Day 13 - A Song That's A Guilty Pleasure
I'm not sure I subscribe to the whole Guilty Pleasures bandwagon. After all, I'm someone who proudly boasts a record collection that includes Barry Manilow, Dean Friedman, Bon Jovi, Pink, Hall & Oates, Bryan Adams, Andrew Gold, ELO and many other MOR crimes against cool. And I'm not ashamed of any of them. I will stand up with pride and admit that the first 7" single I bought was Respect Yourself by Bruce Willis. I consider Kevin Rowland's much-maligned covers set My Beauty a work of genius (though the cover, with Kev in stocking and suspenders was a bad idea - even after my stockings confession last week!). I will happily admit to at one time or another having bought records by Whitney Houston, Robbie Williams, Mike & The Mechanics, Hootie & The Blowfish, Kula Shaker and even Phil Collins. No shame, no guilt. (Though I'm not saying I've listened to any of them in the last 10-15 years... or that I still own them.)
So... a record I actually feel guilty about liking?
The difference between all the artists above and Scouting For Girls is that, love them or hate them, Hall & Oates, Bon Jovi, Dean Friedman et al. have a degree of musical talent. The music they make might not be cool or to your liking, but they have songwriting, singing and instrument-playing talent.
Scouting For Girls, on the other hand, write jingles. This is an enormous talent in and of itself, but I'm damned if I believe there's any artistic merit to it. They write songs that are instantly, insanely catchy yet have as much depth as the We Buy Any Car advert or the Intel Inside bing-bong-bing. The first time I heard This Ain't A Love Song (even the title is unoriginal), I felt like I'd heard it a hundred times before. By the time I'd heard it three times, I was sick of it. If I ever hear it again, you'll find me sitting in a high window with a higher powered rifle taking potshots at passers by. I am seriously ashamed that I ever liked anything by Scouting For Girls, even for a split second. That is a guilty "pleasure".
