MetaChat - A guilty pleasures (movies) thread--

The Gun Club. The Spice Girls.

Genesis (just to clarify: Peter Gabriel years + one album with Phil Collins, then I'm outta there).

Yes. Close to the Edge saved my life in high school.

posted by jokeefe 26 June | 20:03

Elgar, especially the first symphony

Kylie

posted by PinkStainlessTail 26 June | 20:49

Meatloaf.

*hides*

posted by dg 26 June | 20:56

Abba

*blushes*

posted by kellydamnit 26 June | 21:07

Fatboy Slim.

*preens*

posted by iconomy 26 June | 21:12

I'm not sure what this says about me, but Abba is also on my guilty pleasures list.

Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, however, are on my tear-my-eyeballs-out-with-vice-grips list.

posted by mudpuppie 26 June | 22:13

Electronic and hip-hop mashups, since my elitist boyfriend disapproves. Also, 90's pop.

posted by muddgirl 27 June | 00:54

There's some compilation albums (and a club night) called Guilty Pleasures.

Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, however, are on my tear-my-eyeballs-out-with-vice-grips list.

Ick! I hate it when people put Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins in the same sentence. They have about as much in common as David Bowie and Rick Astley.

posted by dodgygeezer 27 June | 03:44

Anyway, back to the main question. This is tough to answer because things go in and out of favour all the time. Abba were a guilty pleasure but I don't think they qualify anymore because these days everyone says they like Abba (me included).

I don't feel guilty about any of these but here goes anyway: Chas & Dave (it's rock n roll), Erasure (as great as Abba), 10CC (Deceptive Bends is terribly underrated), Steely Dan (say no more), Betty Boo (one of the last old-school pop stars), Glen Campbell (you won't find many songs better than Wichita Lineman).

posted by dodgygeezer 27 June | 06:11

Somewhere around 2 years ago, I seem to have lost all my guilty pleasures. Or, rather, I lost all my guilt. I like the Bee-Gees, but not in a post-post-post-ironic way, but because I like them. "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger also falls in the "previously guilty, now no longer guilty" camp.

Personally, I'm suspecting that GTA Vice City was what cured my guilt.

posted by bugbread 27 June | 06:26

I've never been a big supporter of the guilty pleasure concept since I never actually feel guilty about any of the music I like. I used to get shit from the cool kids for liking Billy Joel, ELO, and the BeeGees (who all clashed with the punk rock aesthetic I was trying to project at the same time), but I was never ashamed of liking them. And it's funny seeing Gun Club, Glenn Campbell, and 10cc mentioned above - I didn't know they would be on anybody's guilty pleasure list.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 27 June | 08:08

With that said, I tend to not advertise that I love most of Supertramp's singles and for some reason the same can be said for the first half of Foreigner's singles output ("Cold as Ice" was the first song I downloaded when I got iTunes).

posted by Slack-a-gogo 27 June | 08:11

I have no guilty pleasures. Anything I listen to is, by definition, cool.

posted by matildaben 27 June | 09:34

When it comes to entertainment, I don't believe in the concept of guilt. If something moves you, there's nothing to feel bad about just because someone decides it's not up to their standards. But, I'd wager that about 75% of the stuff on my playlist would fall under "guilty pleasures" for a lot of people. For me they're just pleasures.

posted by jonmc 27 June | 09:53

I couldn't have made it through high school without old Genesis. Also Yes, Jethro Tull and Renaissance. No guilt!

I like really bubblegum 60s & 70s pop like the Grass Roots & the Monkees & the Supremes and on road trips I find the oldies stations and sing along happily for hours. But the most embarrassing things in my music collection are probably the collection of christmas carols sung by cats (really, truly the most awful thing you have ever heard) and a very strange Jon Anderson concept album called Olias of Sunhillow that I also loved in high school.

posted by mygothlaundry 27 June | 10:00

Thick as a Brick.

posted by kenko 27 June | 10:20

There is absolutely no reason for Thick As A Brick to be on anyone's "guilty" list.

posted by bugbread 27 June | 10:52

I love disco.

I have two Spice Girls tapes in my car - and I play them regularly.

I also like more than a few Britney Spears songs.

