My Guilty Music Pleasures

As of this writing, there are 59,865 members here at Active Rain. To give you a sense of how many people that represents, the Indianapolis Colts' RCA Dome stadium holds 60,272 ticket holders. With that in mind, this post is sort of like stepping out to the middle of the field to proclaim my love for certain music that can definitely be considered...questionable. I don't know how many AR members actively read, post and comment here, but the potential exists for roughly 60,000 people to shun me after they read this one.

If you haven't already seen it in my blog or one of the groups, our Inspired by Song! Group is starting its December contest very soon. You can check out my earlier post for details: Inspired By Song! December Contest Announcement.

This month's contest is "My Guilty Music Pleasures". So, without further ado (and I was really trying to delay this as long as possible), here are some tunes that I would put in my personal catalogue of Guilty Pleasures:

Air Supply - I couldn't pick just one song by this late 70's/early 80's Australian juggernaut band. I used to sit for hours on end listening to their greatest hits album (yes, it was a vinyl album back then) when I was a kid. However, I can't use the nostalgia excuse here because I still sincerely enjoy these songs. Here are several that I continue to unashamedly sing along to whenever I hear them:

"Lost in Love" - This has to be among the worst videos that I have seen during my "research" for this post. The band is apparently floating through various galaxies and nebulae in order to express how lost they really are:

"Every Woman in the World", "The One that You Love", "All Out of Love", "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" would also be included in my pantheon of guilt. You can click on any of the above links to enjoy these stellar videos. I just noticed how much the blond singer guy looks like Jeff Daniels in that last video.

"Manic Monday" by the Bangles - I debated over whether to include this one, but then my wife reminded me that Susanna Hoffs sings the following line in this song:

Six o'clock already? I was just in the middle of a dream

I was kissing Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream

I guess it qualifies now, huh? I will even go so far as to admit that I am excited when I hear this song. The opening piano is awesome, and something about this song resounds with me, even today. I'm not sure if knowing that it was written by Prince and offered to Ms. Hoffs in an effort to "court" her makes it better or worse that I like it.

Let's face it - disco was an unusual period in musical history. The Bee Gees have enjoyed a revival of sorts, so I don't think that they necessarily qualify as a guilty pleasure for me anymore. If they did, I would include "More than a Woman". Instead, I wanted to share a far more embarrassing tune by Alicia Bridges - "I Love the Nightlife". Something about her exuberance and the fact that (I think) this was a one-hit wonder makes it special. I mainly enjoy the chorus. With this particular one, the video in the link I provided is actually making me reconsider this one somewhat.

I used to be a huge Michael Jackson fan back when "Thriller" came out. I don't think anyone should feel guilty for enjoying that particular album, since it sold a bajillion copies worldwide. One of my favorite writers is Chuck Klosterman, who wrote "Fargo Rock City", and who has a regular column in Esquire magazine. He wrote about "Thriller" in his latest book, and he pointed out that it was produced by Quincy Jones (cool), and that it included guitar work from Eddie Van Halen (super cool, especially back then).

Additionally, some (but not all) of Jackson's later work was good,too, including "Man in the Mirror", which my late father actually credited with helping him to finally stop drinking for the last 11 years of his life when he was involved in AA.

Now that we have covered that ground, I would like to give you my final song for this post. This song may honestly cut my subscriber base in half, and even my closest friends here at AR will likely not speak with me again, at least for awhile. Michael Jackson's ode to a beloved pet rat, "Ben", is my final guilty pleasure. Even though I know the subject matter is terrible, I always feel a swell of emotion with this song. Enjoy:

So, I have to admit that this list was pretty rough for me to publish. If you are entering the contest, you can use this post as inspiration (although that's probably not quite the right word in this case). I would imagine that you can see the types of entries that we are hoping for here, especially if you have a chance to read Adam Waldman's post and Paul Slaybaugh's as well.

1000 big bonus points hang in the balance here, and as a judge, I hope to see some great posts this month. It should be tons of fun! Thanks for reading!

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