Thomas Harper has returned to Radio ENRG, with his show “The Guilty Pleasure Hour” ending our broadcast schedule every Friday at 7pm. Returning from his hiatus, the veteran tells all on the definition of his personal niche on the airwaves, how one person’s shame may be another person’s shining light.
If you have seen me before on this wonderful website of ours, you’ll know about yours truly for two reasons. One is for apatheic sarcasm about football, and showcasing a hidden gem in music culture—the guilty pleasure. Everybody has an artist they used to be ashamed of developing an affinity for; JLS was mine. Their dulcet tones made my feet tap, so my Dad bought me their CD when I was a wee nipper, my first ever compact disc. I do find it ironic that for some, it was bands such as Oasis, or solo artists like Michael Jackson, but my vice was a group of four men who produced such lyrical and poetic ad-libs like “Bla! Bo-de-oh-la!” and thought-provoking, elegiac lines of prose like “I can be your toy-friend”.
Thankfully, my older brother pulled me away from potential primary school societal embarrassment by leading me towards my favourite band of all time, Green Day. Life could have been different if he decided to let me hear the playground-centric music, I can imagine the insults now. “Why don’t you like the Wiggles like a normal person?” “Mate, the Singing Kettle is where it’s at lad”, “LazyTown produced some bangers man check them out”, (thankfully I was partial to these classics, god bless terrestrial television and live theatre; but it had the unfortunate side effect of developing a cringey English accent that for a ‘Jock’ like me makes me cringe till my knees turn to jelly).
Alas, events like these led me to develop my own Radio show here on ENRG. I feel quite paternal about The Guilty Pleasure Hour. I am proud of how he has grown from shy and awkward to confident and poised during his allocated time slot on the station. My show has featured an incredibly mixed bag of artists, ranging from the SEGA Sound Team, Darius Rucker and Kate Bush. The evolution of the “brand” (loose term) has led me to realise one thing; the definition of one man’s treasure, like the Sugababes is another man’s worst nightmare. One man’s Hanson is another man’s Blur, one woman’s Camilla Cabello is another gal’s Troye Sivan and so forth. My current Guilty Pleasure is the Village People.
How did it happen you ask? I have no clue. You could argue that this sort of thing is a key part of the human experience, specifically a part of the modern human experience with the rise of social media’s love affair with short-form content, that music producers are exploiting more and more. How many times have you heard a song with a really catchy 15-30 second excerpt that fools you into thinking the rest of the song follows the same tempo? Music has become human fish bait.
That’s besides the point, the mindset of the individual tends to determine how they view their music taste, the more cynical of us may lean into music that makes us happy to distract ourselves from problems or from negativity, or for those who wish to be normative the likes of Bjork or Nickleback could be their cup of tea, music can be an escape for people to allow themselves to finally be themselves. The beauty of privacy, a true way to shroud yourself in mystery. One day you might be sipping on matcha with the fellas, the next you may be rocking out to The Bee Gees. Art has a great way of being celebrated in any way you wish. I for one think it is nothing embarrassing in the slightest to celebrate Barry and his brothers, but again it just depends on the version of yourself you portray infront of others, weirdly the Guilty Pleasure is an idea that the Higher Psychology student in me finds utterly fascinating. Country music seems to be the the most popular genre of music that people (especially in an urban area) find to be a burden they try to bury.
Modern country music has be encaspualated rather easily by famous intermittent comedian Bo Burnham. In his tune “Panderin”, he parodies the genre with ease.
I have a mixed relationship with the genre, I have heard wagon wheel more times than I can be bothered to count, as well as songs about frying chicken on a Friday night; but I will never complain if I hear Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson on the airwaves. Real country music, not what you see on a certain right wing Superbowl halftime show (look up Lee Price’s performance, the lyrics mentioned earlier will ring in your brain).
Defining a guilty pleasure is bordering on the impossible, but that is the beauty of it. Self-awareness (or a lack of it) can lead to enlightening conversations about such bands like the B-52’s and their love of lobsters with attitude or artists like Vanilla Ice and his legal battles with the band Queen, and I for one, am a big fan of that. If you fancy some more of this sort of chat, you can catch me and guests discuss this sort of thing live every Friday at 7pm. You will disagree with people, you may even boogie to a song you have no recollection of even liking, but until then…
Continue to be forthcoming about your love for Justin Bieber or Hannah Montana, because in reality. Nobody cares mate.
Thomas is a fourth-year Journalism student who contributes to ENRG Sport and is back on Radio ENRG as a DJ, hosting the Guilty Pleasure Hour.
He is a lifelong supporter of Aberdeen and mostly writes about Scottish football. Thomas’ other sporting interests include basketball, Formula One, and professional wrestling. He hopes to move into sports broadcasting or journalism once he graduates, but until then he plans to be involved with ENRG Sport for the foreseeable future.
Thomas is a fourth-year Journalism student who contributes to ENRG Sport and is back on Radio ENRG as a DJ, hosting the Guilty Pleasure Hour.
He is a lifelong supporter of Aberdeen and mostly writes about Scottish football. Thomas’ other sporting interests include basketball, Formula One, and professional wrestling. He hopes to move into sports broadcasting or journalism once he graduates, but until then he plans to be involved with ENRG Sport for the foreseeable future.
