I may have opened myself up to some ridicule here, but I'm ready for it. In my latest blog post I discuss eight artists that some might consider "guilty pleasures," even though I'm not a fan of that term. I have a pretty diverse collection and I'm just as proud to call myself a fan of these artists as any other more "legitimate" artists. Some of these are "catalog" artists for me while a compilation is sufficient for others. Here's a link to the post for anyone who's interested:

https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... e-to-like/

For anyone who doesn't want to click through, here are the artists I discussed:
SPANDAU BALLET
HANSON
CULTURE CLUB
BARRY MANILOW
PETER CETERA
ALANIS MORISSETTE
THE CARPENTERS
HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS

So, who else wants to share their not-guilty-at-all pleasures?

I don't feel guilty about my musical taste, since I like just about everything. The one inexplicable predilection, as I may have mentioned before, is pop instrumentals from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Stuff like this:

No guilt, Rich. My take:

SPANDAU BALLET - GH
HANSON - Nothing, but understood pop appeal of first album
CULTURE CLUB - Catalogue
BARRY MANILOW - 2-disc GH is necessary but sufficient. First girl I pined over in 1st-4th grades was named Mandy, so that song was a favorite in the late '70s
PETER CETERA -Catalogue
ALANIS MORISSETTE - a couple of albums + GH
THE CARPENTERS - Catalogue. I mean, what an unbelievable voice and great arrangements. Also was only way to get original mixes.
HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS - Catalogue. First album I remember getting on release day was Fore! on cassette. Also first concert. Always brings a smile to my face.

No guilt here, either - there's music I like, and music I don't like. I don't feel "guilt" about any of it.

Michael Parks, an actor best known for the 1969 TV series "Then Came Bronson" (and some more recent Quentin Tarantino movies), released several albums late 60's-early 70's. He even had a Top 20 hit with the theme song from that TV series called "Long Lonesome Highway". It's pure MOR/country/folk cheese, but I love it. Wish they'd release the series on DVD and his albums on CD (the pilot movie is on DVD and you can get CD's of "questionable authorization"; I got a best-of from Cane Toad Records in Australia).

Also no guilt about anything I like. The Four Seasons and Neil Sedaka might get some ridicule around these parts, but nobody on the ICE boards has picked on me for collecting them ... yet.

(To up the ante, I'll say that The Four Seasons rock harder than Kiss.)

I can honestly say that I like almost EVERYTHING, to varying degrees.

Other than hair metal and cheesy boy bands, I can find pleasure in just about anything.

I frequently enjoy jazz, classical, reggae, rap, and all kinds of "popular" music, from pop to funk to rock to metal.

One of my real "guilty" pleasures is the Lindsay Lohan song "Over".

And most of you know how I love Britney!

I grabbed both of the box sets (4S & Frankie Valli) as soon as they became available thanks to Clint's movie! (Meaning the movie obviously triggered the availability, not that I needed the movie to make me want them -- still have not seen the film.)

There is NOTHING guilty about Alanis! (well other than the 2 early Canadian Tween albums). She's definitely adult rock.

I own the Spice Girls cd single of Wanna Be

Don't own any physical products from the list above apart from Culture Club & Spandau Ballet as a teen in the 1980s.
Got more into Stevie Ray Vaughan etc by mid 1980s.

I still like Billy Joel, Elton John & Jim Croce if they are considered a guilty pleasure these days.

Spice Girls

The Four Seasons made some of the greatest singles ever.
Same goes for The Carpenters- for my money, no one sang popular songs better than Karen Carpenter (except maybe Petula Clark).

My guilty pleasure-Sophie Tucker.

When I was in Jr High, Grand Funk Railroad was considered a guilty pleasure! (And that's in their hard rock Railroad days). And you wonder why I don't like 2000's boy/girl pop??????

Christ, in 8th grade my keyboard player was a Zappa fanatic; & I was listening to Santana, the Stones, Country Joe, The Airplane, Wishbone Ash, Bowie, Robin Trower, CSNY etc. I was pretty much done with what we then called "Bubble Gum" by 7th grade.

I don't feel guilty for any music I like though I've been kidded for the Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift & ABBA albums I enjoy.

Well, of course not. Why would we do that?



Oh.

I'm the same way, except add country music (other than Johnny Cash, who for some reason transcends genre).

Jimbo, this proves that my fellow IMWANers are the most open-minded music fans in the world. We may not all like the same things but none of us feel guilty or ashamed about professing our love for something that others might scoff at. I never heard this song before but I like it. Not sure I need to own it but it's very good.

Thanks for the feedback, Jay. We may have different "compilation" and "catalog" artists among these names, but I'm glad you enjoy them all on some level. I'm very pleased to find another person who owns the Peter Cetera catalog. Of all the artists in my collection, he's the one my friends have made fun of me about the most.

Love the attitude, Alan. I have a feeling you speak for everyone here at IMWAN. That's why it's the only music forum I like.

Never heard of him, Rick, or at least I don't remember any of his songs or that TV show. Is any of his stuff on YouTube?

Can't imagine why anyone would roll their eyes at The Four Seasons or Neil Sedaka, especially around here. I wonder if Jersey Boys made The Four Seasons more or less acceptable to music geeks.