Good Music

Taste

Is taste something that varies from person to person? Can there be a standard to which a person’s taste can be compared? These two questions raise some of the biggest issues that are never addressed by most people. The answer is of course, pretty tricky and not always what people would want to hear.

For each person, there cannot be a variable of taste, otherwise there would be infinite possibilities of taste, and then there would be absolutely no basis for “good” or “bad” taste. So, I think defined social parameters are where taste really begins to show itself. On the individual layer, there are differences, but not as significant. An analogy could be made to “genre” and “style” where a social parameter (a group of people) is a genre, and an individual is a style. Does this variable based on a broader border allow for less of an infinite cycle? It does not limit the possibility for the infinite, but with the broader definition, it brings it much more than could ever be on an individual analysis level.

The ultimate standard cannot exist. “Standards” are socially structured, and therefore will be different for each group of people. To put it with the previous example, a rap song cannot be properly evaluated amongst a group of country music lovers.

Good Music

This all leads to the point that, “Good Music” is more akin to “preferable music” in that it is only applicable within the genre that one person and song ascribe to themselves.

Now, if one were to say that a certain type of music is bad, what they are really saying is that a particular social group is bad to their preference. If one takes it further than “their preference” than they must defend why the entire social structure is bad. Until then, stop complaining.