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Guilty Displeasures

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Carl Wilson of Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper did what other music critics might find unfathomable: He listened to Celine Dion. A lot. In the book Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, Wilson explores the idea of a "guilty displeasure": something we're quick to dismiss because, well, "it's just not me." We find out what Wilson learned from his ordeal -- and if he changed his mind about Dion.

Tell us: What's your "guilty displeasure?" Do you have a music-snob sin to confess?

Carl Wilson's blog Zoilus.com
Wilson's article about Dion's Las Vegas show


Comments

  • [1] Connie January 03, 2008 - 02:17PM

    I can't stand Billy Joel. I feel kind of bad because I've seen him interviewed and he seems kind of nice, and he didn't seem to like his own music much either, at least in that interview (this was a number of years ago).


  • [2] Valerie from Bushwick January 03, 2008 - 02:17PM

    I hate Liz Phair. I can't stand the sound of her voice. I am all for the changes she was said to represent in pop music, but I can't stand to listen to her.


  • [3] Peter Knutson from Brooklyn January 03, 2008 - 02:18PM

    For better or for worse I hate Pink Floyd. For everything that they may or may not have contributed to 20th century rock, I just can't separate them from the sad, sandal wearing cookie cutter Fraternity kids from my college years.

    That association has colored my perspective ever since


  • [4] sarah from Williamsburg January 03, 2008 - 02:18PM

    OMG! Celine makes my ears bleed. She seems like she might nice but she's so TOTALLY phony in interviews it's hard to figure out.


  • [5] Kat from New York, NY January 03, 2008 - 02:19PM

    Where do you get off criticizing Celine Dion. She has sold most albums of any female recording artist. More than Shania Twain. Get off your high horse and stop wasting valuable air time on this junk!

    Devoted Celine Dion Fan


  • [6] Emily from Manhattan January 03, 2008 - 02:19PM

    There is one artist (older) and one group (new) who unfailingly make me lunge for the radio dial. Frank Sinatra (gasp, I know) and Maroon 5. Yuerch.


  • [7] Brent from New Haven, CT January 03, 2008 - 02:19PM

    Paul McCartney, without a doubt. I know it's virtually heresy, but it's true. The only McCartney song I can really stand is "Mother Nature's Son." Otherwise I think he unnecessarily cheesed the Beatles and has had a truly lamentable career ever since. Look at the cover of his latest CD, put it on, and revel in something truly awful.


  • [8] Valerie from Bushwick January 03, 2008 - 02:19PM

    I hate Liz Phair. I can't stand the sound of her voice, although I like the direction she represents in music. she probably a wonderful person but she sounds terrible.


  • [9] sean from brooklyn January 03, 2008 - 02:19PM

    where do i start

    can't stand bob dylan,

    no likey eric clapton except with cream...

    i could go on but i'll spare you


  • [10] Jonathan Gregg from nyc January 03, 2008 - 02:20PM

    I think Brian Wilson's Smile is one of the most overrated CDs of recent times. Gorgeous production and some good melodies, but yikes... some of these lyrics are just cringesome, and the tunes are not that incredible. The revised lyric of Good Vibrations is awful -- from the same source, try to sing Don't Worry Baby using the lyric sheet. It cannot be done. Paul McCartney has nothing to fear.


  • [11] wendy from Wilton, CT January 03, 2008 - 02:22PM

    I feel bad about hating Billy Joel too. How refreshing to know I'm not the only one.


  • [12] jethro from ny January 03, 2008 - 02:23PM

    I simply dont get the Talking Heads. I just don't.


  • [13] jonny sender from brooklyn January 03, 2008 - 02:23PM

    Watching the Celine youtube video on Carl's blog with the sound off while listening to sound check seems to sum up the the esthetic area of the musical world that she inhabits.


