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Started By
Message
Does The Average Person Have Poor Music Taste?
Posted on 4/8/15 at 7:22 pm
Posted on 4/8/15 at 7:22 pm
I realize music is subjective, and people have preferences. There's no problem in liking mainstream music, but I think what makes poor taste is sticking to what is on the mainstream only. It seems as though most stay in the bubble, which I find is showing a lack of refined taste. If all you listen to is Beyonce and Drake, and Lil Wayne and everything that is played on the radio constantly, I'd say that is having poor taste. You throw names out like Sturgill Simpson, and these Florida Georgia Line fans couldn't tell you who he is. Yet they claim to like "country". With rap you have some good artists in the spotlight like Kendrick, Kid Cudi, and a few others, but Run the Jewels is unknown to most. In rock/blues we have a few artists that are great in the mainstream, Jack White, John Mayer, and a handful of others, but St. Paul and the Broken Bones, The War on Drugs, Houndmouth, Lord Huron, Strand of Oaks, etc are relatively unknown. I'm a huge fan of old music from Bob Dylan to BB King to Sam Cooke to the Allman Brothers, but most my age especially don't listen to any of this.
I look at people that are huge fans of FGL, Luke Bryan, Lil Wayne, Drake, etc... as favorites as people with poor taste. I can't help sounding like a snob with this. Although I understand the subjectiveness of music, I can't help but feel that most of this music is made for simpletons, and that's all a lot of people listen to. It's fine to not like what I listen to (the people I mentioned), and having your own preferences, but having only an interest in what's popular is so goddamn dull. So does the average person have poor taste or am I just sounding like an a-hole because not everyone listens to music the way I do? Maybe some don't want to put the time into learning to appreciate more complex music because they lack a true passion for it?
Sorry for the rambling, just want some thoughts. Too much caffeine.
TLDR version: Do people that only listen to what is popular have poor taste in music? Or do they just not have the same passion for it to expand their taste?
I look at people that are huge fans of FGL, Luke Bryan, Lil Wayne, Drake, etc... as favorites as people with poor taste. I can't help sounding like a snob with this. Although I understand the subjectiveness of music, I can't help but feel that most of this music is made for simpletons, and that's all a lot of people listen to. It's fine to not like what I listen to (the people I mentioned), and having your own preferences, but having only an interest in what's popular is so goddamn dull. So does the average person have poor taste or am I just sounding like an a-hole because not everyone listens to music the way I do? Maybe some don't want to put the time into learning to appreciate more complex music because they lack a true passion for it?
Sorry for the rambling, just want some thoughts. Too much caffeine.
TLDR version: Do people that only listen to what is popular have poor taste in music? Or do they just not have the same passion for it to expand their taste?
29
Posted on 4/8/15 at 7:39 pm to CocoLoco
yes
Posted on 4/8/15 at 7:44 pm to CocoLoco
Yes. This board is a terrific example of that. Most people have horrible taste.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 7:48 pm to CocoLoco
No. People have different tastes. What is poor taste to you may be excellent taste to someone else.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 7:51 pm to The Dudes Rug
I covered that part. What I like people might not like, that's fine. I'm referring to those that never look outside of the bubble that is the mainstream; lack of taste or lack of passion for music?
Posted on 4/8/15 at 8:05 pm to CocoLoco
Yes. The average person has poor taste in everything, not just music. That's why they're average.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 8:07 pm to CocoLoco
Lack of passion for music wouldn't equal having poor taste. No matter how you cut it, it's all purely subjective, just as you said in the initial post. Judging someone based on them liking an artist you hate or hating an artist you like is ridiculous.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 8:14 pm to The Dudes Rug
But a lack of passion for it will make you listen to it differently. I'm obsessed with music, always have been, so I'm constantly looking for new artists and expanding my library in it. Sticking to just what's on the radio, which objectively is cliche as a whole, says to me you either don't find music as important, or you have a lack of taste. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with liking mainstream music, I have a soft spot for some pop music myself, I'm speaking on those that only listen to that.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 8:22 pm to CocoLoco
I feel like the average person likes repetition and doesn't care about complex sound or lyrics. To them, if a song is catchy, it is good, regardless of the words. I'll admit it is the way I also first make an assessment of a song, but if the lyrics are overtly terrible, the sound does not matter.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 8:38 pm to CocoLoco
this is an interesting question as "taste" is all relative. I would describe "taste" as necessarily varied, but then I like what I like and I virulently dislike what I dislike
I'll eat anything and generally enjoy it but I won't eat fast food garbage... It's a waste if a meal. I'll listen to just about anything as long as it's serious music but I won't listen to rap or pop
so while I would describe my musical tastes as varied (rock, folk, blues, country, classical, etc) others may say I lack diversity and therefore "taste"
I'll eat anything and generally enjoy it but I won't eat fast food garbage... It's a waste if a meal. I'll listen to just about anything as long as it's serious music but I won't listen to rap or pop
so while I would describe my musical tastes as varied (rock, folk, blues, country, classical, etc) others may say I lack diversity and therefore "taste"
Posted on 4/8/15 at 8:42 pm to CocoLoco
Most people believe everything they see on TV, and take what they hear on mainstream radio as truth. If it hasn't gone viral, if it's not being played on a Clear Channel station, nor if it doesn't get played on their Blake Shelton Pandora Playlist, they will not like it, nor will they understand it. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff presented through those avenues is pretty bad. So, yes, the average person's music taste is rather poor.
