I’ve never believed in guilty pleasures. If you like a song or artist, you probably have your reasons. And the notion that we should have to qualify music that we like — or that we should feel guilty for liking it — is inherently bullshit. (Unless, of course, the music really does suck, in which case you better have a damn good reason.)
Carly Rae Jepsen is an artist — yes, an artist — whom many a music snob would lump into the “really does suck” category, an unfortunate victim of the indie-good-mainstream-bad line of musical idiocracy. Not that everyone should like her. Songs like “I Really Like You” and “All That” — two of this year’s finest singles, mainstream or otherwise — undoubtedly have a bubblegum-pop element to them that could easily offend the most pious of music connoisseurs. Hell, even our own Ryan Drake, resident pop music expert, thinks the former is one of the worst songs of the year so far. But I’ll gladly tout her knack for soaring, ear-melting melody to anyone who dare question it, indie cred be damned.
So imagine my delight when the Tulsa World‘s Jerry Wofford reported Jepsen’s surprise appearance at the Tulsa Promenade Mall, 4107 S. Yale Ave., 6:30 p.m. tonight. Jepsen will perform in the mall’s Center Court, presumably in a sea of unruly teenage girls, their parents, and other people who know a good tune when they hear it. Admission is free.
Watch the video for “I Really Like You,” starring none other than Tom Hanks, below.
