Watch out for the "Guilty Pleasure"

One should always be wary of one's guilty pleasures, lest they turn into a dangerous addiction. Unfortunately, as far as a certain guilty pleasure is concerned, I am past a point where I could acquiesce to piqued caution and am heading dangerously down a slippery slope. Yes, right now bad 1980s music is my caffeine, nicotine, crack/cocaine, if you will. Sure it was all fun and games when I got Wham!'s "Last Christmas" in my head around the holidays and decided to download it "because it's hilarious!," and it seemed like a great discovery when I embarked upon my New Order obsession with one of my friends, but today, as I forked over $.99 to purchase Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle's "On My Own" because I heard it in a store and remember "how great it is," I began to question whether I was just having fun, or whether I am indeed heading into unpredictable and unwise music territory.


The Awesomely Bad Spandau Ballet, who sang "True" and "Gold" among others.

Lately I've started to worry. After trying in supposed jest to convince several people of how great Spandau Ballet is, I began to realize that perhaps I like Bad 80s Music. After all, I seriously enjoyed the 80s songs from VH1's recent special "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs", songs like Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night," Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," and the number one choice for most awesomely bad song, Starship's "We Built this City." It's a good song! Yes, I know, the joking "it's a good song!" protest is the first sign of possible addiction and skewed musical perspective. Yes, I am beginning to realize most people do not like these songs, not even as a joke. Worst of all, for me, there are no more jokes anymore, and I think I should be worried, because when the jokes end, the bad tastes begin...