Taste : being able to distinguish the good of something from the bad as far as quality and excellence is concerned.
When it comes to musical taste, can we ever be objective or is it impossible because music is subjective?
We would say the latter is probably true. As human beings, our taste is informed by our experience and thus it is almost impossible for an 18 year old to listen to music in the same way as a 50 year old.
But that seldom stops us from denigrating music that we consider inferior and yes that is also part of the human experience – our differences make us who we are as well.
The key is that in terms of the art of tastemaking – as we attempt to do on this webzine – it is the ability to justify an opinion that is crucial.
After all, it’s easy to simple state that the music of Steve Aoki (and by association all EDM) is shit but it’s more a challenge to opine that Steve Aoki’s music is inferior because it lacks compositional technique, timbre and texture and relies on synthetic sounds that are devoid of organic connection, and thus is purely functional, without artistic merit.
Still, that’s only an opinion. Our opinion does not change the fact that Steve Aoki is popular, successful and able to make millions of dollars with his music.
So ultimately there is only one truth – which is stated above. However, being able to explain WHY you like a particular kind of music and to offer arguments to persuade someone who does not like that particular kind of music is the ART of TASTEMAKING!
… still there’s more …