  • [14] Mike Koen from Austin TExas January 03, 2008 - 02:23PM

    My is Alicia Keyes. I am getting very tired of the host of perfectly pretty girls sing perfectly pretty songs with perfect voices. In all genres. I must be a bad person.


  • [15] tkramer from NYC January 03, 2008 - 02:24PM

    Smug people with nothing substantive to offer themselves can only make themselves feel better by claiming that they have "better" taste. There is no such operator as "better" because as we all know -- de gustibus non disputantum estr


  • [16] benjamin from nyc January 03, 2008 - 02:24PM

    Oh lord

    I can't stand Radiohead

    they are the most overrated band ever!!!

    They are Cold Play for hipsters

    not much guilt here

    :)


  • [17] Katie from San Francisco, CA January 03, 2008 - 02:25PM

    Celine Dion is not the top selling female artist of all time....it is....

    Mariah Carey!

    Ha! Perhaps not much better. I guess we snobs are still off!


  • [18] Will from Oakland January 03, 2008 - 02:25PM

    The funniest thing is always how the fans don't realize how bad their taste is [and no doubt is in other areas].

    The rest of us are supposed to apologize for the immense time we've spent, the immersion, in studying art.


  • [19] Gary Powell from Bloomington, IN January 03, 2008 - 02:26PM

    My guilty displeasure is Led Zepplin. While I really enjoy a lot of groups that are heavily inspired by them, I cannot stand the lead singer's voice and their lyrics.


  • [20] Claudia from NYC January 03, 2008 - 02:27PM

    I can't stand Andrea Bocelli...he's the Celine of tenors!


  • [21] Connie January 03, 2008 - 02:29PM

    Oh, Frank Sinatra!--can't stand him either, but I don't feel bad about it.


  • [22] manco from Brooklyn January 03, 2008 - 02:33PM

    Coldplay! Classic Billy Joel is far more interesting than Cold Play any day.


  • [23] Ashton from Manhattan January 03, 2008 - 02:34PM

    I am a black man who was born in New Orleans 68 years ago. I am a an amateur pianist and I consider music to be the major joy of my life.

    I never understood why Elvis Presley was the music pheonomenon that he was (I always thought it might have been because of the difference in our ethnic backgrounds). As an adult, I recognized that my greatest music joys were found in the American Song Book: Rodgers, Gershwin, Porter, Hammerstein, Berlin, Ellington, Wonder and the like. My favorite music maker was Carmen McRae. She was astonished that I could not abide HER favorite music maker: Billy Holiday. Recently, I have sensed what it is about Holiday that people love, but I still can only take her in small doses. Go figure.

    Oh. I never knew anyone "hated" Celine Dion. It seems to me that she sings her butt off. ;-)


  • [24] judy from NYC January 03, 2008 - 02:36PM

    I don't like Celine Dion and also Barbra Sreisand. Both hurt my brain. Worse yet, I hated Spring Awakening.


  • [25] Connie January 03, 2008 - 03:14PM

    Well, the world would be a boring place if we all had the same taste in music. I'm not sure it's really possible to be totally objective about music, and you know what?--I don't really care. I like what I like, but I try to keep my mind open to new stuff. I don't feel guilty about whether or not I like some type of music or not--I can always change my mind later if I want to. I've always disliked country music, but in the past year, I've started to get drawn into some aspects of it. I'm looking forward to getting to know more about it [Gene Watson, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, etc etc]. There are interesting people in every genre, and in between genres too.


  • [26] Pat Smith from Hawaii January 07, 2008 - 02:44PM

    This is a great show. For the record, I can't listen to Celine Dion. To me, she's the poster child for all that's wrong with music.

    But, I can't help wonder what all this commentary and yammering might mean to Celine. My guess, not a thing. 200 million albums sold. Wasn't it Liberace or someone like that who said "...crying all the way to the bank." about all the bad reviews?


  • [27] Tim Moran from Brooklyn April 25, 2008 - 02:21PM

    Steely Dan. Just don't get it.


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