When I was in high school, no guy would publicly admit to liking The Carpenters but secretly we all did. Other than for appearance’s sake, no one would complain when one of the girlfriends would shove a Carpenters eight-track into the player. (Dating myself there.) I really don’t know how anyone can NOT like Karen Carpenter’s voice. As a pure vocalist, she might be the best of the era.
That’s exactly the way it was. It wasn’t ‘cool’ to like the Carpenters and practically everyone did.