And show tunes! do they count as a guilty pleasure?

posted by sisterhavana 27 June | 11:34

And show tunes! do they count as a guilty pleasure?

Depends (...I shouldn't say this...) if you're (...stop, bug, stop...) gay or not.

(D'oh!)

posted by bugbread 27 June | 13:24

It's funny how most of the music that fits into the guilty pleasures category is often fun and throwaway. For some reason artists are treated with much more respect if they're po-faced or pompous like Radiohead or Coldplay - have I mentioned I don't like Coldplay? - and I just think it's a really crap view of music.

posted by dodgygeezer 27 June | 13:43

Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. Because someone, when I was quite young, played "Sara" for me and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard.

More recently, found I have a strong like for Bo Bice, late of American Idol. Before this season, I'd never seen an episode, but the SO got me to watch the episode where Bo does this smoldering, brilliant version of 'Whipping Post' which just blew the pop wannabes out of the water and gave the show a surprising jolt of authenticity and his voice led me to actually listen to a bit of southern rock, a genre I had always successfully ignored. He was so consistent in the rest of the series that it was hard not to love his work.

Neither of these pleasures are guilty but they're very different than the bleepy, glitchy, noisy things I normally hear.

posted by pandaharma 27 June | 13:48

Agreed, dodgy. The whole "solemnity=quality" equation is such bullshit. But whenever rock abandons it's mandate for fun, something comes along to fill it, and all the solemn stuff starts to look embarassingly dated and pretentious. Your time is coming, Coldplay!!

posted by jonmc 27 June | 13:49

Apparently I'm supposed to feel guilty about liking the new Coldplay album.

*shrug*

(I found the last one pretty sterile, and loved the first one, after initially resisting. The new one is growing on me, in case you're keeping score.)

Other than that, I feel somewhat embarrassed at how much I love a lot of the 80's stuff I grew up on. (Yes, I just downloaded "Paranoimia," it's true.)

But, mostly, I just feel that when people don't like what I like, they just don't "get it" or "hear what I hear" and wish that they did.

posted by papercake 27 June | 14:53

But whenever rock abandons it's mandate for fun, something comes along to fill it, and all the solemn stuff starts to look embarassingly dated and pretentious.

Meh. It sounds dated and pretentious to someone who finds that kind of thing dated and pretentious. It sounds deep and meaningful to someone who finds that kind of thing deep and meaningful. Personally, I like the fun stuff and the serious stuff, and I don't find the fun stuff weak or empty, nor the serious stuff dated or pretentious.

Other than that, I feel somewhat embarrassed at how much I love a lot of the 80's stuff I grew up on. (Yes, I just downloaded "Paranoimia," it's true.)

But, mostly, I just feel that when people don't like what I like, they just don't "get it" or "hear what I hear" and wish that they did.

Right there with you. Right. There. With you.

Really getting back into the 80's stuff I grew up on. So much good stuff. Also, I wish people heard what I hear when I hear music. I have a tendency to get really taken by certain pieces of music, and tears well up in my eyes (usually tears of happiness, and occasionally tears of...I don't know what to say..."wow holy fuck this is so good"ness), which results in embarassing situations like riding a subway with a giant grin on my face and tears falling from my eyes. Very manly, I assure you. I never see anyone else get that excited about music, and I always wish they could hear what I hear.

posted by bugbread 27 June | 16:39

Britney Spears' song Toxic, which I can listen to over and over again. I'm so ashamed.

posted by LeeJay 27 June | 16:42

"Do you remember Rick Astley/ He had a big fat hit, it was ghastly." (But hooky.)

bugbread, I have the same reaction all the time! Not just to music; I got all teared up the first time I saw My Friend Totoro, just because it's so freakin' lovely. I burst out in happy tears the first time I heard Bad Music For Bad People (Cramps). I was on the rush hour L at the time, so it was a little awkward.

posted by maryh 27 June | 16:47

Paranoimia - I've got that on 7" round here somewhere. When it came out it was the perfect single for me because I loved both Max Headroom and The Art of Noise. Actually I should dig out my Max Headroom book.

posted by dodgygeezer 27 June | 17:05

Ick! I hate it when people put Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins in the same sentence. They have about as much in common as David Bowie and Rick Astley.
posted by dodgygeezer 27 June | 03:44

They have one remarkable thing in common, dodgygeezer: They both make me want to hurt myself.

posted by mudpuppie 27 June | 17:34

They have one remarkable thing in common, dodgygeezer: They both make me want to hurt myself.

