I've had a sweet tooth for just about as long as I can remember. It was almost expected that my mom would have something homemade and delicious for us to have as dessert each night after supper. Clearly all of those sweets have caught up with me, but I don't really blame anyone for it. Things were just different back then. It's not that self control didn't exist, but I think moderation was normalized and all of the excess we see today wasn't as prevalent.
I'm actually able to control my urges a bit more these days than I did in the past. That being said, there are often occasions where that primal nature wins out and guilty pleasures must be indulged in. The birthday cake above from earlier in the year is a perfect example. I mean, it was my birthday, it would be rude to decline right?
It was delicious by the way.
Crypto is kind of the same way, with all of the BTC maximalists out there, many would consider the HIVE token to be guilty pleasure. It's another one I think we can all agree is worth indulging in!
Since I started collecting silver and gold (okay just silver so far), I have seen a fair number of pieces that have nudged my self control out of the way a bit. It's not enough that I have actually made the purchase, but man do I really want to. Take the Gold Tudor Dragon round above. Now that is guilty pleasure I would love to indulge in. Costly, but so cool looking, am I right?! KZoo Bullion knows just the right buttons to push!
Music can be the same way. I think we all have those songs or artists that would earn us a pretty good ribbing if our friends found out we listened to or even loved them, but we listen anyway. Loud and proud, because our guilty pleasures are our own, just as sure as they have guilty pleasures themselves.
Obviously, for this #threetunetuesday post sponsored by @ablaze I'm sharing some of my guilty pleasure songs. I make zero apologies for any of the songs are artists you are about to listen to. These guilty pleasures are my own, I hold them high like a trophy.
While I had heard the name Chappell Road kicked around here and there, I had never bothered to listen to any of her stuff. To be honest, the snippets I saw here and there seemed like it might be a bit too out there for me. I'm not saying I like all of her stuff, but when Red Wine Supernova came on after my millionth listen of Taylor Swift's Tortured Poet's Department was finished, I was digging what I was hearing.
I was talking to my niece about Chappell a while later and she admitted that she wasn't much of a fan. She said she had some friends who really liked her music, but personally she couldn't really "connect" with any of the songs. I can respect that. As a straight female teen it might be hard to connect with lyrics from a openly lesbian singer. Though I never let that bother me when I was listening to The Indigo Girls, so the fact that I like Chappell doesn't surprise me.
Red Wine Supernova might have some crazy darker meaning that I will never comprehend. I'm cool with that, I think it's a fun upbeat bop that gets me moving when I have been stuck in my office chair for too long.
I do find it interesting that all of my guilty pleasures this week are female artists. There's a good chance if I thought about it really hard, I would be hard pressed to think of a male artist that is a guilty pleasure for me. Perhaps it's because I'm a guy, so it isn't manly to enjoy teen pop. You never saw any girls catching flack for liking New Kids On The Block, N,Sync, The Backstreet Boys, or One Direction. Well maybe we did, I just didn't pay as much attention to it.
Ke$ha for sure is another one of my guilty pleasures. I remember when she first came on the scene, I wasn't sure what to think and then she grew on me to the point where I really enjoy most of her music. To be honest, I haven't listened to much of her newer stuff but when a song like Blow or Tik Tok comes on I can probably sing all the lyrics along with it.
I think she really turned the corner with the song Praying and proved to a lot of people that she is more than just the saccharine auto tune that a lot of people thought she was.
Note to self: I need to check out some of Ke$has newer stuff later this week.
I could have went a million different ways with this last one. I've never been one to hide the fact that I love Taylor Swift. I think her overall global popularity with a wide range of fans negates her from being a guilty pleasure anyway. I thought about Kelly Clarkson, and while her beginnings may give people pause, the fact that she can sing with the best of them more than makes up for any chuckles others might have at the mention of her name (aside from that scene from The 40 Year Old Virgin). You wouldn't expect anyone to be embarrassed about liking Whitney Houston would you?
I think eventually Kelly will be at that level, so I am leaving her off the list for now.
Enya though, she definitely fits here. Long before her music was co-opted for The Lord of the Rings movies and introduced to a new generation of fantasy loving nerds, there was the song Orinoco Flow that was used for an Ocean Spray commercial or something like that. I honestly don't remember now.
What I'm saying is, I was a fan of Enya long before "Only Time" became the huge hit(?) that it is. There's something about Enya's music that is light, airy, and intense all that the same time. Similar to Lana Del Rey, it is a whole mood for me.
Like lights off rainy Monday leave me the eff alone in my office kind of mood. Thankfully, I haven't had much reason to resort to some Enya lately, but she remains one of my guilty pleasures nonetheless.
What about you? Do you have any guilty pleasures you are brave enough to share with the rest of us?
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