This post was edited on 4/8/15 at 11:56 pm
Posted on 4/8/15 at 8:59 pm to CocoLoco
quote:
Or do they just not have the same passion for it to expand their taste?
I think this is it as a general rule. Most people just don't care. They like music for the peripheral social things. Like music to go out with their friends and listen to while getting drunk. Or repetitive music that is just easy to dance to. They want something easily digestible that most people will recognize.
I think there's also an element of simply being closed minded. I can be closed minded sometimes even though I do make a real effort to be open to new ideas. But a lot of people don't care enough about music as an artform to even consider that they are being closed minded.
It's also easy to just think that most people are stupid, but that's probably just too easy and arrogant of an excuse to fall back onto.
This post was edited on 4/8/15 at 9:34 pm
Posted on 4/8/15 at 9:04 pm to The Dudes Rug
quote:
Lack of passion for music wouldn't equal having poor taste. No matter how you cut it, it's all purely subjective, just as you said in the initial post. Judging someone based on them liking an artist you hate or hating an artist you like is ridiculous.
I don't really have a passion for wine. Really I get many of the different types mixed up. I would say that I have poor taste in wine compared to some connoisseurs, although I could develop good taste if I devoted myself to learning about it.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 9:05 pm to The Dudes Rug
quote:
Lack of passion for music wouldn't equal having poor taste. No matter how you cut it, it's all purely subjective, just as you said in the initial post. Judging someone based on them liking an artist you hate or hating an artist you like is ridiculous.
Good post. This goes for pretty much everything in life. No matter how far above the "riff raff" you think you are, there's someone who thinks they are above you, and you are the "riff raff."
This post was edited on 4/8/15 at 9:06 pm
Posted on 4/8/15 at 9:06 pm to Peazey
I agree with that. Very nice response.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 9:19 pm to CocoLoco
Kid cudi fricking bleauxs. And yes, that's all I got out of your post.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 9:23 pm to GreatLakesTiger24
GreatContribuTion24
Posted on 4/8/15 at 10:03 pm to CocoLoco
Here is the issue: It takes a lot of time and effort to sample all of the different wines, and when you try a wine that really hits you as being truly epic and transcendent, you want to repeat that experience so that it carves itself into your memory and basically becomes almost a part of your self-identity. You want to take the time to truly understand every characteristic and understand what makes it great. You may sample every award-winning wine in a tour of the Napa Valley, but after that experience are they not going to all kind of blur together into an undefined, abstract collage of unmemorable wines?
I have a real problem with people telling me that I must have a poor taste in music just because I don't know a particular band or artist. It's about quality not quantity.
There's just so much volume out there right now and different avenues for being exposed to music that I'm afraid some stuff gets called "great" that's actually just rehashed or re-excavated from the shallows or depths of music's historical ocean, while at the same time there may be truly original or groundbreaking stuff that get diluted in the constant barrage of wave after wave of "newness." We have become the filter that was once the labels, which is great, but comes with more responsibility.
You have to be careful.
I understand your sentiment, but simply not being exposed - or simply a desire to allow greatness to set in - doesn't constitute poor taste (the opposite for the latter.) We have to remember, there was a time when music wasn't so easily available. You had to physically go to the record store, usually commit to ONE album that would get you through a month or two or longer, and allow yourself to be immersed in that album. That immersion process doesn't happen any longer, and I don't think it can happen as quickly or in such a "multi-tasked" manner as music is absorbed today. JMO.
I have a real problem with people telling me that I must have a poor taste in music just because I don't know a particular band or artist. It's about quality not quantity.
There's just so much volume out there right now and different avenues for being exposed to music that I'm afraid some stuff gets called "great" that's actually just rehashed or re-excavated from the shallows or depths of music's historical ocean, while at the same time there may be truly original or groundbreaking stuff that get diluted in the constant barrage of wave after wave of "newness." We have become the filter that was once the labels, which is great, but comes with more responsibility.
You have to be careful.
I understand your sentiment, but simply not being exposed - or simply a desire to allow greatness to set in - doesn't constitute poor taste (the opposite for the latter.) We have to remember, there was a time when music wasn't so easily available. You had to physically go to the record store, usually commit to ONE album that would get you through a month or two or longer, and allow yourself to be immersed in that album. That immersion process doesn't happen any longer, and I don't think it can happen as quickly or in such a "multi-tasked" manner as music is absorbed today. JMO.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 10:12 pm to CocoLoco
The majority of people like bad music. Thing is, many just don't know what good music is because mainstream media, for the most part, doesn't play it.
Posted on 4/8/15 at 10:16 pm to The Dudes Rug
quote:
Lack of passion for music wouldn't equal having poor taste. No matter how you cut it, it's all purely subjective, just as you said in the initial post. Judging someone based on them liking an artist you hate or hating an artist you like is ridiculous.
This is not true. There is good, bad and mediocre music. Just like there is good, bad and mediocre food.
If you like bad food, then you just like bad food.
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