Musical Guilty Pleasures

Over the years of blogging from the Pop Culture Time Machine, I have occasionally revealed a guilty pleasure or two or three. You know, like songs that are overly corny, fluffy, sappy... or even just stuff that doesn't fit into the definition of who people think I am. "He's a metalhead, so that's all he listens to". Not so.

I'm not a kid any more, so I'm not ashamed or terribly embarrassed that the cat is out of the bag on a few things. I simply prefer not to overshare with just anybody. But today I'll happily, for your entertainment, talk a bit about my musical guilty pleasures: stuff that most of my friends, acquaintances, and even family would not think I would enjoy. But hey, we all have histories, and everybody becomes fond of something when they're young and carries that with them for ever and ever. And even as adults, we can secretly go gaga over something that's not considered very cool by our peers.

In fact, I can kick this off with one of my earliest musical discoveries, The Monkees. Even when I was a kid, most of my schoolyard friends scoffed at the sugary pop of the 60's made-for-TV band. But I held fast to my beloved Monkees, played my records in private, and to this day, I am still a fan. Still a bit protective of my love for their music, but I can now disclose the fact without blushing. I know for a fact that an awful lot of Monkees music (both the songs they did and didn't actually play instruments on) is top-notch pop. The songwriting was among the finest of its time (and a damn sight better than a lot of today's pop), often written by a team of the best in the business. 

The Monkees song Cuddly Toy is a prime example of a guilty pleasure. So cutesy and poppy that there 'ought to be a law! Yet I really get a kick out of it. The same with the supremely lovey-dovey Sometime In The Morning. Pretty keyboard and guitar parts, not to mention the now-famous harmonies. More on the Monkees here and here. 

Then there was The Partridge Family, yet another musical group concocted for television (very loosely based on a real-life family band, The Sills). Not quite as prolific as the Monkees, the Partridges (actually just David Cassidy and Shirley Jones of the TV show) did release a string of successful pop albums in the 70's. And among the many tunes I like, there are a few sappy love songs that I can't help but... um, love: I Think I Love You (which in 1970 outsold that little ditty by four Brit lads called Let It Be), I Woke Up In Love This Morning, and I Can Feel Your Heartbeat. All feel-good music that was crafted by a professional team of songwriters. So the hits were many!

Maybe a little after my Partridge phase, I noticed a TV show featuring a little band out of Scotland. The Bay City Rollers became a bit of a fixation for me, though I never went full-on fanboy. I guess since most humans in the know roll their eyes at mention of the Rollers, I could name any one of their songs and it'd be scorned... and would therefore be my guilty pleasure. I'd say the tune I enjoyed most was (and still is) Shang A Lang. 

As the 1970's wore on, I heard more "mature" pop on the AM radio dial. Some of it stuck with me, and I'm still impressed with certain songs by artists like ABBA (Knowing Me, Knowing You), Donna Summer (Love To Love You Baby), Captain and Tennille (Love Will Keep Us Together), Carpenters (Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft) and the Elton John/Kiki Dee duet (Don't Go Breaking My Heart). Yes, there was some disco in the mix, but I don't think it would be fair to lump the legendary BeeGees in with the others, since the trio was so highly regarded back in the day.

There were some one-hit wonders that got my attention, too, like You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by falsetto dude Leo Sayer (1976) and Kiss You All Over by Exile (1978). Still like 'em. Guilty as charged. 

Ah, and I mustn't forget the one-and-only Paul McCartney, who did his best work as a Beatle, but was sort of hit and miss with his band Wings and in his solo career. Macca scored the number one spot (and held it for several weeks) with Silly Love Songs in '76. It is indeed a silly love song, but for a reason: Paul wrote the tune in response to critics accusing him of writing mostly... well, silly love songs. Sappy, sentimental slush, to paraphrase one review. Yet I really like it. The critics might have been accurate, but McCartney certainly was a master of the pop song, sappy or not. There's even a slight disco thing going on there.

Styx produced a whole wack of music that, like it or not, became a bit of a soundtrack for my early high school years. I wasn't much of a fan back then, but I think I liked their ballad Babe a lot more than I was willing to admit at the time. Now it's among my favourites, alongside romantic rocker Lorelei. 

During the 80's, I was focused mostly on heavy metal, hard rock, and progressive rock. Yet I found some of the pop of that decade very likable. I didn't buy any recordings of the lighter stuff (only the metal, rock, and prog for my collection) but many years later, when I came to terms with my affection for these "oldies", I bought up some CD collections of the best of the era. 

Foreigner was one of those bands who flip-flopped, even within a single album, between hard rock and shmaltzy ballads. In fact, they mastered the art. The main offender: Waiting For a Girl Like You. But when you can sing like Lou Gramm, why not put it all out there? I don't care for all of Foreigner's ballads, but there's something classy and restrained about this one. Nice.

The in-joke of Canadian rock is Loverboy. But I think a lot of us secretly like their music while we deride them. I mean, who doesn't think of Working for the Weekend as they slave away, watching the clock, during their Friday afternoon? Same goes for Turn Me Loose and a handful of other cheesy yet lovable Loverboy classics. 

I almost hesitate to include Journey here because whatever they did, they did it with class. No sensational stories about a dark side to the band, and their songs were all... ALL... squeaky clean. You kind of hate to hate them, right? Well, whether you think Don't Stop Believin' is cheesy or not (or overplayed or not), it's still an amazing 80's (any decade, really) rock anthem. I happen to love it, every single time I hear it. If anything, Open Arms is the tougher one to stomach, but even then, it's performed flawlessly. What a voice.

