I have a secret. I enjoy listening to Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe".

I doubt anyone would call me a teeny-bopper; I have enough classic rock on my computer to keep me busy for a few days and I even have a good day's worth of not-so-mainstream hard rock/metal. I enjoy Ska on a regular basis mixed in with true oldies such as Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Jr. So why would I stoop to listen to some Canadian songwriter whose akin to the Beiber-epidemic?

I don't know why. But I know I've done it before (Hanson's "Mmm-Bop", anyone?)
To be honest, I don't listen to the radio. I don't care to keep in touch with today's Top 20 because I don't respect any of the artists out there. I look back at music the way I look at books. My interest is mostly retrospective and I find joy in going through my mom's records from when she was in college rather than watching MTV. When I first heard about Carly Rae Jepsen, I was severely dehydrated, hot, and covered in an insane amount of purple.

Wait, what?!

I ran the Color Run (the happiest 5K on the planet) whilst I visited a friend who lives in Philadelphia, PA. There was a dance party in the streets afterwards and pounds of colors were thrown into the crowd, thus covering every single person in orange, green, yellow, pink and purple. It was during this dance/street/rave-in-the-streets where me and my friends were gulping down bottles of warm water and sweating rainbows that I heard Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe". I remember the girls screaming the words and the guys groaning at having to hear the damn song one more time. I was a virgin to it, however, and the upbeat  tune caught my attention. I went home, downloaded it and it's now on my Ipod. I've probably listened to it 5 times this past week, mixed with my Psychostix, Disney, Gershwin and Metallica. I enjoy it, but on my terms. If that song pops up on Random and I'm not in a happy-go-lucky-my-life-is-awesome-because-it's-Canadian mood, I skip it. The reason for Ipods, personal CDs and MP3 players is so that people aren't subjected to the monotonous playlists of current radio stations where the top 15 songs are on constant repeat and sandwiched between commercials and bouts of talking radio-hosts. If my Ipod tries to impersonate the radio, I turn it off. Try and tell me what to listen to? I don't think so!
And so as much as I like the song, and as often as I listen to it, I do limit myself. Just because I'm infatuated with its naive cuteness doesn't mean everybody else is. But the song isn't restricted to just the radio and my Ipod. Oh no. Have you seen the memes? My personal favorite...

 Anyway, the point of this is to say that I have quirky tastes and I'm not really ashamed to admit that I like something that's already over the hill. Yes, I still listen to Hanson from when they were cool in the 90's. I still listen to the Spice Girls, too.

 Spice up your life!

 Ahem. Do yo have any guilty pleasures?