If you looked at the Most Recently played playlist on my iTunes or at my Spotify you might think one of three things: I am schizophrenic, I'm at 13 year old girl that shares an account with her older brother and her mom, or someone pressed shuffle on the entire iTunes store.
At any given time, there will be Hannah Montana, Flume, Notorious B.I.G. or the Killers. Between the months of September and January, there will always be Christmas carols. I like all music -- almost all (I'm still not on board with heavy metal), and I can say that this includes whatever annoying song is currently being way overplayed on Kiss 106.1, right now.
I am proud to say that I listened to "Call Me Maybe" probably 500 times when it was popular. I love all of those ridiculous catchy songs, however, there is a certain stigma against popular songs. If I had a dollar for every time someone said, "I liked that song before it was popular," I could pay my entire college tuition; although, I would have to give up a few dollars because I have said it myself.
Where does this competition about who listens to the most obscure music come from? Who cares if you like what's popular; it's popular for a reason. Of course, one reason is that the radio will play it at every opportunity, but the other reason is that a lot of other people like it ,too.
There should not be a need for guilty pleasure music. If you like One Direction (and I know more of you do than are willing to admit it), you should feel the freedom to blast "What Makes You Beautiful" with all of your windows down. Instead of using music as a way to prove our uniqueness and that we are way cooler than all of those Taylor Swift loving teenage girls (and our dads because we know that all our dads love "Our Song," too), we should celebrate the universality of music. The idea that millions of people across American can all sing along to "Wagon Wheel" is pretty amazing. Music should bring us together in this way, not become divisive.
More importantly, we shouldn't let others' opinions dictate the music we enjoy. If you genuinely love that band that no one has ever heard of and only put out music on vinyl records in two store in Chicago, that's awesome! Congrats on an awesome find! But if you like whatever song Seventeen Magazine deems the "hottest song of the summer," that is equally awesome. The point of music is enjoyment. There should be no stress involved in showing your friends a song you love; if you love the song that's all that matters! Don't let popularity or anything else stop you from listening to the music you want to listen to.
However, it is still never appropriate to listen to your music without headphones, in public. I fully encourage musical freedom, but that doesn't extend to everyone on the bus, or in the grocery store. The only exception is in your car. I don't know why there is an exception, here. I don't make the rules.
