What I Listen To When I’m Alone

Okay, so first things first, I’d like to get this straight: I really, really hate Lana Del Ray. I suppose I can’t say I hate her as a person, because that would be wrong. As an artist, however, I hate her with a little more aggression than I feel necessary but I can’t help it. She is just so whiney and ditzy, and none of her song lyrics make any real sense. That being said, I really, really love this cover of her song “Summertime Sadness” by Miley Cyrus. I don’t even care that the lyrics don’t make much sense because Miley’s voice sounds so good. Now, a lot of my friends would probably make fun of me for that. “Oh, you listen to Miley Cyrus? Ha.” This song is my ultimate guilty pleasure because everyone knows I hate Lana, and would laugh at me if they knew I liked listening to Miley. I don’t really condone all of the ludicrous publicity stunts she has been up to recently, but as an artist I really have a lot of respect for her.

I like the instrumentation in this version better than Lana’s version because it is just a basic acoustic guitar with strong vocals. I really enjoy this song because it’s sort of calming to me with its soft tempo. I like to listen to it through headphones mainly when I am studying or reading, or in the car when I’m driving longer than 20 minutes and I’m by myself. Another confession I have is that I like to sing along with this song very loudly when I am by myself. Needless to say, this song qualifies as a guilty pleasure for me in more ways than one.

I Don’t Feel That Guilty…Maybe Naughty?

It was really hard for me to pick a song that I would consider a guilty pleasure because I have very diverse taste in music and generally don’t care what people think of my music choices. I feel like in order for a song to be a “guilty pleasure” you have to feel guilty about it. The closest that I can think of is Framing Hanley’s rendition of “lollipop” originally by Lil Wayne. I can’t really stand Lil Wayne. His lyrics are obnoxious and the timbre of his voice is tantamount to listening to a yippy dog bark. It’s just annoying and unpleasant. Although this version of the song has pretty much the same lyrics I can’t help but jam to it. The rhythm of the guitars makes me want to move (rather than turn off the stereo like Wayne’s version), and the timbre of the singer’s voice is smooth and melodic. Listening to this version of the song feels like being seduced by the music, whereas Lil Wayne’s version feels like arrogant bragging. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy some rap, I do, just not his. I like the part where they are repeating the refrain “call me so I can get it juicy for you” because it builds into a crescendo that builds up excitement. I wouldn’t listen to this song if I was in a reflective mood, but rather if I wanted to forget about the shallow lyrics and just jam. I enjoy dancing to this song, because I forget the words and just let my body be moved by the rhythm. It’s harder to let go like that if I’m busy internally analyzing lyrics. It still lacks lyrical depth, because it’s still the same words, but I just can’t help myself…shorty want a thug who sings alternative rock. (Ugh I can’t believe I just referred to myself as shorty…)

THIS SONG MAKES ME FEEL BEAUTIFUL.

My guilty pleasure song is “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction. It’s overplayed, corny, and not particularly groundbreaking. I scoffed at the incredibly obsessive fans of One Direction and Justin Bieber, as I believed I was a more sophisticated, mature individual. “Haha, those nerds,” I would laugh to myself, “Look at how the slobber all over any crooning male.” Yet, when I first heard this song, I could not help but join into the gaggle of singing pre-teens. I thought I would tire of hearing this song every 30 or so minutes, and that I would be freed from the grasp of this pop mega-hit, but I still continue to jam out to this song often.

Overall, I think that my addiction to this guilty pleasure draws from the sentimentality of singing this song in the car at the top of my lungs with my girlfriends. There’s nothing quite like five or so girls screaming at the top of their lungs, “Baby you light up my world like nobody else/ The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed/ But when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell/ You don’t know (oh oh)/ You don’t know your beautiful.” Also, the combination of that simple guitar riff, steady beat, and the sweet voices of 16 year old boys serenading you is pop gold. The chorus is infectious and has a way of getting stuck in your head for hours (a common trait of many of the most-hated songs on this blog.) The lyrics are encouraging–somewhat. The music video makes me rethink the sincerity of the song as beautiful model types stroll on the beach, all gussied up in slow-motion. But honestly, when this song comes on, I just like thinking, “Yeah I agree with you One Direction, that IS what makes me beautiful!” However, a recent sketch on Inside Amy Schumer has made me question my “guilty pleasure” song, as I feel like the reaction of a boy band in their serenade to me, would be very similar to this one.

Post 4: Obsessed

My best friends and I have an entire 84-song “Guilty Pleasure Playlist” on Spotify so it wasn’t difficult to pick one of the many songs we secretly love but feel like we shouldn’t. But one of my favorites and most guilty of them all is “Obsessed” by Mariah Carey. I have to admit I wasn’t an active member of the Mariah Carey era; whether that was because I was too young or I just didn’t pay attention to her, I didn’t really discover this song until three years ago. Something just really drew me to it and caused me to play it on repeat for quite a while. I suppose it qualifies as a guilty pleasure song because I would never play it around someone I wanted to think I had good taste in music. Sure, it’s a fun song that I would gladly play in front of my close friends, but Mariah Carey is so far out of my usual taste in music that it makes this song a guilty pleasure. Her pop/soul sounding music is usually hard for me to appreciate, and the lyrical complexity of the song is nothing to be proud of. To begin, the very first line sounds like something a horrible, cruel teenage girl would say to some poor boy in middle school: “I was like, why you so obsessed with me?”

