Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Guilty Pleasures

You know you have one...
So, everyone knows that, as far as music goes, they have some sort of guilty pleasure that they like listening too.  I, myself, have multiple.  You know, its that band/ singer/ rapper that you always make fun of, but you actually like listening to their music because... well, its fun.  This is a huge confession for me, so here we go.  I'll list three guilty pleasure in particular: one singer, one band, and one rapper.  Lets start off with my earliest guilty please that came when I was in the 4th grade, Britney Spears.  Ugh, I even feel bad about typing that out, it just doesn't feel right!  I feel so dirty.  Anyway, moving along, I first was drawn to Britney Spears, as most prepubescent boys were, after she released her "Baby One More Time" video. 
Seriously, how can a twelve year old resist that?  Man, did she look good when she wasn't crazy and was a virgin... well, that last point is up for debate.  This guilty pleasure with Britney only got worse when she actually decided to "embrace" her sexuality and womanly body with singles such as "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Toxic" (I still listen to "Toxic" from time to time).  As if things weren't bad enough for my now early teenage mind, she had to go out onto the MTV Music Video Awards wearing next to nothing performing, of course, "Oops, I Did It Again."  Stuff like this just wasn't fair.  Did I mention a few years later she made out with Madonna live?  In addition, it didn't help that watching her music videos to see her shake around got her songs stuck in my head.  Thankfully, Britney went crazy and let herself go, also freeing me from her trance.  Plus, I've found a better substitute for her anyway, Beyonce.  Now she's classy.

Now, you may be thinking, "WOAH!  Hugh's music credibility totally just went out the window!"  Well, let me show you just how far out the window my credibility is going.  The band: Fall Out Boy.  Now that you've taken a minute to throw up and clean yourself off, let me continue.  I don't listen to them as much (not that I listen to Britney very frequently), but I used to be pretty into them... well, as much as a high school sophomore can be into bad music.  Fall Out Boy has to quite possibly be one of the most annoying bands in the world.  They sound pretty terrible and their song names are obnoxiously long.  They later realized that and tried to make them shorter, however, not in that simple way which uses less words.  No, not for Fall Out Boy.  They decided to uses less vowels, seven less to be exact.  "Thks Fr Th Mmrs" is quite possibly the stupidest song title I have ever heard.  I guess I wouldn't necessarily call Fall Out Boy a guilty pleasure... they're more like a person I really regret dating.  You know, the one with the hump and the lazy eye that you met online and then saw them at Starbucks, thought they looked good, but that was only because you were blinded by the sun coming in from the window behind them,  and agreed to see them again only to later discover that they had a mustache?  No?  Well... that's Fall Out Boy.

I really think for the last guilty pleasure I could list an endless amount of people.  Lil Wayne is pretty terrible, but actually isn't bad half the time and has some pretty heartfelt songs (this is not including his recent travesty "Rebirth," which is quite possibly already the worst album of the year).  I thought it could be The New Boyz because theur hit single right now is pretty sub-par, but the rest of their album is actually really solid and pretty funny at times.  I could say Ludacris, but to his credit, he's actually really good even though he's pretty mainstream.  I could say Lil Jon, but everyone knows I can't say that.  Hmmm... well, I guess I'll just have to settle with, get ready for this, the Ying Yang Twins.  I only have a few of their songs, yes, but when they come on, I'm diggin' it.  Anybody who can come up with lyrical genius such as "Boom!  Its on! Bitch n***** we'll rock your dome!" or a chorus that consists of "beat the pussy up" is definitely a guilty pleasure in my book.  The Ying Yang Twins really got their start from doing "Get Low" with Lil Jon.  After that, they didn't do much... well, except for host an episode of Cribs.  
Probably THE worst thing they do is this honking noise.  The only way I can describe it is a goose honking, no joke.  Also, this picture shows what they look like when they make the noise.  Here's an example of it at the start of their song "Salt Shaker."  The only thing that saves this song is Lil Jon being misogynistic.  Oh, Lil Jon.

EDIT: I just stumbled upon this and I have to share it with you.  This may be my new favorite song. 

Just so I can redeem myself a bit, I want to toss out a bit of "good stuff" I've been listening to lately.  The Gorillaz's "Plastic Beach" is a great album, and I would highly recommend it.  They've really moved towards a more hip-hop feel which "A" Class names guest starring on the album, Snoop Dogg and Mos Def among them.   The New Boyz's album "Skinny Jeans & A Mic" is surprisingly fun and entertaining (they sound a lot like the Midwest hip-hop group The Cool Kids, actually referencing them in their song "Colorz"). 

Things I'm about to listen to are Usher's new album "Raymond v. Raymond" and Titus Andronicus' "The Monitor."  I'll update you with those as soon as I can.

So, what's your guilty pleasure?