On iPods and Guilty Pleasures

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So a couple weeks ago I was over at Lauren's place trying to pillage cool stuff from her CD collection. Most of it was stuff I already had, but haven't gotten around to ripping yet. Some Alice In Chains, Billy Joel, Garth Brooks and yes - I'll admit it - Wilson Phillips. I knew it would come around and bite me in the ass. At dinner on Thursday night, Lauren announced at the dinner table in front of her whole family that I had, in fact, ripped her Wilson Phillips CD.

"You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that," I said in feigned embarrassment.

I turned red for about 3 seconds and then realized something: Everybody there who had an iPod probably had at least a dozen songs on it that they would never admit to listening to. Over Men's Weekend, Cousin Al, Walt, Matt and I had a brief conversation about that while Al scrolled through through my songs.

Yeah, I've got a bunch of really crappy songs on there. I'd prefer my guilty pleasures to dead air, though. My iPod has 60GB of space, and I'd prefer to have my favorite 15,000 songs on it than only the 5,000 or so that I'm not embarrassed by. Yes, I have "Summertime Girls" by Y&T. Yes, I have three songs by Firehouse on there. Yes, I have an entire Dixie Chicks album. Don't like it? Well, screw you - let's see what's on your iPod.

It made me think about the interview I did with that Los Angeles radio station a couple weeks back. The interviewer told me her friend lost her iPod and was completely devastated. I commented that I thought iPods were highly personal items and that there are always a few songs on there that you probably wouldn't want other people to know you listened to.

So, confess your guilty pleasures in comments. I'll start by adding to my list. I've got:

  • An entire Whitesnake concert from 1990, which I listen to often (especially on long road trips).
  • "The Final Countdown" and "Carrie" by Europe.
  • Two Heart albums
  • An Indigo Girls album
  • At least half a dozen John Cougar Mellencamp tunes
  • Almost everything that Poison and Def Leppard have ever recorded
  • REO Speedwagon
  • Restless Heart
  • I could go on...