First off, there are clear grammatical issues in the sentence, which add to the extremely immature, self-obsessed nature of the question. I feel guilty listening to this song because it feels like I am adopting the same cocky attitude as Mariah Carey. Carey’s voice is highly auto-tuned in the song, which naturally makes me feel as though it has a lower quality than songs with natural vocals. I think this is mainly due to the negative reception of auto-tuning as early as 2009.

However, I am very drawn to this song. As soon as the hand clapping starts abruptly and Carey starts singing “So, oh, oh oh oh,” I am hooked. Her voice is melodic and the thumping bass in the background creates a beat that I can’t NOT want to dance to. Her voice sounds so feminine and sexy to me, when I sing it myself I take on the same persona. Singing this song is about as close to light rap/R&B that I will ever be able to sing, and it makes me feel cool and suave to sing along.

Oops!…I Did It Again

My guilty pleasure song is “Oops!…I Did It Again” by Britney Spears. Whenever I hear this song I’m jamming out. This song is catchy and fun to sing and dance to. When I was in high school, my sister and I make “music videos” to different songs when we were bored; this was one of them. The lyrics “oops, I did it again” refers to a girl accidently making a boy fall in love with her. She makes the guy think that they’re “more than just friends”. Besides the lyrics, this song’s upbeat tempo makes it catchy. The music video was this song takes place in Mars. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the music video, but I still love the song. Britney Spears wears an orange jump and her back up dancers wear silver jumpsuits. They dance (the dance moves are hilarious) and Spears does some “flips”; I laugh every time I watch it. The lyrics “I’m not that innocent” stand out to me. These lyrics give the impression that there’s a secretive bad side to the girl. Moreover, there’s a side to the girl that the boy doesn’t know about. The middle of the song has a speaking part where the guy gives the girl a present before they part ways. Spears merely replies to the gift not with a thank you, but with a “oh, you shouldn’t have”. I think this line shows how the girl led on the guy and ended up leaving him with a broken heart.

Overall, this is classic throwback song. This teen pop song was a sensation for many of Britney Spears’ fans. This song makes me feel confident and free. Whenever I listen to this song, I think about driving with my friends in the car, windows rolled down, and the music blasted.

Blog Post 4

My guilty pleasure song is “How to Save a Life” by The Fray. I chose this song because it has certainly been overplayed. Not so much anymore, but following the first few years it came out it was hard to find a radio station that had not played it at some point every day. I am a fan of The Fray and it seems to be hard to find fans right now. I do not know if this is because I am not looking hard enough but that’s just what I have observed. Many people I know specifically do not like “How to Save a Life.” Usually stating that they do not like how often it was played, or that they just do not like The Fray.

This a one of my favorite songs to sing along to. I know every lyric, and I love the message. It is about one friend trying to save the life of another friend. This really speaks to me because I recently lost a good friend so I can understand what the singer of the song is going through. The kick up in intensity felt towards the last few times the chorus is sung is also incredible. I particularly enjoy the last verse as well.

He will do one of two things

He will admit to everything

Or he’ll say he’s just not the same

And you’ll begin to wonder why you came

Another reason I think of this as a guilty pleasure song is because of the strong piano playing the entire length of the song. I was forced to play piano as a child and always hated it, but I absolutely love hearing it played well. Many songs do not seem to feature a piano anymore, and most people I know do not think twice about it.

Guilty pleasure! (Blog Entry 4)

In contrast with our last post… strike that, reverse it. Guilty pleasure!

Don’t be shy… you can admit it. That one song that you LOVE, even though you perhaps feel that you shouldn’t (because… it’s overplayed, it’s corny, it breaks with your usual music taste, it’s a “bad” song, etc.).

As you’re finishing up our required reading (This is Your Brain on Music) this week on music and the brain, hopefully by now you’re getting to where Levitin discusses musical preference (Ch. 8). Keep these ideas in mind as you write!

Give the title and the artist, and explain why this song qualifies as a guilty pleasure for you. Help us understand what “rule” you’re breaking by liking this song!

Justify yourself–explain why you like the song. What are its redeeming qualities? Does it have sincere lyrics, or is the instrumentation surprising or impressive in some way? Or, what are the personal circumstances that allow you to adore this song unabashedly? Put us in your shoes, and hopefully we’ll end up seeing this song in a whole new way!

As you comment on your peers’ posts, consider both their choice (do you agree with them?) as well as their argument (can you understand where they’re coming from?). Have fun!

[Pure sentimentality makes me pick Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way.” It’s a much longer story as to how anyone could be sentimental about this song, but mine has to do with highly sarcastic over-the-top karaoke and impromptu interpretive dance with friends I’ve had since childhood.]