Cheap Trick's notoriously sappy The Flame from 1987 was their first number one hit song. Serious rock fans turned up their noses at the tune, but I've always admired it... or at least its melodic and emotional guitar solo. An unabashedly romantic power pop ballad, The Flame brought the band back to form, reviving a floundering career. Though I stuck with Trick only until 1980 (up 'til then, they rocked with consistency), they had their moments over the years since, including this one. Read more here. 

Okay, that friggin' band Poison turned me off from day one. But something about that country-rock sound in Every Rose Has Its Thorn, especially the soulful guitar solo, kind of lingered in my head. Every time I heard it on the radio, I liked it a little bit more. So yeah, definitely a guilty pleasure. I get astonished looks from fellow metal friends when I tell them I like this song. The 80's power ballad personified. 

The 80's just wouldn't have been the 80's without girl groups The Bangles and GoGo's. In Your Room. Our Lips Are Sealed. And how about Cyndi Lauper? Time After Time. Strange how these songs make me feel nostalgic for the 80's when this wasn't really what I went for back then. But those tunes were everywhere at the time, so I couldn't avoid them. Or avoid liking them. 

Same with young Whitney Houston. Though I declared I hated her music back in '85 (the debut of her debut album), I was drawn to the colourful How Will I Know music video and kinda fell for her. That hair. I don't love the song, but there is a nostalgic thing going on there. That's the best I can explain that. So there. 

Major confession: the Spice Girls. Their first two albums reached my ears via my young daughter's boombox back in the mid-to-late 90's. I was a little more open to this music since I had a responsibility to monitor what the kid was listening to, and I liked what I heard. Both Spice and Spiceworld are loaded with hits. A fave? Maybe... Who Do You Think You Are. While I can clearly hear that not all of the girls had talent, the songs were well-crafted, insanely catchy pop. Which led to...

Madonna. Though I didn't care for her music in the 80's, by the late 90's, I was ready to give it a chance. And I discovered I liked a lot of it, most notably Cherish and Vogue. Other tracks were cool, too, like Into the Groove and Express Yourself. I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to these songs when they first went public, but I can easily appreciate them now.

Going into the 2000's I was a full-on dance-pop fan, with limits. I didn't like everything out there, and was pretty picky about who I did listen to. Brit girl group Girls Aloud were catchy and fun, and in my opinion, they outdid Spice Girls with even better vocals and song arrangements. Consistently brilliant tunes that dared to push boundaries in such a limited genre. Sophisticated, edgy, quirky... and it all stands the test of time. Hard to name just one or two best songs, but The Loving Kind and Rolling Back the Rivers In Time are among my faves. 

On the heels of the Spice Girls came the solo efforts of Sporty Spice turned Melanie C. I immediately felt a connection to her eclectic mix of pop, dance, and rock. Though I've enjoyed pretty much all of Mel's albums, I still feel her first one, Northern Star, is her best, and the title track is most likely my favourite of all her work. Also from that album, I Turn To You is a close second. Electronic pop with thoughtful lyrics and expert songwriting and musical input. 

Natasha Bedingfield... well, I'm sure she had aspirations, but I think she hit the ceiling with 2008's Pocketful of Sunshine. It's a song that holds up well today, fun and light dance-pop, a sort of unconventional song structure... the verse is the chorus, and the chorus is the verse... things are flipped, and that makes it even more interesting. But Bedingfield lacks star power and consistently strong songwriting. Still, a very bright and enjoyable tune.

Cheryl Cole is maybe a notch above Bedingfield, pushing out more impressive songs, but still a bit spotty with iffy filler on albums. Happy Tears (2010) is without a doubt the song I can listen to the most. It's a sob story, for sure, but it's artistically written and performed. Layer upon layer, it swells, ebbs, and flows. From 2009, there's 3 Words, a compelling and adventurous collaboration with will.i.am. Here, Cole and Will, through vocal interplay and spare accompaniment, create a tense pop gem. 

2006 brought to me Life In Mono, by Emma Bunton. Emma was that girlish Baby Spice in the Spice Girls, in case you didn't know. Life In Mono is the album, and it's also the title track. The entire recording is phenomenal, almost impossible to pick a favourite from, but I feel fine with choosing the title track as a "guilty pleasure". But do I feel guilty when it's THIS good? Bunton evidently learned to sing really well after the Spices split. Her angelic voice is perfectly complemented by lush instrumentation... with a sort of James Bond music feel to it. Extra marks for that.

Around this same time, I was introduced to the music of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, apparently a pop superstar in the UK. Not exactly a household name in North America, but man, what exquisite pop songs. Bextor has been extraordinarily consistent with her brand of forward-thinking dance-pop; everything sounds so fresh and unique, no two songs sound even remotely similar, and she achieves a new and exciting vibe on each album (though 2014's Wanderlust album fell flat for me; just too weird and un-fun). Again, it's really tough to nail down a fave track, but electronic tour-de-force Sparkle is worth mentioning. There's also Murder On the Dance Floor and Take Me Home, all excellent and elegant electro-pop. 

And all that brings me to my favourite guilty pleasure of all, Kylie Minogue. In fact, I don't think I even feel guilty about Kylie any more, since she's become my favourite music artist, period. Though I love a lot of different artists and types of music, if I were sent to a deserted island and could only bring the music of one artist, it would be Kylie. A fave album is easy to pick: Aphrodite from 2010. And a fave song, off Aphrodite in fact, is Everything Is Beautiful. My fave Kylie track, though, is not off a studio album... I Believe In You. 

What are your guilty pleasures? Any songs that you love but feel a bit self-conscious about? Please leave your thoughts in the Comments section. And keep on spinning those "guilties".