Music I Love to Hate

I’ve been doing a lot of lists lately, probably because I can’t think of anything better to do.  What can I say, it’s not every day you get to go to a My Chemical Romance concert (read: my life is boring).  Anyway, I turned on KROQ this morning and got stuck listening to “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2.  U2 drives me so crazy that I actually enjoyed “LIfe is Beautiful” by Sixx AM, which came next.  That got me thinking about guilty pleasure music.  The kind of music I never admit to liking but secretly enjoy, cheesiness and all.  Here are some of my favorite songs to crank when no one else is around.

• “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn” by Hellogoodbye

Normally I avoid anything techno-related like the plague, but this song is ridiculously catchy.  It’s full of weird noises, like the one AIM used to make whenever you posted a comment.  It also has really random rhymes, like “I’m serious as a heart attack, I’m looking in my almanac”.  Um, ok then.

• “Livin’ the Dream” by You, Me and Everyone We Know

It bounces all over the place, and the singer seems to be caught between a quarter life crisis and a starry-eyed determination to be famous someday.  That might be the same thing, actually.

• “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey

Great for starting massive sing-alongs at a party.  Also great for belting out in the shower…moving on…It’s one of those songs that’s so corny it’s awesome.  It took me a long time to figure out the line “streetlights, people, up and down the boulevard”.  I kept trying to figure out what a streetlight person was.

• “November Rain” by Guns ‘N Roses

Axl’s voices is like cats and nails on a chalkboard, but the guitar solo is fantastic.  Slash is a genius.  The music video of this song is incredibly long and overdone, but then, that was the age of guys with tight pants and huge hair.

• “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi

The epitome of guilty pleasure songs, at least as far as hair metal is concerned.  I love the stomping beat and the sort-of macho lyrics.  It was a huge hit when I was in middle school, and I thought it was so rebellious.  Good times.

• “Come Back to Texas” by Bowling for Soup

Careful with these guys, they know how to write a song that will get stuck in your head for decades to come.  Granted it’s only been a few years, but I fully expect to be humming “there’s a seat for you at the rodeo and I’ve got every slow dance saved” well into my thirties.  Even so, I have to love a band that called their last album “The Great Burrito Extortion Case”.

So there it is, my list in all its cheeseball glory.  Oh the fabulous shame.