ELO top 'guilty secret' song list
The BBC seem to be all over this non-story today
ELO's 1976 single Livin' Thing has topped a Q magazine list of uncool records it is okay to love.
As far as I'm concerned, anyone's perfectly entitled to release a compilation CD, call it what they like, and the punter can take it or leave it. And indeed, this bloke did do so two years ago, too
Today covered the story this morning, and I turned away in disgust. A series of vox pops of men decreeing what people should or should not like. It came over as adolescent willy-waving. And dogmatic. Surely, anybody's entitled to like whatever they like. And why be embarrassed about it? You can't be particularly secure in yourself if you fear that people will judge you for liking a particular song, or even a handful of songs. The sad thing is that the type of bloke who was on the radio telling us what we should dislike are probably the same ones who twenty years ago were telling us that to be hip and cutting edge it was imperative to like that certain song or band. Which says nothing about musical taste and everything about a desperate need to project an image. Most blokes get over it by about age twenty.
I am careful in using the word 'like'. Like is intensely personal and subjective. It's not the same as saying 'greatest' or 'better than'. Just because something's popular doesn't make it good. Or bad. Although sustained enduring popularity with a wide range of people, including those with expertise or experience is probably the closest we can get to an objective standard for matters of personal taste. But if you like something, enjoy it and don't be ashamed of it, and don't be afraid of saying "I like this because it reminds me of a time and a place or there's something about that tune". But don't tell me that I have to accept it to be a great song. And don't tell me what I shouldn't like, on the basis that it isn't cool to like it. Cool - in that context - is generally doing what some self-appointed opinionator has deemed to be worthy of attention.
Oh, by the way, it's not too late yet to participate in the Troubled Diva Which Decade for Top of the Pops.