That may be so but please, please, please - if you're going to hate both of 'em please do so in separate sentences. It's very important to me.

posted by dodgygeezer 27 June | 17:44

Fair enough. I'll even assign them different tools of torture.

Peter Gabriel makes me want to scratch at my eyeballs with rusty screws.

Phil Collins makes me want to dig out the aforementioned vice grips.

posted by mudpuppie 27 June | 17:53

Well, that, and that they were both in Genesis (but I assume we're intentionally eliding that point)

posted by bugbread 27 June | 18:03

mudpuppie - phew! much better.

bugbread - i know, and they've played on the same records since then too - but i'm on a one man campaign to stop people considering them as two heads of the same middle-aged monster. i can't possibly win but i won't stop trying.

posted by dodgygeezer 27 June | 18:09

The Knack, "Good Girls Don't" is the perfect cheesy pop song.

posted by LarryC 27 June | 22:52

Almost everything I like is a guilty pleasure depending on with whom I'm talking. Some people look at me weirdly for liking Yes and King Crimson, and others for liking Richard Hell and the Ramones. I can't please everyone, so I mostly just stopped caring.

I do, however, have a guilty pleasure, and that is the Mars Volta. It's pompous and masturbatory and a bunch of other things involving phalluses and egos, but I sure find it to be fun listening.

posted by invitapriore 27 June | 23:31

a very strange Jon Anderson concept album called Olias of Sunhillow that I also loved in high school.

MGL, I think we may be the same person-- or at least two of the only people around here who remember (and I at least still own, someplace) that album. Christmas, 1976, I believe.

posted by jokeefe 28 June | 11:31

it's funny seeing Gun Club, Glenn Campbell, and 10cc mentioned above - I didn't know they would be on anybody's guilty pleasure list.

The Gun Club is on my list for the non-ironic white-boy use of what is often called the 'n word', which tends to derail my pleasure in all that lovely noise. I tend to also define a guilty pleasure as something that I like despite its managing to worm its way through my critical reservations, i.e. because it's 'manufactured', such as The Spice Girls, which I usually find artistically annoying (it's more a calculated construction than a song, but it works: what can you do). And other stuff, like Yes, meant so much to me in high school that I'm incapable of thinking critically about it, but I know that if I heard it for the first time today I'd feel otherwise. And there's other stuff that I know appeals to the big-eyed sentimentalist in me... I was once brought to tears by a swoony country song about the Oklahmoma bombing, and was kind of horrified by how easily I'd been manipulated.

posted by jokeefe 28 June | 11:40

There was a concept album called Children of the Sun by a guy called Billy Thorp? Billy Gold? -I can't remember- that my brother and I listened to nonstop when we were in grade school. I remember truly loving it at the time, but I don't know if I could bear tracking it down to listen to it again. At that age I thought "Mr. Jaws" was funny, so my critical faculties were pretty, uh, unformed at that point. Does anyone remember this record? The 'concept' had something to do with flying saucers, I think. The album cover was profoundly goofy, with a barrel chested Robert Plant-looking guy ascending into a Mayan sun/starship thingy. (The more I think about it the more I think I dreamt the whole thing.... )

posted by maryh 28 June | 12:39

There was a concept album called Children of the Sun by a guy called Billy Thorp? Billy Gold?

Google says Billy Thorpe.

posted by bugbread 28 June | 12:59

I just looked it up on Amazon, and, from the teeny snippets I listened to, I think maybe it's a good record after all. The production sounds more Abbey Road than I remembered. I'm just suprised it's still available, because I've never met anybody who's ever heard of it.

posted by maryh 28 June | 13:07

The title track of "Children Of The Sun," was a fixture on FM radio up until the 90's. Thorpe also did some Brit Invasion type stuff with his group The Aztecs earlier own. It was pretty decent.

posted by jonmc 28 June | 16:31

26 June 2005