We all know what guilty pleasures are. A guilty pleasure is something we enjoy but we feel a bit gulty about enjoying it. For some, it might be fast food or chocolate. Someone who enjoys reading serious literature might also enjoy trashy romance novels. Or a film buff might secretly enjoy campy B-movies.

Anyway, I just wondered what musical guilty pleasures the people here enjoy. There's only one rule: No fair making fun of someone else's guilty pleasure unless you post your own.

Since I started this thread, I suppose I have to go first...

I like Avril Lavigne.

In my own defense, I must say that I think her music is much better than that of the current crop of pop divas (Britney, Christina, J-Lo, ad nauseum). But anyways...

I like Avril Lavigne. There. I said it.

Really crappy gabber module files from the mid-90's. Boom boom boom boom...

probably the inka samai cds i got at the ann arbor art fair a few years ago. completely different from my majority terrorcore/black metal playlist, though still fufilling.

Music my parents used to listen to when I was a kid. You know, stuff like ABBA, Roger Whitaker, Gordon Lightfoot, and so on. Hated this kind of stuff when I was young, but now many years later it just reminds me of my long gone youth and growing up.

Edit: Grammer, which probably still sucks.

I like Fatman Scoop - It Takes Two.

ABBA

I was also into Enya and Celine Dion, but thanks to the Lord I gave up those filthy vices.

Yeah, I think nostalgia can have a big influence on this. I find myself listening more and more to stuff that was popular when I was a teenager (Styx, Kansas, Boston, etc.) that I didn't much care for back then. I hear one of those bands now, though, and I'm 18 again...

Heh

For me it was Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow. I've actually seen Neil Diamond in concert quite a few times.

Luckily they also gave me Billy Joel, Chicago, and Queen whom I don't feel guilty about being pleasured by. Wait... That didn't sound right.

Splatter metal (they sing about odd diseases and disgusting themes)and some Black metal ones.

Yeah, I know they are completely shit. But are my guilty pleasure.

i know it's embarrassing but i enjoy a lot of those screamo bands, like Dead Poetic, From First To Last etc.
i also like most of the Tooth & Nail/SolidState bands, and thats quite frightening

Hmmm... I guess this is my guilty pleasure too...

Now listening to: Aborted - [Goremageddon #03] The Saw & the Carnage Done [4:50]

Country music, but only while working on cars.. it just seems approrpriate.

As I get older, I listen to earlier and earlier popular music, so now its a lot of stuff from before I was born..
rockabillly, Fred Astair, old blues. Duke Ellington, Doo Wop...

edit: nobody's mentioned Elvis.. is that just beyond the pale?

Tom Jones

It's hard to admid, but it sneaked up on me after being submitted to Tom Jones as a passenger in the shuttle going back and forth to Chernobyl, every morning and afternoon for weeks.

It's a 1 hour trip each way, passing a desolate country side, two international borders and two security/radiation checkpoints. Listening to Tom Jones was the highlight of the day.

Even now, years after I occassionally chose to listen to Tom Jones. My favorite album is Reload.

I sometimes listen to Aqua and E-Type, not very sophisticated but
happy, uncomplicated music.

80's music and...Shania Twain

Well, at least she's purty.

I know JACK!

(JPOP/Anime/CPOP/KPOP)

Sometimes, I need a light-hearted, silly break from the Hendrix, Beck, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny crowd.

Artie

I too am a sucker for 80's music.

i'm with artie - my guilty pleasure is j-pop.

i'm now listening to the Chobits OST and singing like a little bitch. i just got my good headphones back from being repaired and this was about the first thing i listened to

and i totally heart "Rasperry Heaven" by Oranges and Lemons (Azumanga Daioh ending theme).

the replaygains on some of these j-pop tracks are amazing.

Enya?? eek. can't listen to it. it fills my mind with red mist and the Glorious Stench of Hot Blood.

also, i don't know an aussie alive who wont sing when met with a combination of alcohol and Chisel's "Khe Sanh", even though most of us hate it.

if you want to see my guilty pleasures, come to the Laundry on wednesday nights - Extreme Karaoke!

What?! What's so guilty about liking ABBA's music? You should be ashamed of yourselves if you think ABBA is a guilty pleasure. The rich harmonies, the joyful singing, I could go on forever.

Without a song or a dance what are we?

I like some of today's modern pop music. I'm talking Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears' latest album, Madonna's Ray of Light album, some Kylie Minogue, NSYNC's track "Pop", Nelly Furtado, and more generally pop stuff that's heavily electronic and well-produced.

I think that Christina Augilera is a way better than Avril although she doesn't play rock music...

