What make something a guilty pleasure? Within its own context it might be considered good. To me, it's the fact that I have to justify listening to it. I keep Evanescence's albums (and EPs, and pre-2003 unreleased songs) on my computer because of 'nostalgia'. Do I ever listen to it? Ahem. Yeeeees. Will you see it on my last.fm? Only when I forget to reset the play count. Amy Lee's voice is still beautiful, but does she really have to sing such elaborately self-centered and fantastically emotional music? My father occasionally surprises my sisters and me with very affectionate gifts, things we'd never purchase for ourselves (such as a handmade gorgeous teacup, or once time a hair straightener. . .).
When I was 17 (2006), my father took a trip to the USA and returned with their album The Open Door for me as a present. I was so touched by the fact that he got me a CD by a band that he was at best indifferent to that I oohed and aaahed and told him how much I wanted to listen to it. Part of that was true - I did want to listen to it. . . to see if they'd improved any. They hadn't. However I am keeping that album for sentimental reasons and you can pry it from my cold dead hands. Or at least out of my CD collection when I'm six feet under. I don't think it's going to make it into the grave with me. But one important things remains - my father saw that band as being important to me when I was in high school. I guess it was. I listened to them (and Nightwish) throughout my freshman and sophomore years. When I started hanging out with rockers, I exchanged them for The Smiths, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin, but I always kept them on my iPod.
Nostalgia + the "I can't believe I used to listen to them" factor = guilty pleasure
For me, anyway.
Weezer is more of a 'pleasure' and less of a 'guilty pleasure'. I still love their music and have been known to listen to it at work with no one else around. They're a people-pleasing band and they're fun. Pinkerton remains to be my favorite album, but that's because I happen to think it's not all that bad as a whole. The change comes with Make Believe, when they truly turned the corner and went from being a surfer/garage geek band to being a pop rock band. They stopped singing about how they liked themselves and more about how much they'd rather be someone else. This made them uncool in my sixteen year-old mind, and therefore I didn't listen to them for two years. Then. I missed them. I felt ashamed for missing them. They officially became a guilty pleasure. Listening to a band that sold out and made too much money made me feel like I supported yuppies and polo'd jocks. However, nothing gave me more guilty pleasure than blasting them from my Honda driving home after Math 103 with my roommate at 9:30 at night.
Catharsis + shame = guilty pleasure
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