#4 Hello Guilty Pleasure Playlists
Try not to sing along to It's All Coming Back to Me Now, I dare you.
As a general rule, I’m not a fan of guilty pleasures. Don’t feel guilty about the things you find pleasure in! Who cares if you treat yourself to a candy bar at the checkout every time you buy groceries or only buy fun-shaped mac and cheese1 or if you always see the newest superhero movie on opening day? You do you!
But the one place I lean into the phrase ‘guilty pleasure’ is when it comes to music. Mostly because that’s the easiest way to find what I’m looking for on Spotify.
/
For me, music choice really depends on my mood. Sometimes I want something quiet and unobtrusive to have playing in the background while I’m reading. Sometimes I’m looking for festive Christmas music that puts me in the holiday spirit. And sometimes, I really want the kind of music that I forgot I knew all the words to and that distracts me from the fact that I’m washing dishes or folding laundry or whatever boring chore I happen do be doing.
That’s where Spotify comes in. Sure, I could sift through my personal music library and make a playlist on my own, but half of the fun of a playlist made by someone else2 is being surprised by what shows up!
This playlist literally called Guilty Pleasures is 9 hours of singable tunes — songs that you may not have heard since junior prom, or that your dad blared while cleaning the garage in the summer3, or that you listened to on repeat in college. The Safety Dance by Men Without Hats? On the list. Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping? For sure. So Yesterday by Hilary Duff? You probably forgot this song existed but yes of course it is. Dolly’s 9 to 5? Obviously! This list skips from Spice Girls to Hall & Oates and it’s gloriously fun.
If you’re looking for something that is a curated by actual humans, check out Columbus writer Hanif Abdurraquib’s playlist Corny, But Elite that was croudsourced on Instagram and is just *chef’s kiss* so, so good. There’s Celine Dion. There’s songs from The Little Shop of Horrors. There’s Diamond Rio and Bell Biv DeVoe. There are four different versions of Rainbow Connection because Kermit is great but you need to hear it by The Carpenters4. There’s even a song by the cast of Glee becuase this is a corny playlist, after all. When you’re hitting that afternoon slump and need a mood booster, this is the playlist you want to turn to.
What’s on your guilty pleasure playlist? Mine would be full of 90s country, early 2000s alternative, anything that played on VH1’s Pop-Up Video, and the entire album Four5 by One Direction. Let me know what should be included — maybe we'll build our own crowdsourced playlist!
I absolutely do this and it might become its own newsletter topic in the future.
Or maybe an algorithm? I’m not sure how Spotify makes these.
Dancing Queen, obviously. Didn’t your dad listen to ABBA Gold on a cassette stereo in the garage? Just mine?
This is why we trust Hanif to make playlists.
Fun Fact: According to Spotify Wrapped, this is my most listened to album of all time. Apparently I listened to it on repeat a lot circa 2015. It’s just so fun and catchy??