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Pop secret: Readers share guilty pleasures from their music collection
Lawrence Journal World & News - 11/3/2008 by Jessee Fray

They're likely hiding on a dusty shelf, or possibly they're prominently placed on your stereo. No matter if we have to go digging for them or not, most of us have them.

They're those compact discs and cassettes we just can't get enough of, refuse to get rid of, yet might be a little embarrassed to own.

For many it's CDs from the late 1990s - the bubble-pop bands like Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, Britney Spears and The Spice Girls.

"I get made fun of all the time, because I like : all the pop music, I'm not going to lie," says Amy Storhaug, of Leavenworth. "It's fun to listen to, it's got a good beat .. and it's good memories (of) when I was a teeny-bopper with my friends."

Carrie Mabee says her music tastes are eclectic, but the Black Eyed Peas does it for her every time, and she listens to them on a daily basis.

"It's funny, because it seems really out of place for me, because I'm a little bit older," says Mabee, 36, of Lawrence.

Mabee says she can't get over the band, which was made popular about five years ago with songs titled "Shut Up" and "Smells Like Funk," at work and in her car.

David Barrett, a fan and promoter of the local music scene, says his guilty pleasure is Widespread Panic, a rock band. He says he owns more than 300 of the band's CDs, mostly from their live shows, which make up half his collection.

Some people have to buy the CDs necessary to satisfy their guilty pleasures, says Clark Morton, co-owner of the two CD Tradepost secondhand music stores in Lawrence.

"I see a lot of the moms (and sometimes dads) come in and buy the Britney Spears and 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys," Morton says. "They listened to it so much with their kids, the kids sold the CD and they still want to listen to it, so they come back and buy it."

Morton says he fulfills his guilty pleasure by dusting off the 1980s hair metal CDs he has - from bands like Whitesnake - and he's also a bit embarrassed by a Hulk Hogan CD he owns and listens to from time to time, in which the professional wrestler attempts to rap with a musical group known as The Wresting Boot Band.

Whether we're addicted or not, Morton says we all occasionally crave certain tunes, because the music's set a mood for us in the past and we turn to the music in an attempt to recreate it.

"You always want to go back and listen to that and feel 18 again," he says. "It's sort of a generational thing."

Full disclosure: This reporter's CD collection is shamefully complete with Ace of Base, Green Day and the most embarrassing, Aqua - the band who became somewhat popular with its song about the lives of plastic Barbie dolls.

Go Click It

¢ www.popculturemadness.com
Visit the site link to pop music. Pick a decade to visit the top one-hit wonders, fads, nightclub tunes and parental concerns. Heeeeey, Macarena!

¢ www.swapacd.com
The sibling to PaperbackSwap and SwapADVD permits free trades for new tunes. Exchange Vanilla Ice for Chumbawumba - no live contact with more discerning human beings required.