There's not much in music I feel guilty about liking. I like quite a bit in the mainstream, but I only feel guilty about a few artists. I am proud of my taste.

Here are some of my guilty pleasures:

Shania Twain and some other mainstream country
Stella Soleil
Phil Collins
Rachel Farris
Britney's "Baby One More Time"
BBMak

In the end, there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. If you like it, who gives a crap what other people think? And if your entire collection is socially acceptable to a certain group of people which controls your definition of what is "cool", that is unfortunate.

Given those parameters, the albums I like which would be considered "uncool" by the people I run with would be (but I, of course, don't give a crap):

Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast
Adventure of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert Soundtrack
Kiss: Double Platinum
Avril Lavigne - First Album
(and many more I can't think of at the moment)

My guilty pleasure??
...I actually have a vinyl picture disc with various mixes of tracks by Mel & Kim!! (remember them?)
A rather "Respectable" album it surely is!

One of my favorite topics. Thanks, Matt!

I would absolutely agree that what defines a guilty pleasure is the fact that it would be considered "uncool" by the crowd your run around with. A guilty pleasure is only fun if you're a bit embarassed cranking it up, even when nobody is around or, better still, you are embarrased enough buying the disc that you go somewhere other than your usual record store or go on-line to buy it (I've done both).

That being said...

The Electric Light Orchestra
Now, I would argue that there's some quality music in the catalog and think _Eldorado_ is a pretty great album, but folks I actually LIKE the album _Time_ and if that wildly overblown bit of excess isn't a guilty pleasure I don't know what is.

Rush
In 1980-81 I thought Canada's favorite power trio was the deepest thing in the world. I mean, are you kidding? Their lyrics are taken from Samuel Coolridge. SAMUEL COOLRIDGE! They're silly and pretentious, but I have to confess that a few years ago on a light night drive across Illinois a little FM station played the first side of _2112_ and was rockin' out.

Meat Loaf _Bat Out of Hell_
I guess the common theme among my guilty pleasures is over-the-top content and production and it doesn't get much further over the top than Jim Steinman. Hell, I still can't resist Bonnie Taylor's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" for the same reason. Given half a chance, Jim Steinman would have tried to make Tiny Tim sound like Pavarotti.

Now Playing: "The Rake's Progress" The Honeydogs _10,000 Years_ (Tinderbox) - Thanks, PE.

I think Natalie Imbruglia has a bunch of really terrific songs. I also like the first Dido album a whole lot. I feel pretty bad about both.

All of Kylie Minogue - Fever is great. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" is actually the weakest song on the album.

LinnTate - I'm glad you like the topic! I agree with you about what guilty pleasures really are, and you made me feel better about even these choices.

Anyway, here is why I listed what I did:

Shania Twain and other mainstream country: not deep, but she and Tim McGraw can definitely be fun

Stella Soleil: see above

Phil Collins: sappy, but at least he's earnest, unlike recent Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, and Michael Bolton. Also, there's craft in his songs instead of just bland strings or piano.

Rachel Farris: it's her extremely girlish voice - but she is a good writer, plays instruments, and has a good sense of melody.

Britney's "Baby One More Time": I think this must be one of the best pop songs - too bad she hasn't reached this level again. Some songs were attempts, but were copycats.

BBMak: good bubblegum, like the Monkees were.

absolutely no one should be ashamed of Natalie Imbruglia, "White Lilies Island" was utter brilliance.

The Darkness- i never considered them metal, but, to me, theyre damn cool.

Jet- Jet isnt one of my favorites. I just like them enough that I -cough- downloaded -cough- theyre album.

Rednex's "Cotton Eye Joe"- I dont like this as much as I just cant get it out of my damn head.

Wierd Al- I own every one of his CDs. THERE I SAID IT!

=)

Lisa Loeb, Shakira, and Macy Gray...

Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast and Macy Gray are not things to be considered guilty pleasures! Number is one of the best metal albums ever recorded and Macy Gray is an excellent artist! The Darkness, Kylie Minogue, Jet, Shania, ELO, Avril, BB Mak, now those are guilty pleasures! For myself I would agree with some of the above as well as say the Hawd Gankstuh Rappuh Emcees Wid Ghatz! They never fail to make me feel like an ignorant 12 yr old discovering something "naughty". At least they're funnier than ICP(who people should really feel guilty about listening to)!

Well, I love Avril and like Kylie Minogue (especially the album Fever,) but I don't consider them guilty pleasures. I think one is good pop/rock, and the other is good dance.

I think Bread is a guilty pleasure, as are certain tracks by Little River Band and Air Supply. I've been known to sing them at drunken bowling kareoke. Soft rock or lite rock (or "crap rock" as Homer Simpson defined it) fit that bill. But some of the stuff you guys have mentioned is stuff I like, too:

I like the Darkness. Jet are a super nice bunch of guys (didja know they started out as a You Am I cover band? Do you care?) and fun as hell to drink with.

I love ELO. I like some BBMAk songs. I used to see Hootie and the Blowfish playing frat parties as a cover band back in Georgia, long before they sold 13 million records, so I can call them a guilty pleasure, although I haven't liked anything they've done since the first record (which was songs they had been playing since the cover band days).

Another Atlanta guilty pleasure: Evan and Jaron's "Crazy for the Girl."

I really like Natalie Imbruglia and Lisa Loeb. I was actually unable to speak very clearly when I met the former. The latter was so cute in person, I wanted to put her in my pocket and take her home.

+ Guilty Pleasures? Yow! Oh well, lately it goes:

Marillion : Clutching At Straws
Maroon 5 : Songs About Jane
Bad Company : Bad Company
Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Time Warp - The Very Best of

What am i talking about? More than half my CD collection is 'guilty pleasures' as I've been buying music for 35 years some of it seems so out of date now, (dancing elves, boogie jams, prog rock, etc. etc) but I still dig it. I gave up a long time ago trying to impress and to remain true to myself. I mean I bought the Abba Gold for my wife and kids! (But we all love the Shins so go figure)

I still love to hear some of the pop stuff from the 80's like Cindi Lauper, and although I don't consider them a guilty pleasure, Oasis is still one of my favorite bands.

Over the years now, I would have to say that my guilty pleasure is AC/DC. I also saw them in concert when I was in college on the "Back In Black" tour (so now you know my age).

I still think "Thunderstruck" is a phenomenal song. And a few years ago, when the song "Stiff Upper Lip" came out, I was embarrassed by how much I liked it.

Also, did you see that the group gets lots of mention in "School of Rock"? During the closing credits, the kids and Jack Black are singing to, "It's a Long Way, To the Top, if you Wanna Rock'n Roll"

These days my guilty pleasures consist of:
Jack Johnson
"Brushfire Fairytales" and "On and On" are full of great songs with catchy lyrics and cool guitar riffs. He is underrated as a songwriter.

Marilyn Manson
While I'll confess to owning and loving all of his CDs, "Mechanical Animals" is particularly good. The songs are interesting and the guitar is heavy. It's only too bad that MM's music is overshadowed by his image. I think the cover of this CD is one of the worst album covers ever. MM is a thin, pure white, androgynous "being." It's a great record though!

Hmm..I don't think the topic I created was the same thing is this. "Guilty pleasures" is for albums you like that are uncool to like such as Alanis Morissette. Whereas "Bad albums you like anyway" is generally for albums you like for reasons other than musical value. Like..enjoying it for factors external to it's musical merits.

*shrug* Whatever...

To answer RavingLunatic's question, I don't mean albums that got bad reviews. Beatles got bad reviews at first. I mean albums that, if you judged them strictly based on the musical merit, you'd come to the conclusion that they weren't good albums.

Which Beatles albums got bad reviews? I musta Rip Van Winkled those.

I was under the impression that the Beatles didn't get critical attention till 1964 or so. If I'm wrong, then..well, Zep definetely got bad reviews at first.