mainstream chic

Yes, I admit it. I do actually enjoy listening to and watching what some people consider "shlock". I've been told that a great deal of my favourite workout music was listed on someone's list of the Worst Songs Ever. I liked the Charlies' Angels movies (well, the first one). I sometimes really do prefer Kraft Dinner over a fancier meal. I like ABBA. I liked Titanic.

What the heck is so wrong with being "mainstream"? Of course it's good to not be a lemming, to be true to oneself. But y'know, I'm not going to pretend to like an eclectic artsy movie just because it's supposed to be Good if I truly don't like it, just to be seen as cool or chic or different.

When someone tells me a song I like is No. 1 on someone's Worst Songs Ever list, do they expect me to hit my head in amazement and exclaim, "Dear lord! Then I suddenly don't like this song after all!"

And if I come out of a so-called schlocky movie having thoroughly enjoyed myself and feeling great, who CARES if the critics hated it? I don't mind balanced discussion afterward (I know some of my friends didn't like the Lord of the Rings movies as much as I did, for example), but I get ticked off if someone aggressively tries to convince me that I shouldn't have enjoyed myself so much; it seems petty and sour grape-ish to me, somehow.

Sometimes I think people get so hung up over being different from the mainstream that they shortchange themselves, assuming that just because something's popular it becomes less worthy.

Ironically, being mainstream is so out-of-fashion these days that it's almost on the verge of being chic.

The thought of which makes my head hurt, so maybe I'll end my mini-rant here. Time for some more cold drugs, I think... (says Debbie brightly)

(By the way, although this Blathering was inspired by JeffK's comment in Blatherchat, it is not directed at him. I've been wanting to post on this topic for a while.)

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