RE-EXAMINING THE GUILTY PLEASURE, VIA KESHA...
AUGUST 19, 2011
Village Voice:
In general conversation, the guilty pleasure is a simple enough concept: it describes something you might like but, well, feel guilty about liking, presumably because it isn’t otherwise up to your standards of taste. Over the past ten or so years, with pop critics taking traditional guilty-pleasure strongholds like teenpop and Southern rap more seriously, the concept itself was put to closer scrutiny. To summarize a decade of articles, blog posts and message board debates, the term “guilty pleasure” was revealed to conceal biases running along the lines of class, race, gender and age. Why should someone enjoy [choose your personal white/male/middle class fave] as a “serious” work of art, but listen to, say, the new Rick Ross or Britney Spears record only after using guilt to create some distance? And if pop music exists to bring you pleasure, why feel guilty about taking it?
This logic has its own assumptions, but it’s good enough to bring us up to around the time “Tik Tok” was racing up the charts. Initially, this was my line on Ke$ha—the beat knocks, the woman is a talented performer, why not just enjoy it?
READ FULL STORY:
link
AUGUST 19, 2011
Village Voice:
In general conversation, the guilty pleasure is a simple enough concept: it describes something you might like but, well, feel guilty about liking, presumably because it isn’t otherwise up to your standards of taste. Over the past ten or so years, with pop critics taking traditional guilty-pleasure strongholds like teenpop and Southern rap more seriously, the concept itself was put to closer scrutiny. To summarize a decade of articles, blog posts and message board debates, the term “guilty pleasure” was revealed to conceal biases running along the lines of class, race, gender and age. Why should someone enjoy [choose your personal white/male/middle class fave] as a “serious” work of art, but listen to, say, the new Rick Ross or Britney Spears record only after using guilt to create some distance? And if pop music exists to bring you pleasure, why feel guilty about taking it?
This logic has its own assumptions, but it’s good enough to bring us up to around the time “Tik Tok” was racing up the charts. Initially, this was my line on Ke$ha—the beat knocks, the woman is a talented performer, why not just enjoy it?
READ FULL STORY:
link
