Written by Hannah Jones
Photos from Wikimedia Commons
Musicians like Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, and BBMak used to be all the rage. They were all over the radio and MTV back when they played music. Over the years, their glitzy 90s teenybopper pop became too much for many people to handle. It’s considered cheesy and shallow, but oh, how catchy, right?
Guilty pleasure music isn’t always held in the highest of regards. So many people are more than happy to whip out their iPod and scroll through the list of hundreds of bands and thousands of songs. They’re proud of their classic rock ‘n’ roll and the small indie bands no one has ever heard of. But what about the ones they don’t really want to share? What about the old school ‘N Sync? Or One Direction, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber? These bands tend to be hidden in Spotify playlists or tucked away in secret files. God forbid “Cry Me a River” accidentally plays the second a laptop opens.
Personally, I have a number of these bands in my library and I’ve come to realize that I no longer like to call them guilty pleasures. I can belt out most One Direction songs without a second thought and I don’t feel the least bit guilty. I still know the words to Avril Lavigne’s angsty teenage songs.
Someone once said (or wrote on the Internet somewhere) that you don’t have to like the artist to like his or her music. This was life changing. Unfortunately, though, I used to be the biggest music snob. I, like so many other people, let the persona of the artist influence whether I actually listened to their music. So, of course, the range of music I listened to was pretty small.
I was alternative. I was punk. I was metal, screamo, rock, singer-songwriter, indie, and emo. But pop? No. Country? Definitely not. Coming to college, though, has opened my eyes to all sorts of genres of music. I’m no longer the music taste bully. Everything is out on the same table.
There’s definitely music out there with a bit more depth than others, but depth or the lack thereof shouldn’t dictate what you listen to. I will never understand why there is such a hierarchy when it comes to music. Who was the one that decided liking Miley Cyrus was embarrassing? Sure, her behavior lately has been a bit odd, but what does that have to do with the actual music she makes? If you like Cyrus’ husky drawl and catchy lyrics, then own it, don’t hide it.