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Posts tagged "guilty pleasures"
Over at Forbes, Michele Catalano writes about liking pop music:
The defenders of pop – myself included – are often put on the defensive, made to offer up excuses as to why we like what we do. No one should have to defend their musical choices. No artist who worked hard to get where they are should be roundly dismissed because their music doesn’t fit some elitist standard. No one should have to feel, like Grimes did, ashamed about what they like, ashamed enough to delete the evidence of their penchant for pop.
She also wrote a piece about “guilty pleasures”:
I don’t like the phrase guilty pleasure. It implies that you should feel guilty, shamed or embarrassed for liking something that brings you joy. No song that gives you pleasure should also give you a sense of guilt. Own what you like, revel in it. If it makes you feel good – and pop hits should make you feel good – don’t let that be a burden to you.
cf: Dave Grohl and Alan Jacobs: “Read at whim! Read what gives you delight—at least most of the time—and do so without shame.”
Filed under: guilty pleasures
I really liked Barker and Taylor’s Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music. The thesis of the book (which I happen to be very sympathetic to) is that the modern obsession with “keeping it real” has hurt both the creative work and careers of musicians, and has kept music fans from enjoying perfectly good music:
Is it possible to put authenticity to one side for a while? To refuse to accept that “authentic” is always morally better than “inauthentic”? If you get up, turn on the radio, and listen to some music you haven’t liked before because it struck you as “fake,” how do you feel now? Liberated? Bored? Scared? Maybe even entertained? Is it possible to just listen and react to it without worrying about why you do so? And if you are enjoying music that you would normally regard as fake, do you feel ashamed?
When we’re young, a large part of our original motivation in discovering music comes from trying to find out about our identity—perhaps to fit in, or, in contrast, to differentiate ourselves from the rest. The musical morality we adopt at an early age often becomes enshrined, making it hard to change our views later on. From this comes the notion of “guilty pleasures”—any music that we regard as inauthentic but still enjoy becomes a shameful secret, rather than something we can honestly admit to liking.1
The book runs just a little long and the book gets just a tad preachy at the end, but its mostly very thought-provoking: I especially liked the chapters on Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley, and Neil Young. (The authors kept a blog a few years ago when the book came out that’s fun to browse through.)
Lionel Trilling’s Sincerity and Authenticity on the other hand…well, I really liked this Oscar Wilde quote in it:
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Filed under: authenticity
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cf. Jonathan Lethem’s teenage “nerdish fever for authenticity.” and St. Vincent’s rejection of “guilty pleasures” ↩
(Source: instagr.am, via austinkleon)
