You Don't Have to Explain

I have ABBA on my iPod. I own the soundtrack to Xanadu on vinyl. 

Simply put, I love kitschy pop music. It's silly and outrageous. Most importantly, it allows you to not think about music.

This is a part of my musical taste I rarely get to explain to people. When I introduce myself to someone and mention I write about music, they immediately assume I like "cool" music and their tastes aren't as good as mine. They suddenly have to explain to me why they love country or they went to see Imagine Dragons in concert because they were invited by a friend. You know you wanted to go too!

You don't have to apologize, especially to me, for what you love (unless it's Barry Manilow, Nickleback, Creed, or god forbid, ICP).

Most pop culture is tied to tastes and events that affected your life. Music has greater power than most mediums because we tie songs and notes to feelings and events that happened to us. We relate to the message in some way. Neither I, nor anyone else, can rate that moment on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. 

For example, by all accounts "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats is an unintelligent five minutes of long-haired Canadians playing synthesizers to some playful lyrics. It's also something that my friends and I would sing and dance to while it played during the end of a bad Pauly Shore movie at the theatre where we worked. It led to me hunting down Men Without Hats albums in search of the song. In doing so, I listened to their songs that weren't heard on the radio. They're just as fun, more tuneful, and pay tribute to their glam rock heroes from the 70's. 

Mention Men Without Hats to anyone else, you'll probably get some laughs. I have often found myself in the position of those explaining their tastes to me as I explain why all the "Safety Dance" remixes are in my collection. 

So please, let that musical freak flag fly proud. Don't regret owning Snow Patrol's second album. Don't shy away from belting out some Keith Urban. It's what makes you special, and on a scale from 1 to 10, that's an 11.