An interesting theory considering I’m from Cleveland and live in Wisconsin.
IDK, man. Every time they have a twang in their accent, they become “Guilty”. I think you might be prejudiced against the Souf. Too many years taking too many cases down there might have jaundiced you…
Hmmm, maybe it has something to do with Daisy Dukes.
The only people who would feel guilty about the awesomeness of Sparks are people who’s musical opinions aren’t listening to.
To counter the wild, misplaced and unfounded assertions made about me and my associations with “twang,” I offer this in rebuttal. It’s a pure pleasure that is entirely free of guilt:
No way do I feel guilty about loving this, although I can understand why some don’t. Nonetheless, 'tis the season.
I had this album as a kid.
Actually, this is really awesome.
In that vein.
The Muppets can do no wrong! No guilt.
I love this song:
And this one too:
Looking over this thread and all the great music therein (Monkees, Crystal Gayle, Hawkwind, fucking SPARKS?!) I double down on my dislike of the premise of “guilty pleasures”. If you like something, there must be something you respond to in it. Examine that.
Even Phil Collins music has good parts, for god’s sake.
This thread has gone, as many do, from the premise of the title to ‘hey look what I like’. Not that it’s a bad thing.
I think this is a totally awesome song:
Not even guilty!
edit: I forgot how silly that video is for a fairly melancholy song
Sure, one knows one should not feel guilt. BUT SOMETIMES ONE DOES. And that’s what needs examination. Exactly what do we feel guilt about?
Why would one feel guilt about:
– Monkees? Because they were a fake band
– Crystal Gayle? Because she flourished in the 70s soft-focus era now seen as cheesy
– Hawkwind? Because they’re nerdy hippies singing about space and Elric
– Sparks? Because they’re super fey
– Phil Collins? Whitebread taste
– Screamin’ Jay? Novelty song aspects, sings as a character
– Metal and hard rock? Seen by others as music for dimwitted working class kids from the high school smoking lounge, fantasy aspects, grandiose.
All these are criticisms we’ve internalized from others. We imagine other people sneering at our tastes.
I have a gay friend from grad school who’s now a very successful screenwriter and fiction writer who teaches writing at Harvard. A few years ago, we had a Facebook discussion where I was making fun of George Michael, and he responded with some thoughts on his own “internalized homophobia” — that he’s realized he has an impulsive reaction against flamboyantly gay music/celebrities/etc. that he encounters, inner voices that come from his youth in the closet and the things he heard people say then.
Just that phrase, internalized homophobia, set gears spinning in my head that translated into “internalized nerdophobia.” And I realized that I still suffer from a few internalized voices of my own — the kids in middle school who called me gay for liking D&D, playing in an early padded-weapons LARP, liking AC/DC instead of Michael Jackson, etc. And I’m not exactly known for being a shrinking violet about who I am and what I like. But I was a shrinking violet when I was 11, and though I didn’t try to change for others they did get under my skin.
Years later, I had the same kind of friction with the other music nerds in college with their hipster affectations, and I’m sure my voice was internalized by no small number of them.
Anyway, that’s my theory of guilty pleasures.
Is that the perception people had? Because, today, I find that it tacks the opposite direction. That it is the genre of choice for those who value complexity, technical skill, and individual expression (more than most genres the band members write their own songs).
So the dim witted meathead stereotype you describe clashes so heavily with my perception and experience.
I am also significantly younger than you, so did not live through the Van Halen/ glam metal days, not really.
And, honestly, I can’t rightly describe my affection for the folk/ power metal retelling of the Silmarillion, or the two album symphonic metal Faust epic, or the 7 double disc ongoing series of space opera prog metal story set in a fictionalized sci fi universe where a dying race of transcended aliens seeds human life on earth by sending the comet that causes dinosaurs to go extinct, as part of an ongoing experiment to relearn the emotions they lost when they integrated with machines to survive, and are trying to manipulate time to prevent human extinction in the year 2085, as a guilty pleasure. I straight up unabashedly love it all,
No, really, that last bit? A fairly accurate executive summary of one of my favorite bands ever. Ayreon is amazing, and the exact opposite of a guilty pleasure as I crank it up.
So I laugh at the portrayal you give, because it not only doesn’t feel accurate, it’s the exact opposite of my experience on how people perceive it.