Why does taste matter? Ok. If you like something and I like it too, that gives us something to talk about right? The reason I get along with some of my better friends has a little bit to do with our shared frame of reference. But then, we disagree alot too, and thats fine. I suppose if we disagreed on everything, that would give us alot less to talk about. And you might say, 'Dude, you like that? That sucks!' and I might say 'Dude you like that? That sucks!'
But really, what does liking something do? What are you doing when you like something? Nothing. Stating a preference maybe. But to stand in front of a person and say, 'I like this.' What does it really do unless you talk about why you like it. Is it because it doesn't suck, or doesn't blow, or because it influenced something that came after. I had a friend in High School, who was my best friend, who listened to music that I could not fathom listening to. And then I kind of started to like it, because I picked up on some of the energy he got from it. I also, however, thought during that time of my life that the music I was listening to was really important and that only idiots would listen to 'mainstream music'. But you get beyond your teens and realize that alot of the things that seemed really important to you at the time, don't amount to much. Its really not important whether the other person on the bus likes REM.
That said, I think there's a certain mindset one can get in, where they start to claim music as theirs. They use it not only to define themselves but to define themselves against other people. They start arguements over it, call people names over it. All over, basicly, CDs, 7" singles, who 'owns a copy' of what. I guess it's fun. Fetishization. Which means you use music or literature or film as a way to compensate for something else. I do it. I use art to stand in for whole lot of things that are lacking in my life. But then I also use it to make myself feel more free. And I think its incredibly interesting that other people like other kinds music, books etc.
But I ask you again, if I like something that you don't like, why would you care? Why does it matter to you?
3 comments:
Some days I feel like knowing why I do or do not like a particular song is all I really have.
Right, a song moves you. But don't you see that this all just quackery if we don't talk about why? Every person is a fucking indefinably expansive complex of sensations and memories. That's what is real. For me to say that I merely like something is just static, unless I go beyond that. And I can understand why thinking about why you like a particular would mean alot. But does thinking about why don't like something, is that really so important. What's more important, what the song does to you or the reasons you come up with for liking it. Its fun sure, but what fucking good does it do anyone? And then to turn that into some kind of preemptive elitism and act as though the fact that I even listen to music is somehow an offensive thing for you, I mean what the fuck? This makes me feel as though there's no need to even try to have a dialogue with you, though it looks like I am. Why do you feel the need to use something that should make you more free to condemn others?
Look this is my position. Musical tastes are not fucking sacred. They should not represent who you are. And to use them for that purpose is selling yourself and the art short. So why do that?
It was just a joke. Jeez. Go listen to Song Cycle!
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