Josh Homme explains why the ‘guilty pleasures’ is nonsense
There is much to be said about modern music, some good and some bad. It’s a point of conversation that is brought up frequently and seems to divide a lot of crowded rooms, but one thing that can be said is that it is becoming more multigenre than ever. One person who agrees with this notion is Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, who thinks worrying about specific genres is becoming less and less critical.
“If you’re in your mid to late 20s and you’re not realising that genre is for teenagers and people who work in a record store, then you’re in big trouble,” he said, “Maybe you’re a racist; I don’t know.”
Genre can be a good thing when it comes to discovering new music. You might stumble across a song that uses a specific guitar sound or tempo, and it will be something you instantly connect with. If that’s the case, you can look up the band’s genre and better understand what kind of music you should check out. Homme doesn’t mean disregarding genre in that sense; instead, he refers to blocking out specific themes because they don’t align with your favourite genre.
There are two main reasons for this: firstly, because you are potentially isolating yourself from other music you might enjoy, and secondly, because of how music develops. All genres come from one another; it involves a person listening to something and developing taste in it, then putting their spin on it, and so on, until the original piece of inspiration becomes something entirely new. At least, that was the case until technology came about, which allowed a renaissance of new sounds.
As technology developed, how we could manipulate records, make guitar sounds, and use computers in production meant that entirely new genres could be made; however, that element of newness plateaued in the same way music did before technology became such an influence. Since then, these separate genres that are so sure of themselves have steadily been merging, giving rise to other sounds and blurring the lines between black and white in music.
If you stick to one specific genre, you will not be able to explore correctly what these new music developments offer. You are going to miss out on a lot of music and, in doing so, will be stuck in a specific moment in time, which isn’t what music is supposed to be about; it reflects the time you’re living in and follows around culture like a shadow, so should be enjoyed as such.
Josh Homme voiced his agreement by dismantling the idea behind the ‘guilty pleasure’ associated with a lover of one genre listening to another. Picture a rock legend listening to Ariana Grande or a rapper being a big fan of ABBA. They’re sounds you don’t associate with one another; therefore, there should be implied guilt in that person enjoying that music, which is rubbish.
“I don’t have guilty pleasures because I don’t feel bad,” said Homme, “who am I to pretend I couldn’t like Britney Spears ‘Toxic,’ what am I? A fool?”
Listeners could learn from Homme due to how much technology is now involved in music production and how much the lines between genres are blurred. Sticking to specific genres and viewing anything outside of it as a ‘guilty pleasure’ is an old-school mindset. Music is music, and we live in a time where it is more accessible and far-reaching than ever. So, why not enjoy it?
