Last One on the Blog Train

We all have them. TV Shows, music artists, movies, hobbies; things that we really enjoy, but usually only behind closed doors when no one is paying attention.

I have a ton of them. I have an entire iPod playlist dedicated to musical ones, entitled "Shameless Shameful Pop." I was in college during the big pop music wave of the late 90's. Many an hour was wasted in my fraternity house debating the merits of Backstreet Boys vs. N'Sync or Brittany vs. Christina. But what it came down to, even as throwaway and uninspired that music was, it was always fun. Dance to it, drink to it, lip sync to it, sing it at the top of your lungs in the car - but you'd be hard up to find anyone between the ages of 15 and 40 these days that can't recall the lyrics to "....Baby One More Time" or "Genie in a Bottle."

Now the question I pose is this, if guilty pleasures are popular with ourselves (and sometimes extremely close friends) and we truly enjoy them - why do we always clam up when it comes to sticking up for the entertainment value of "Desperate Housewives" or even reruns of "Melrose Place?"

I think we'd be amazed (are you reading, FM radio? network television?) at what kind of creativity would come about if what was really popular became popular. Take Madonna's latest "Confessions on a Dance Floor." How is it that it has received little to no airplay, no video spins on MTV and has fallen into the middle to low positions on the Billboard charts - but then everyone can sing "Sorry" or "Hung Up?" It doesn't add up.

I think Apple is the Pied Piper of guilty pleasures. For just $.99 a song or $1.99 an episode, anyone can download and replay the guiltiest of their own desires. Fill up a Nano or your entire hard drive, and you'll never have to listen to the redundancy of FM radio or sit through commercials during old reruns ever again.

I guess it all boils down to our culture and what we portray ourselves as vs. who we truly are. Let me tell you, my real self is a lot more interesting than what I tend to throw out there for the public sometimes. But I'm learning to not censor myself as much anymore; learning to not sit in a room and take in what's being discussed without participating. What I have to say or do is important, because I own it....and all three N'Sync albums.