EW’s Music Mix is searching for the Greatest Guilty Pleasure Musical Act of All Time. With 32 seeded contestants (see all the matchups), this tournament is sure to change hearts, minds, and lives for weeks to come. Read/listen to the following, and then cast your vote in the poll after the jump; reader comments will be used in subsequent rounds, so we encourage you to also explain to the group why you chose the way you did. Note: In case of a tie, please select the artist you feel more ashamed to adore. Thank you.
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Today, there are all kinds of Swedish musicians — Dungen, Jens Lekman, the Knife, Robyn — whose work is prominently, unashamedly displayed my CD shelves, a happy little jewel-case monument to Nordic pride. But no matter what indie-schmindie bona fides the country boasts today, I cannot tell a lie: The Ikea-meatball pop trifecta of ABBA, Roxette and Ace of Base are the source from which my love affair with all things musi-swede-ical is truly sprung.
The charms of the ‘Base, as I like to call them, were not at all lost on young Leah. When the foursome – siblings Malin, Jonas, and Jenny Berggren, plus Ulf Ekberg — was imported to America in the early-to-mid-’90s, I saw the sign, and it did open up my eyes. I secretly thought “Don’t Turn Around” was a really beautiful expression of love and loss, told in the international language of five-dollar-Casio beats and “oh-oh-whoa-whoa” choruses. I am still unclear to this day whether “All That She Wants” is about actual babies or babies as in grown-man conquests (“she’s going to get you!”), but I can still do nearly all the interpretive dance moves required to convey the gamut of human emotions contained in “The Sign,” and I thoroughly admire them for taking Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” and somehow magically making it sound more ‘80s in the ‘90s than it did in the actual ‘80s ‘80s. If you don’t think that is a singular skill, you are grossly mistaken.
I have to admit that AofB and I have been on a strictly need-to-know basis for the past fifteen years or so — in fact, it was only the news of the departure of Malin, aka Linn (oh, those blonde pigtails! With coordinated finger pointing! And ankhs in flames!) in 2007 that brought me back. But you know what, those little wonder-nuggets of philosophy — “life is demanding / without understanding” — aren’t any less true. And I think it’s time to, in their own words, drag them up back into the light where they belong. Don’t you? — Leah Greenblatt
Right around the time I started to know enough to hide my love of Ace of Base from the world, I was also getting into bands whose patch logos I could proudly put on my backpack: the Violent Femmes, Mudhoney, the Pixies. But one group who would have slapped a metaphorical poseur fannypack all over my freshman-year ass was Stone Temple Pilots. They weren’t pop, but amongst “real” music fans in the Northwest, they were considered something worse: shiny, showbizzy L.A. opportunists, jumping on the grunge bandwagon with their mall-bought Doc Martens feet-first.
Except, you know, the songs were so ridiculously, unbearably catchy. The lyrics were opaque to the point of being random rock Mad Libs (“and I feel and I feel when the dog begins to smell her”? What are they smelling?? “Take time with a wounded hand/Cuz it likes to heal, I like to steal”? OK!). But still — while a photo of Chris Cornell from Badmotorfinger hung on my wall, Scott Weiland’s Manic Panic poetry hung in my heart.
Full disclosure: As a grown woman, I wrote a feature about STP for this very magazine, which involved attending a show to announce their 2008 reunion tour, at the haute-goth home of a long-deceased magician in L.A.’s Lauren Canyon. As I stood by with the safe shield of my reporter’s notebook, I realized that everyone around me was totally freaking out.
The twenty-, thirty-, and even fortysomethings in the crowd were swaying back and forth in ecstasy, singing along to every word of “Interstate Love Song,” “Sex Type Thing” and “Vasoline.” And I had a revelation: Stone Temple Pilots might be kind of corny, and they’ll never really have the stamp of legitimacy bestowed on so many of their more critically admired ’90s counterparts. But their songs make people happy. And I don’t know why anyone should feel guilty about that. – LG
Want to vote in a previous matchup? Click here to visit Guilty Pleasure Bracket Central!
Photo Credits: Ace of Base: Andre Csillag/Rex USA/Everett Collection; STP: Joe Giron/Corbis
I am admitedly one of the biggest STP fans out there and even I can agree that all of your arguments are technically accurate (especially the random lyrics – You forgot the best one: “So keep your bank roll lottery/eat your salad day deathbed motorcade”).
But in addition to myself, I know dozens and dozens of diehard STP fans, and not one of them is at all guilty to admit it. It might be your North West bias you admit to (If STP had been from Seattle as well, would you have had the same feelings?) But the bottom line is the music, and STP produced some incredible rock albums (Core and Purple are both among the top 10 rock albums of the 90′s IMO) and they deserve to be spoken in the same breaths as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden.
STP is not a guilty pleasure. Most of the bands in this list are crap but STP was and still is a viable rock group. When they put their next album out, it will go to #1 and their tour will sell out.
STP a guilty pleasure? Are you nuts??? Those guys rock and have sold way more than Ace of Base. You guys really have no clue. There is more to mucic than hip hop and teen lip sync stars.
False: Ace of Base has sold more than 50 million albums; STP “only” 40 million.
Mostly in Sweden lol
It absolutely boggles my mind you would consider STP a guilty pleasure. You either really are ignorant, or you are a genius playing a practical joke on us trying to rile us up by comparing them to Ace of Base. Ace of freaking base……..really???? get over yourself.
Your understanding of this poll fails. Leah is in no way comparing STP to Ace of Base; she’s simply asking you which is more of a guilty pleasure.
Wow, all these panties in a bunch: well done, Leah. For my money, both groups are completely underrated and each have at least two albums that are excellent in their own genres.
Amen to Minvike. I, too, love STP and am unashamed. They rock. I never knew I was supposed to be embarassed of my love for this band until now. Guilty pleasure? I haven’t seen the other candidates yet, but I could think of dozens of other performers who should be ahead of STP on this list. People still pay money to see Brett Michaels, so…
Again, the definition of a guilty pleasure…A guilty pleasure is something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. Often, the “guilt” involved is simply fear of others discovering one’s lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes, rather than actual moral guilt.
This being said, I voted for AoB.
Ace of Base is one of my favorite bands of all time. Like ABBA and Roxette, they have that uncanny Swedish ability to produce music that endears them to people of all ages.
STP a guilty pleasure? Really??
Oh… c’mon now.
STP as a “guilty pleasure”
The first album “core” is a timeless CLASSIC.
And Ace of Bass…. ooooohhh they SUCK
I didn’t vote in the poll because I don’t consider STP a guilty pleasure. They are a good rock band. Guilty pleasures in music are subjective to personal taste I suppose, but I listen to STP in the mix of lots of music on my Ipod and I have no worries about losing ‘cool’ points with any one that I know.
Totally Ace of Base. They were in hot rotation after a bad break up “I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign!”
When my best friend went out of time, her now-husband and I decided to show her what she was missing by having a fantastic evening without her!
What ended up happening is we drove down the freeway in the middle of the night a little too fast and sang “The Sign” as loudly as possible with our windows rolled down.
I’m sure she’s still jealous of our good time… and embarassed. THAT’S a guilty pleasure.
STP is just fun to listen to. I don’t know anyone who feels guilty listening to them… it just seems like an odd choice. They’re a solid band.
Sorry, make that out of town!
STP is not a guilty pleasure you idiot!! A guilty pleasure is a band that sucks that you secretly like. For instance, a band like Nickelback. STP is a talented hit-making band with a variety of sounds (if you are at all familiar with their catalogue) is one of the best rock bands of the last 20 years. And they are still going strong, selling out the majority of their 2008 reunion tour. Suck on that.