OK, so our good ol' friend, soon-to-be-superstar, Joe visited recently, and whilst walking back from the city, he surprised me with a topic that seems pretty arbitrary, but has had me thinking ever since: guiltly pleasures.
Thing is, is that for all my neuroses, when it comes to entertainment/art/whatever, I'm pretty honest with myself and don't let silly things like feelings of guilt come into it. I guess guilt as an abstract idea is such a heavy thing to think about that I find it incompatible with entertainment.
Maybe not art (I don't mean just painting, I mean music and so on too), but I'm pretty nazi about art, so I think I rule out guilt there too. Before this becomes a rambling, pretentious post about the 'nature of guilt', I will return it to the throwaway nature that it was intended to be.
MUSIC:
Girls Aloud - The singles are all I've heard, but they're nearly all awesome.
Sia - 'Buttons' - (Why she's not releasing this as a single is beyond me).
Slipknot - The new melodic stuff. The old heavy material. New heavy tracks are just bad metal, which is the worst thing in the world.
Linkin Park - First album. Maybe the second. Never bothered with the third.
Embarressed about...
Katy Perry - 'I Kissed A Girl' - Horrible, homophobic, horrible, tacky, AMAZING.
Keane - Some stuff. LOLZ.
The Ting Tings - 'That's Not My Name' - *ahem*
FILM:
Will have to come back to this. I'm having a brain freeze.
TELEVISION:
Eastenders - It's proved to be a comfort through tough times. Those poor fictional bastards at least have it worse than we do!
Cookery programmes (The Restaurant, Masterchef, etc) - I find these strangely compelling but also really, really reassuring. Like a comfort blanket. Bizarre that I keep watching people cook meat when I'm a veggie turning vegan.
Gilmore Girls - I think I've joined Tim... Come over to the beautiful, intelligent side. It's Lorelai by the way. I was kinda close!
LITERATURE:
None that I can think of. I'm not a closet Dan Brown reader, alas!
Do yours!!
p.s. A spin off for this could be a topic about 'Stuff you should like, but don't'. I have a shit load for that.
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The Ting Tings?! Jaysus. You kept that one quiet!
ReplyDeleteGoing to have to be a wanker and say 'I have none'. There's music I'd be 'embarrassed' by, if someone were to scrutinise it, but frankly, I'm at the stage where I just want to listen to what I like, regardless of who made it and how much money went into it :p
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I get what you mean, and in the spirit of furthering the discussion, here is some stuff that could be qualified as being 'guilty':
Music: Kylie Minogue - She can't sing at all, and she certainly can't play/programme any instruments. But to enjoy pop music is to understand that the song was made by a lot of different people, absolutely none of them being the girl on the CD case. To be honest, this is only really embarrassing because of her insistence in making orgasm noises every 4 seconds.
Film - I have a curious affection for glossy teen/'coming of age' type films such as American Pie and Road Trip. I could try and argue some bullshit that I'm only watching them to instigate some ironic, gen X style derision. In fact, I think I just like to bathe in the comforting images if a lost youth that never existed.
TV - Gilmore Girls, and if my family found out, it really would be embarrassing. My mother and sister used to watch it avidly, and because of this I used to profess my hate for it. Now, I finally understand it. In fact, in these days of unemployment, disillusionment and impending global financial doom, I think we need the banal, pseudo-intellectual ramblings of the Gilmore Girls more than ever.
I look forward to the 'Stuff you really should like, but somehow don't' topic!
Yeah, like I said, they're not really guilty, so I guess we fail at 'guilty pleasures'.
ReplyDeleteThe Ting Tings - the song just got in my head. I wouldn't actually say it was a pleasure now though, due to the ridiculous over-play it received.
I also though of that Robyn bird doing that 'every heartbeat' song.
My only 'guilty' pleasure is the sacred love between man and beast.
ReplyDeleteO, and Gilmore Girls.
ReplyDeleteC'mon Tim, you're not kidding anyone! There's more skeletons in your closet than I've had hot dinners!
ReplyDeleteAs the above really, I stand by the quality of the shit I watch/listen to/consume so not really guilty but anyway:
ReplyDeleteMusic: Looking at my 'pop' section on winamp - I guess not all would aprove of Dido and Will Young, but they got me through some tough times i.e. teenage angst. Sadly, they were all I had. Also, that 'Fill my little world' song by The Feeling also makes me happy :( I can't think of anything more recent.
Film: Charlie's Angels is a GOOD film. And uh, not just because of the obvious. As is, Cruel Intentions. I'm a girl, I'm allowed to watch rubbish anyway.
TV: I'm enjoying X Factor at the moment and Chris is definitely getting into it too, he was getting well RAGEY on Saturday. X-tra Factor is also great.
Literature: Does NME count? I have a quick look through every now and then in WHSmiths and then moan about how crap it is.
I don't remember this RAGE...?! I am a RAGEY kind of guy though. I don't quite know why I enjoy watching TV that annoys me MORE than I am NORMALLY.
ReplyDeleteActually yeah maybe not. You still loved it though.
ReplyDelete