Everyone has some music they love that maybe no one else is aware they listen to. Having a guilty pleasure is a good thing. Like having a secret only you know.
Also, guilty pleasures are not always without merit. Just because loads of people you know don't like something you do does not mean it's not good. Maybe the people you know aren't good?
The four tracks (well, three and one entire band) were popular during the 1980s, but might not have aged well. This is the fault of the later listening public, not the tracks themselves. They are still worth listening to.
Four guilty pleasures from the 1980s people should still be listening to
Air Supply (OK, almost literally any single)
There is no real reason to love this Australian group that produces overly saccharine songs, but dang it. If you love them, you love them and you will defend them until the end of time. But do not worry as you are not alone in your love of Air Supply. The group - which is mostly just the duo of Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell - has produced eight Hot 100 singles in the United States alone.
The group began releasing albums in the 1970s, but it was not until the 1980s that their popularity exploded beginning with the single, "Lost in Love." That was followed in quick succession by "Every Woman in the World" and "All Out of Love." Air Supply produces the kind of music you might hear while you are in the back row of some classically boring wedding, but you will be singing along with every track and looking around to make sure no one notices you.
REO Speedwagon - "Keep On Loving You" (1980)
I could have gone with another REO track here, "Can't Fight This Feeling." The difference between that song and "Keep On Loving You" is that "...Loving You" is a good song and the other is absolute rubbish. Still, the words are cheesy for both. Some of the lyrics for "Keep On Loving You" include, "And I'm gonna keep on lovin' you'/Cause it's the only thing I want to do/I don't want to sleep, I just want to keep on lovin' you." Eww, but somehow outrageously catchy.
This is the epitome of a power ballad with the boom and the softness. You could dance to it and feel overly emotional. The track might not be the best song ever written, but it might stay with you even longer.
Journey - "Open Arms" (1982)
"Open Arms" is the Journey answer to the REO song. It's too sweet for its own good and one might feel as if they just want to jump in their car and keep driving into the California desert. But then realizes they live thousands of miles from California and wonders what they are doing. That is the power of this track.
Like every good power ballad, you might get lulled in by its slow tempo and generalities and then you fall under the swarm of an overzealous chorus. Without realizing it, however, you will be singing in full voice in your living room with your cell phone flashlight on as if you are seeing Journey in concert. You might not have any real kinship with the words either, but that won't stop you from forcing your neighbors to hear you emote, "So here I am/With open arms/Hoping you'll see/What your love means to me/Open arms."
Men At Work - "Be Good Johnny" (1982)
When I was putting this list together, a friend of mine mentioned Men At Work needing to be in the article. Men At Work was an excellent band in the early 1980s and does not seem like a guilty pleasure. Why feel guilty about being appreciative of such excellence? Maybe there was a certain corniness to some of the songs, but this was the 1980s after all.
"Be Good Johnny" was the third single released from the band's amazing debut album and it reached number three in the United States but only 78 in the UK. What might be a bit silly is that vocalist Colin Hay voices both teacher and student (Johnny) on the track. Still, the music is catchy ( "be good, be good, be good...") and wonderful, and listening to the track will make you happy.