Guilty Pleasures

People talk about what is your Guilty Pleasure when it comes to music, in fact, loads of money has been made on club nights and compilation CD's pulling together all those songs we are not supposed to like but secretly listen to and artists far to uncool for for us to admit to liking.

Well hear this, I have no guilty pleasures! I am happy to admit I have an unhealthy amount of American melodic rock on my i-pod (a bit of a sin in the UK) I love Hootie and the Blowfish and even have the solo releases of Darius Rucker and Mark Bryant. I actively look for new bands in this genre, Dishwalla, Sister Hazel, Vertical Horizon etc. For every 'cool' CD I have by Wilco, Grizzly Bear, or MGMT I have another by Bon Jovi or Genesis. I'm happy to say I have seen James Blunt in concert and enjoyed it!

When magazines list the classic albums of the year, decade, last 50 years I can proberly say I usually have minimum of 50% of the choices, but I have an enormous amount of 'uncool' stuff. Rick Astlely remember him? 90's Stock Aitken and Waterman artist, yeah but Cry For Help was a gospel tinged masterpiece. I could go on all night and mention Meatloaf, The Lighthouse Family, Fleetwood Mac, Marillion and a host of others, but I have a question for you.

If you turn the Guilty Pleasure issue on it's head, if you reverse it, what is the artist you know you should like but really can't stand? Who for all the right reasons should be in your music collection but isn't?

For a long time this was Bob Dylan for me, I appreciated his talent as a songwriter, as many artists I loved had covered his songs, and I understood his importance in music in the last 40 years, yet I would have rather hit my thumb repeatedly with a hammer than listen to one of his albums, but have to admit over the last 2 years I have grown to love him.

I confess now I struggle with The Beatles and The Stones, I am a man in his mid 40's and have The Beatles Red and Blue albums and The Stones Greatest Hits, however I never listen to them and every now and again when I think I should give them another go, I get bored. I only bought them because I thought I should! I have seen The Stones, around 1990 and thought they were OK, but really I would rather listen to who originally wrote the music The Stones pinched, Howling Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson etc.

How many of us have bought albums because we thought we had to? That it was the cool CD to have, and everybody else had it so I must buy it?

What I'm saying embrace your music collection, admit your 'guilty pleasures' and play them with pride, and don't be scared to say you don't like The Beatles!

Bye

A