What is "terrorcore" ?
BTW: Seriously, I really enjoy some of black metal eg. Emperor, Dark Funeral, Dodheimsgard, Marduk, Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, Dissection, ...
But their image is very funny!

How you can call eg. Carcass shit? WTF?
Yeah, seriously I really enjoy the bands like General Surgery, Regurgitate, Aborted, etc.

For me Aborted are not a guilty pleasure but one of my fave bands, check-out their previous album "Engineering the Dead" !!!

Yeah, I like him too! There are so many artists a way worse...

Yeah, I like her too! ...and her husband Mutt Lange produced "Back In Black" by AC/DC and "Pyromania" & "Hysteria" by Def Leppard!

Indeed, I like some of the mainsteram pop, I can confirm some of your choices (Gwen Stefani, some Britney Spears, some Madonna, some Kylie Minogue, some N*SYNC) but definately not Nelly!
And I'll add my favourites: some Robbie Williams, J-Lo, Destiny's Child, Anastacia (I love you!), some BackStreet Boys and many others that I forget...

No, not just "Nelly", there's another artist by the name of Nelly Furtado. She's Canadian, and rather well-known here. I'm not sure if you were confusing the two or not though.

I'm not confusing them because I know both, Nelly (the rapper) and also Nelly Furtado (the singer who IMHO can't sing ). They both suck IMO...

Nelly Furtado is great.

I like JPop way too much. But then again, I'm a Japanese speaker so I guess it's not so weird. But it's such happy upbeat stuff most of the time I can't resist it

Genrally, this type of music represents a lot of heavy noise, and the mainstream "way of good music" dont like, so I call them shit in this manner...

But Dimmu Borgir is one of my favorite bands, and I went to their show and almost lost my ears. Perfect.

I listen to Incubus on occasion, its my guilty pleasure.

This is something that's difficumt to admit, but I can't help it.

A friend lent me a Powerpuff Girls CD titled "The Day is Saved." At first, I was only hooked to "Can't Get You Out of my Head," but as time passed, I found myself hooked to almost all of the songs, even "Oops! I Did It Again/Stronger."

I've borrowed it again yesterday. I can't help listening to it....

For me, Howard Jones.

There, it's out there.

The odd Thompson Twins tune can also still make me tap my feet...

I'm obviously starting to show my age.

hmm... I wouldn't say that any music I listen to is crap. otherwise I wouldn't listen to it hence, I'm not ashamed of something I listen to.
after all, no harm is done by listening to music, any kind of music. the only thing that makes one feel ashamed or guilty about it are other ppl disapproving this. I couldn't care less about it in this case.
there is really no need to feel guilty about listening to something the vast majority of ppl consider as useless crap that should be nuked to moon and never return. no need except for someone who heavily depends on other ppls ideas and don't have the inner strength to 'admit' his taste (not meaning to discredit anybody).
IMO, it's not arguable that some kind of music is more elaborate or sophisticated than others. but to be so bold as to decide what is crap and what is not is not an easy or very valid thing to do, if others take joy in something so simple and harmless as some kind of music. something like this is of course another thing (see the center of the post).

anyway, I listen to ABBA too occasionally. I think Benny and Björn have great skills in joining elements of traditional music and (at that time) newer pop music. and the ladies sing great. the musical is quite good show too

my most frowned upon deed surly is to listen to some of the so called schlager (German) and some NDW. I only like very few songs out of this niche though.
there is/was a whole lot of crap produced in that genre

The problem is when people associate the band's attitude with yours, specially when you have religious people. I do not feel ashamed to listen to black metal tunes, songs like "satan my master", but afraid that people may think I'm some kind of cruel satanist, and try to "exorcise" me. We're at 2005 and still some churchs see me as a "demon servant" because I listen to rock and all types of metal. Some young friends are prohibited to listen to some "heavy" tunes because a priest says to their mothers that's evil.

Dimebag Darrel is an example. Some journalists say that he was killed because of his lyrics, his position, and his attitudes toward shows and life.

Religion and faith are beautiful. The problem is the fanatism and the inability to tolerate differences.

i think what makes some stuff a guilty pleasure is that it very possibly says more about the kind of person you are than you'd like people to know.

sorta like in the schoolyard, if you liked anything other than Chisel and AC/DC you were a poof. to be honest, i only started diversifying my musical interests when i got out of highschool. that's pretty sad, but i'm sure it happens everywhere.

(btw, i never liked Chisel)

Digga: you're right about musical tastes being nothing to be ashamed of.

that said, i tend to raid op-shops and get all their $0.50 LPs of hammond tunes or other forgotten oddities. i swear, 45 mins of show tunes and movie themes played on hammond is unbelievably funny. best 50 cents i ever spent.