that started on Sean Rowley's BBC London Radio show, and has since grown into a month club night.

Guilty Pleasures?

i have a horrible feeling that those responsible feel neither guilt nor shame :(

BUT THEY SHOULD DO

C'mon, let's have some real guilt!! Does my worn out copy of Feargal Sharkey's "a good heart" count??

So it's still selective amnesia until they decide to rehabilitate the Telly Savalas, Wurzels, Windsor Davies and Don Estelle, Typically Tropical, Ray Stevens and JJ Barrie records punters were actually buying in the '70s.

xpost

So it's still selective amnesia until they decide to rehabilitate the Telly Savalas, Wurzels, Windsor Davies and Don Estelle, Typically Tropical, Ray Stevens and JJ Barrie records punters were actually buying in the '70s.

it's not based on what punters were buying, but what people who like this sort of thing like. if you don't like telly savalas et al, they aren't pleasures of any kind.

Is it better if they do or they don't?

"It's all about the route that you took into music. You give your life over to music, it will guide you through some of the darkness moments of your life and it will soundtrack some of your greatest moments. And the radio will be a big part of that. In the golden age of pop music, great artists made great pop records. As a kid you knew that owning ELO double albums was wrong, especially when punk came along. Overnight people discarded record collections and it was gone. Overnight all these records became redundant in 1976. When you had friends round, you knew in your heart of hearts you were going to hide certain records at the back. There's an inherent naffness about some records. You're going to be proud of the Pistols and the Clash, but at the back there's The Captain and Tenille and Barbra Streisand..."

No one I knew at school discarded any of their record collections when punk came along.

In my first year at Oxford most other students were still listening to James Taylor, Supertramp and Cat Stevens.

There were no ELO double albums when punk came along. Out Of The Blue was released after punk had come along.

Anyone who thinks Captain and Tennille and Streisand are inherently naff aren't listening properly.

Or is there a gender divide issue here he's loath to address?

Catchy melodies, excellent production, nice harmonies.

About 75% are perfect records.

But IU have only listeend to the first CD.

Billy Swann's "I Can Help" sounds really loutish compared to the others.

I also heard the radio programme begin. It seemed quite good. In the trailer, a man rings up to say Wham are shit. The answer is "What? Don't you likepop music?" but in a jokey, amiable way.

Big Country don't fit at all.

I think Rowley's reasoning above is false, just bowing to the needs of PR, etc.

Girls: ELO, Abba, Boney M, Saturday Night Fever/Grease, David Soul, Kate Bush, disco in general

Boys: New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Mod Revival, Rush

Me and maybe one other: Morley/Penman-approved "hip" stuff but it was so far off everyone else's radar they just stared at me in a community care kind of way. Though I sneakily loved most of the stuff the girls liked as well (but not Boney M or David Soul).

its got more charm and ideas than the whole of the second CD set.

maybe a lilly allen cover could be arranged............

The (electro? I can't pin these genres well) song of the same name, "Das Kometen," is the best song ever right now, but that profile picture is not letting me move around with a clear conscience.

Paris Hilton - Stars are blind

I'm very ashamed to admit it but I find it accidentally brilliant.

YOU SHOULD BE VERY FUCKING ASHAMED, LEAVE NOW

ILM IS NOT THE PLACE TO TALK ABOUT THIS

black nasty

Jealousy and Screwed are better Paris tracks. I don't believe in Guilty Pleasures but if I did then Paris would be one of mine.

I AM SECRETLY ASHAMED OF LIKING PARIS HILTON..

GREAT SONGS, BUT I NEVER TELL AAANNNYYYONE ABOUT THAAAT

TOTAL GUILTAY PLEASURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

whatever you do, don't let ILM know about this...

Alex NYC - brutal honesty but a tad too many 'guilties'to tip the balance in favour of bland mainstream?
Seriously, there is a calculation that proves you were never ever a 'punk rocqkuer'.
You should be proud. Well done fella.

eclectic lite arkestra

just sayin'.
for it felt so good to say. that.

oh, and as per -
would Sheryl Crow be considered a guilty pleasure?
- i personally would consider Sheryl Crow just crap.

Alex NYC - brutal honesty but a tad too many 'guilties'to tip the balance in favour of bland mainstream?
Seriously, there is a calculation that proves you were never ever a 'punk rocqkuer'.
You should be proud. Well done fella.

"Too Many" is a relative term. I own over two thousand and five hundred compact discs. In the grand scheme of things, the selections cited are but a drop in an ocean. That all said, I never claimed to be a "punk rockquer". I love Punk Rock, but I love a lot of stuff.

Freiheit

I refuse to consider 10cc, ELO or anything like that "guilty pleasures" as it is just weirdos who consider musical skills and perfect production to be a bad thing.

Ismael makes a bid for pseud's corner:

A 'guilty pleasure' means there's a gap between the music you like and the things you think you should like. Assuming that part of being human is having more than one value system, most people will experience some sort of vague guilt where these conflict. It follows then that the only people who won't have any room for guilty pleasures are those:
- whose most important value system is the hierarchy of great tunes. No need for them to feel guilt about loving Abba. Does it follow that their guilty pleasures will be transferred to their lesser value systems? Maybe instead they get their guilty kicks from fancying people with dark hair.
- whose musical tastes are based entirely on a superior value system. I'm thinking that people who listen exclusively to Chumbawamba and Billy Bragg probably don't feel much need for guilt.

Ismael thought he fell in the first category with the poptimism crew. Largely because, after years of listening to music, he exhausted the canon years ago, so there's not much new listening pleasure available to him now unless he learns to love Dire Straits and Phil Collins for what they are.

However, on watching Jonny Borrell at the Mandela tribute concert, he now realises that he hates posh, pushy, humourless twats most of all. So his guilty pleasure is Razorlight.

Paramore.

Alex NYC - have much respect for you and your love of music.Stalked your weblog thing.Love it. Even more so now I have a 7 month old son. We're about the same age. Not son and I. You and I.

Tonight did a mix CD for an old mate of mine who used to love Killing Joke. Prong's 'The worst of It' made it on there.I haven't really moved on have I? Always reminded me of the Joke. And from NYC. Surely you dug Prong?
Sorry to be a freaky wankquer

No worries.

HUGE Prong fan. Especially adore Beg To Differ (though it hasn't aged especially well, I have to say). Tommy Victor is a strange dude, but Ted Parsons is fantastic. And yes -- they're complete Joke acolytes (witness the inclusion of the late, great Paul Raven in their ranks as ample evidence of same). Haven't heard anything of their newer stuff (it's just Tommy, now -- Ted moved on). But vintage Prong -- notably "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck," "Prove You Wrong," "For Dear Life" and their cover of the Stranglers' "Get a Grip on Yourself" -- is unstoppable.

Congrats on your son!!!!!!

http://fairtilizer.com/track/6946

thought that was fartilizer at first.

The guitar solo in Hold Steady's 'Lord , I'm Discouraged'
Ladies and Gentlemen, It's audacious.
I wanted to hate this band, the snobby cunt I am , but I like.
LFTR PLLR were fish
Great band for middle aged chancers like me.
Applause!!!

Just totally as an aside to the above discussion about Prong, I found out that Troy Gregory, sometimes of The Dirtbombs and a fixture on the Detroit rock scene, was in Prong for, I dunno, like ten minutes or so back in the '90s.

I always got them confused with Skrew too.

I don't have (m)any guilty pleasures but Vanity's "Pretty Mess" comes (get it?) pretty damn close:

IT'S OVER