Cher thinks I'm awesome, though. Right?
A quick post tonight as I prepare for a two-week trip to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute. (I'll still be updating the blog, though... don't worry!)
Anyway... the other week I was uploading CDs to my iPod, and I noticed the following albums were all on the same page of my old school CaseLogic carrier...
Ace of Base's Greatest Hits
Paula Abdul's Greatest Hits
En Vogue's Greatest Hits
The Very Best of Cher
And, you guys? I had already uploaded ALL OF THEM to my iPod. Ages ago.
I may never be cool. But damn if those songs don't get me rocking in the gym. And in my home. And on the plane. And everywhere.
What are some of your guiltiest pleasures? And I'm talking about CDs you own and still actively listen to. No fair saying, "Tee-hee! I totally liked Kriss Kross in middle school." Because we ALL did, okay? I want to know what makes you giggle with embarassment now.
Labels: Pop
posted by Mark Blankenship @ 7:00 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
This one time a colleague I admired was at our house, and he praised the 1930s jazz we were playing off of my computer.
"Do you mind if I open up ITunes and see what your 'most played' songs are?" he asked.
Obviously I did mind, as he would see "Baby One More Time" right up there at number one. I didn't know what to do, so I just improvised and threw my glass of wine against the fireplace and screamed.
Other songs I listen to on occasion but I feel guilty about:
1. Mmm Bop, Hanson.
Yeah. That's right. Hanson. But this song just takes me right back to those golden days of middle school. Umm ... I mean my senior year in college. I really have no excuse for this one. I was too old for it when it came out. Along the same lines ...
2. Spice Girls, Wannabe. I'm afraid it's what I want, what I really really want. No excuse! I swear, I have a master's degree.
3. Live, Throwing Copper. Is this a guilty pleasure? Probably. This has "I Alone," "Lightening Crashes," "Selling the Drama" on it? You'd recognize it if you heard it. It seems like a somewhat dated album now, very early-to-mid 1990s grungy pop, with plenty of mass market angst. Those were my formative years and I have a soft spot for it.
4. This Kiss, Faith Hill.
This might be my guiltiest pleasure of all, because objectively I know that this song is so bad in so many ways, and I really hated it when it first came out. And yet ... I just can't resist the "centripetal motion" line. It's perpetual bliss.
Oh, God, the list could be endless. I love cheesy music and I love early stereo, so just about anything on the Command record label will do - Enoch Light for sure, Charles Magnante (on the accordian!), Lew Davies and His Orchestra, Paul Mauriat, Ronnie Aldrich, all of which I converted to CD from LP. The eponymous Mother Maybelle Carter LP I got off eBay. For CDs, that would have to be Australia's Yodelling Queen Mary Schneider, the unique Mrs. Elva Miller, the fantastic Del Rubio triplets.....
But honestly the most embarrasing thing I listen to is music from the Japanese cartoon Sailor Moon. I adore that music! So what if I wasn't the intended audience. (It's also quite embarrasing that I have all the DVDs, too.)
The most embarrassing CD I have that I do NOT listen to, though, is the Macarena CD single.
While searching for the Positive K cassingle the other night (which I didn't find :( ), I found the "Baby, Don't Forget My Number" cassingle by Milli Vanilli. That's pretty embarrassing, but it's buried safely away from oxygen deep in the recesses of my hall closet.
I say there's no shame in liking the Throwing Copper album. It's actually pretty good, I'd say. It was only after that that they became the most joyless band in rock.
And I'll admit that I loved "This Kiss" from the moment I heard it. So clever! I'd like to think, Katy, that I'm the one who wore down your resolve.
And Adam... I love that you have a yodelling CD that doesn't involve Jewel.
Plus, I bet we have a lot of overlap in our cassingle collections. My copy of "I Got a Man" is at home in Tennessee.
Finally, my browser stopped screwing up, so I can weigh in on this very important topic.
Songs I'm only slightly embarrassed (because I don't really believe in shame) to admit I really like include "Mad World" by Tears for Fears, "Games Without Frontiers" by Peter Gabriel, "Lucretia MacEvil" by Blood, Sweat & Tears, and much of the first two albums by Stone Temple Pilots.
And that song by the Black Crowes, "Hard to Handle." What's he say at the end of that line? "...Mama, I'm so hard to handle now, yes a-ma'am?"
I have *two* Mary Schneider CDs (volumes 1 and 2). :D
How can you not love someone who sings, "I'm the celebrated, dedicated, syncopated, liberated, venerated, integrated, traded and intoxicated, overrated, activated, cultivated, titillated, yodelling prima donna!"
And I think those two cassingles are the extent of my collection. I have more CD singles, but not many.
Oh boy. I had one of those moments the other day. My favorite cleaning the house CD is Roxette's Look Sharp! I can't help it! I also have that Ace of Base CD. Don't Turn Around is a treadmill song if I've ever heard one. Love your blog.
george michael and wham songs? i listen to "last christmas" all year long, like once a month, in my room with a towel stuffed in the space between the door and the floor so that my housemates can't hear me crooning along (and prancing around in my undies).
I am slightly embarrassed of some of the heavy rock I used to listen at age 11-15. Such as the entire works of Yngwie Malmsteen and Dio.
And I don't usually go around telling people that I really like Sugababes (although I don't have any of their albums and I don't download music at all). They are cute and their songs are catchy. Especially "Hole in the head".
I also think that Spice Girls' "Who do you think you are" is a very good song to dance to. Not bad listening, either.... hrm.
"When you are inside and the day is right, she's the hunter you're the fox!" (AoB lyrics are classic)
hootie & the blowfish - v. embarrassing. maybe its because i was born in SC. early stuff is best - but really i love 'em all!
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