It’s time to retire the outdated idea of the musical “guilty pleasure”

Generally speaking (but especially when it comes to sports), it’s better to retire while your skills and athletic abilities haven’t diminished all the way. Nobody wants to be the person who faded away instead of burning out (unless you’re Bad Omens) while the light was still shining brightly.

One idea that should just retire now, however, is the outdated concept of the “guilty pleasure”. Chances are, you already know what we’re talking about – the idea that somehow, for some reason, it’s been established that you should feel guilty for liking some kind of art that’s outside of your usual choice or demographic. Specifically when it comes to music, this likely means metalheads listening to pop music, R&B, hip-hop, or really anything that might (omg!) be “popular”. That word tends to scare a lot of people.

First things first (the chocolate starfish is my man Fred Durst): contrary to what some music critics might tell you, nobody is going to take away your br00tal metalhead card for listening to, say, Dua Lipa. At least that hasn’t happened yet, to our knowledge anyway. If anything, listening to more than one specific genre of music will likely improve your appreciation for your preferred choices. We can almost 100% promise you that nobody is going to care if you listen to “Break Stuff” on a 10 hour loop.

Something else to note is most of the prominent bands in the scene listen to music other than the genres they play in. Levi Benton of Miss May I? Huge hip-hop fan. Bad Omens? They have a ton of pop influence in their music. Deftones and Linkin Park? Bands like them are all over the place in how they incorporate hip-hop, electronic music, ambient soundscapes, and/or dream pop into their core rock + metal sound.

The reverse is sometimes true as well. Colombian reggaeton megastar J Balvin grew up on Nirvana and Metallica, and he even has a Nirvana tattoo prominently on his knee. Demi Lovato? Huge metalhead. Ed Sheeran? Well, he clearly grew up listening to bands like Bring Me The Horizon, and now the two are collaborating. It’s really not all that surprising that most people tend to listen to more than one genre of music.

The reality is, though, that most people don’t actually care if you’re a 32-year old man who listens to Taylor Swift in the car. Or a 19-year old college student that listens to Whitechapel loudly in the car while wearing a floral print dress. What you should care about, though, is ignoring anyone who makes you feel “guilty” for liking something that is unexpected or surprising. If you want to listen to blackbear, Cannibal Corpse, and Aphex Twin on the same playlist, you really shouldn’t let anyone stop you.