[Tracks + Thoughts + Non-Guilty Pleasures] Ke$ha
Long ago, in Monkey Music Magazine, I wrote that I don’t believe in guilty pleasures; I reasoned that taste is taste and nobody should have to defend, or more importantly, be embarrassed by what they enjoy. In retrospect, this is utter crap. We all judge people based on their tastes, particularly with regards to culture and we all can’t help but fight the impulse to defend something we enjoy when it’s frowned upon.
Heavy D hates cilantro, the smell, the taste, everything about it. To me, cilantro isn’t an everyday herb, but I think it works well with the palate of certain spicy foods. We don’t come to blows over this, although I definitely slipped some cilantro in a few meals during college, only to have D sniff it out and refuse to eat the dish. Say what you want about Heavy D, but he’s got a hell of a nose on him. (High comedy, I know.)
With regards to culture, we defend our opinions and tastes with vigor. A friend emailed me after my review of Up in the Air went online yesterday asking if I was mental. My review is mainly positive, but I included a throwaway line that I didn’t think the film was Best Picture-worthy, due to its lightness and a few better movies this year (The Hurt Locker and Crazy Heart to name two). My friend responded incredulously, questioning my intelligence and qualifications to be reviewing movies (which I guess is fair enough…my only qualification is that I like watching movies). It was as though I was emailing back and forth with Jason Reitman’s mother with the way he was defending this film against every tin piece of criticism.
I’m digressing, but the general point is that people feel the need to defend whatever culture they adore and judge those who don’t have similar tastes. This impulse is particularly strong in Stephen Metcalf (whose pointed negative criticism of nearly everything topic of conversation on Slate’s Culture Gabfest is wildly enjoyable), my kid sister (who once came at me with fisticuffs while I was driving because I thought Robert Krulwich was funnier than Radiolab co-host Jad Abumrad) and, most relevant to esta página de web and this post, the culture of music writing and blogging online. On the internets, blind judgment is a way of survival. I don’t read one popular music blog anymore, in spite of all the great music posted there, because every time the primary proprietor types a post of more than 30 words I want to punch a wall. And I’m sure there are people who don’t check this site because we’re all over the place in the stuff that we post – one day it’s a guy in a cabin with a guitar, the next some blog-haus, the third a dreamwave/chillwave/glo-fi track and the fourth 10 year-old rap music – and because we often take extended breaks from posting. In an era of abundant information and opinion, we all are forced to make these decisions to avoid being overwhelmed.
I’m digressing again: the point, this time, is that the musical writing world on the internets is highly judgmental. The desire to be seen as cool is the driving force behind many of the web’s best music blogs. Once these sites develop a certain cachet, they continue to post the music that they think will keep people coming back, and not what they actually enjoy listening to. People fear judgment because they want to be part of the cool kids table.
(Aside: this is why Chris at Gorilla vs. Bear is the best. He does the exact opposite of this and only posts stuff that he likes. Sometimes it’s great music and sometimes it’s not, but regardless, it’s a testament to his taste and his status as a tastemaker that GvB has remained popular over the last 22.5 internet years. I don’t like everything Chris posts about over there, but I know it’s coming from someone who knows good music and is unashamed to post music most people wont enjoy as much as he does. Aside of the aside: by my calculations, 1 real calendar year is equal to approximately 4.5 internet years. We’re still working out what to call all the months of the internet calendar year. And Chris, if you’re reading this and it was unclear, I was trying to pay you a compliment for your taste and convictions.)
But the things is, there are music bloggers out there who love Coldplay but only post bootlegs of live Nirvana sets when not discussing the recent additions to Pitchfork’s Best New Music. Of course they’re embarrassed about the play count of “Viva la Vida” and “Speed of Sound” (as they should be…uh, sorry, the judgment is kind of automatic at this point). What I should have been arguing for all those years ago is the acceptance of taste as taste, without judgment. If somebody likes Coldplay, they should post about Coldplay. They might not be viewed as cool or edgy by the douches wearing Supreme, but they’ll surely attract people with tastes more in line with their own. It’s not an embarrassment to like music that isn’t cool. I like crappy candy like Skittles and my girlfriend adores expensive chocolate and we still get along okay; why is it any different with music?
As such, “the time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me.” As I mentioned yesterday, I have no delusions of my own coolness. So, once a week, every Wednesday until I take another extended unannounced hiatus from posting (I kid), I’ll be posting my favorite non-guilty pleasures. Was a 900-word lead-in necessary for this new feature? Absolutely not. Was it enjoyable to write? Yes, yes it was.
This week’s non-guilty pleasure with two remixes: Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok.” This track is infectious from top to bottom. It’s abstractly about a night of partying as the chorus continually encourages the DJ to “blow my (her) speakers up” until “we see the sunlight.” It’s not great music, but it sure is catchy and, in a tremendous feat, it actually makes me want to dance. Sometimes, as Mike Newhouse told us in Dazed and Confused, “I wanna dance.”
mp3: Ke$ha - TiK ToK
mp3: Ke$ha - TiK ToK (Fred Falke Radio Remix)
mp3: Ke$ha - TiK ToK (Skeet Skeet Remix)
