but many people would probably say I should be for enjoying...

Supertramp
Rush (the old stuff)
Yes (1970-1977)
Rainbow

Yes were good between 'Yes' and 'Close to the Edge'. Nothing to be ashamed of there. Liked 'Crime' and 'Crisis' by the 'tramp boys too come to that.

Very few actually - certainly none of the above-mentioned, all of whom have had their praises sung on these pages recently. Which is as it should be really. Personally, I've always had a bit of a penchant for the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, which I usually keep a bit quiet about and which I fear may be beyond the pale even for the broadminded Word readers...

You know what you're getting with Nickelback.

Straying into Guilty Pleasure nonsense here, aren't we?
I think the rule of thumb is to like what you like and anyone impertinent enough to think this is somehow "wrong" (and thus trigger "embarrasment") can go piss up a rope.
Know what you mean though.
One of my favourite groups is the bantam-weight Mod Revival also-rans Squire, whose records I used to buy at Probe in Liverpool, running the gauntlet of Pete Burns' sneering disdain ("what do you want that for?"). I know they're crap. But I love them.

Early seventies Yes may be acceptable now but - although I like the period mentioned by Patrick and Eddie - I think Drama is Jolly Spiffing too. I go with Richard here: it's often stated that music is either good or bad; I think not, there's only music you like or music you don't like.

[tapped out while listening to Tempus Fugit's Tracking Session]

I'm very fond of a bit of Sailor.

I have a certain weakness for Kansas! "Carry on my wayward son" etc. Fantastic!

...I don't give a hoot about that sort of 'guilty pleasure' stuff. I've always loved Yes, found their best work to be extremely adventurous and yet very melodic (maybe you can make an exception for 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' but that album got a lot better for me on repeated hearings). You can definitely hear their influence on modern bands like Mars Volta and Battles, in my opinion. 'Drama' is a great record, I agree. I think they were patchy after the excellent reinvention '90125', though- not sure which audience to please so their albums are patchy as a result. I seem to remember Yes were covered by Stuart Maconie in a very early edition of Word??

Same with Rush, a band who have been vastly influential over the years and continue to make excellent albums without repeating themselves. Enjoy some Kansas- 'Leftoverture' is a great album.

Never got the flak Supertramp get; their music is well crafted and has great melodies and appealed to a lot of people. I played 'Crime Of The Century' just yesterday actually.

Another of my favourite bands, Marillion, gets a lot of terrible flak but the criticisms I read of them are woefully misplaced. Saw them at my university and it was by far the best performance I've seen from anyone thus far.

It's probably the AOR stuff that I'm more cautious of admitting; I like some of the Journey albums a lot, for example. Bands like Foreigner and Toto I only really like a handful of songs of, though...

Really, I don't think anybody should feel guilty about liking anything. It's magazines like NME and Q that are to blame for making people feel ashamed for not liking whatever indie-come-lately act they are hyping.

I'm happy to come out and admit that I really enjoy The Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

I wouldn't say I was embarrassed exactly, but the fact that I love ELO doesn't come up in musical conversation all that often...

Xanadu!

I actually went to a fancy dress party as Jeff Lynne last year :)

No one had a clue who I was supposed to be...