Saturday 23 June 2012

In Praise of Bad Music

Like a lot of people, I occasionally enjoy films that are "so bad they're good". 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge' comes to mind straight away...


What not a lot of people ever really say is that they like bad music. There are some slight exceptions: most people don't mind bad songs if they're Christmas songs, and many people have their "guilty pleasures", songs which are often from their childhood or youth, mainly from the 1980s it seems, which people still have an affection for, but don't want to admit they really like because they're not considered cool anymore (or ever were), so they hide behing a veil of irony and "school disco" nights at nightclubs.

I'm not interested in music that's just out-and-out bad (U2 and Coldplay take note). No, what I like is the music that shouldn't have been; the singles or albums that were vanity projects, or ill-advised wish-fulfillment. The projects that were designed to expand the brand. I'm talking about actors, models, TV presenters and reality stars who suddenly decide that they want to be pop stars or, in some cases, serious indie/emo rockers. I'm talking about the likes of Bruce Willis, Naomi Campbell and Paris Hilton; people who aren't going to let the fact that they can't sing or have any obvious music talent whatsoever get in the way of their dream to make an album.

Anyway, I've bought a bunch of such albums and will be doing posts all about them when I get the time...

In the meantime, here's Bruce Willis (and The Temptations) doing 'Under The Boardwalk'.


I don't know why The Temptations agreed to this. No, wait, they probably got paid a shitload of cash. Listen out for the especially cheesy backing music.

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