Embracing Guilty Pleasures
by Erin Christie
Harry Styles came out with a new single on October 11. It goes without saying that the collective Internet had all eyes turned toward the 24-year-old the moment “Lights Up” hit streaming services and its accompanying music video premiered on YouTube. With a Twitter storm of supporters in tow, it might appear to the naked eye as if liking the ex-boyband member is as accepted as liking jam on toast...but is that really the case?
We all have “guilty pleasures,” and that term applies to pretty much any form of art and media, including music. From a musical standpoint, we can turn on the “Private Session” tab on Spotify and listen to Justin Timberlake’s Justified (2002) as many times as we like (not that I have any personal experience with that). We can jam out to whatever “embarrassing” tracks or artists we’ve taken a liking to while we’re in the car, away from the judgment of our peers. We often take evasive measures so we can avoid scrutiny.
At the end of the day, though, why do we feel like we have to hide what we like if we like it?
As is the case with many artists, the more “Top 40” you become, the more likely it is that you’ll come under fire for “selling out” or becoming “too commercial”—here, the “guilty pleasure” factor oftentimes comes into play. When discussing one’s “guilty pleasure” artists, it’s likely that a lot of those are artists are in similar ranks as mega-stars such as Ariana Grande or Post Malone—the artists you might hear on the most popular radio station in your town. The more widely-liked something is, the more ashamed we feel. Is it because we don’t want to admit that we like something that everyone else also admittedly likes? Or is it more complex than that?
In any social climate, we have a desire to fit in, to feel like we belong without having to try too hard. In some cases, though, “fitting in” can mean compromising certain aspects of who we are—and in this case, what we like—so as to not become the “odd man out.” There’s a hive mentality to it: if everyone around us doesn’t particularly like a certain artist, admitting that you do like said artist would be “social suicide,” as an 80s cult classic character might say. Among the “indie” DIY crowd, for example, if you were to boast obsessing over something “basic” like Britney Spears, you might be unjustifiably judged. That’s exactly the problem: we should be able to enjoy whatever we do and feel accepted regardless (unless who we like is someone like Chris Brown, for example, and that should go without saying).
In another sense, a lot of our guilty pleasures come from the fact that we’ve simply grown up, and in so doing, changed our taste in music. For whatever reason, to fit into a certain predisposed mold that we’ve grown into, we’re eager to abandon any teenage “throwbacks” and radio hits that we can’t help but nod our heads to in favor of what’s “socially acceptable.” Undoubtedly, a handful of years into the future, you’re a different person than you were when you listened to whatever you did in middle school, but that doesn’t mean you don’t still have a soft spot for those artists and their songs.
For me, Fall Out Boy has been a major crutch—though I don’t necessarily love the direction they’ve gone in musically within the past few years, it’s undeniable that their early work was really important to me during my most formative years and essentially, helped shape me into the person I am today (both in terms of my love of music and writing). Pete Wentz, though an embarrassing nearly 40-year-old rock dad, was once someone I massively looked up to as a writer and musician, and even if I’m a little mortified at his antics in the current day, I can’t hide from the fact that I used to obsess over his every move as a pre-pubescent. Needless to say, whenever I hear any song from Infinity On High (2007), I feel like I’m going to lose my mind, and I shouldn’t feel like I have to hide that….but I do.
Generally, when discussing harmless guilty pleasures, the question arises: why are we so quick to pounce when people express interest in artists that don’t fit their M.O.?
If someone’s interests aren’t harming you or anyone else, what’s wrong with them vibing to Lil Nas X or shamelessly bumping the ‘Hannah Montana’ soundtrack?