Acquiring the Taste
Let’s talk about taste, and how I have it and most people don’t. This is a bold statement, I know. You need to make bold statements to get attention. I don’t actually think there’s such a thing as “good taste” or “bad taste.” Everybody has their own taste and you can’t really assign ratings to them based on that. When it’s possible to step back from our immediate judgmental reactions, however – and sometimes that’s difficult for me, to be honest -- taste can be an invaluable tool to learn about other people.
What is taste? Other than a pretty good seventies rock band and a sense that informs us when we just accidentally put cat food in our mouths. Generally, it means what we like and what we don’t like on an aesthetic level. And that’s a very personal thing. A subjective thing. Just because I don’t like Doritos doesn’t make it an illegitimate snack food. It just means that I, personally, don’t enjoy dusty wood shavings. And that’s true of media, as well.
At best, taste is a set of vector points that, taken together, can tell you about the different aspects of someone’s personality. Sure, I like music, comics, cartoons, board games, etc. I even like specific genres and artists within those broader categories. I don’t call myself a metalhead or board gamer or geek or whatever. I’m myself. I’m the point at the center of the matrix that all those vectors live on.
A lot of people take the art that they love very, very personally. For good reason, too: the best art speaks to us on a deeply emotional level. It helps mirror our experiences, help us understand the experiences of others, and deepens the way we look at ourselves and the world. Of course that’s something that human beings would hold close to their hearts. In some cases too close.
We’ve all been on the internet. We’ve all seen fandoms and how toxic they can get. It’s not healthy to push your own taste onto other people or define yourself by something external that you have no control over. I know that sounds funny coming from somebody who writes music criticism. But I don’t view my love of music as something I need to force others to adopt. I enjoy sharing things I like and try to articulate to others the value I see in the work (or lack of value, as the case may be).
There’s such a thing as informed and uninformed taste, and I reject the idea that expertise isn’t a real thing. Like, it’s not arrogant to say I know more about movies having gone to film school and watched thousands of the things than somebody who’s just watched The Shawshank Redemption a bunch. They’re certainly more of an expert on The Shawshank Redemption than I am, granted. But the reason somebody like Roger Ebert was worth listening to was because, even when he didn’t share the subjective emotional reaction to a film that I had, he knew enough about film and filmmaking that he could point out why the movie did or did not work for him and what the film might say about society/human nature in general. In other words, proper criticism. It doesn’t mean he’s right, but I’m inherently going to hold his opinion in higher regard than some dude on Twitter.
I stick to writing about things I know about, things that are in the wheelhouse of my personal taste. I own and have listened to thousands of records. It’s not all just metal. Hard rock/metal is the genre I’ve probably explored the most, though, and I’ve gone out of my way to study its history and major personalities. I can speak about it with expertise. I want people to feel like I know what I’m talking about and that they can trust me, even if the genre itself isn’t their thing. I get it. Metal is a strong taste. Not everybody likes it. And not everybody has to. It’s like cilantro – for some people it’s like eating soap.
I’ve had people ask me why I don’t have opinions on Kendrick Lamar or Drake or Teddy Swims or Jellyroll or whatever. It’s because it’s not my thing and I know it’s not my thing. I’ll give them a listen if I happen to come across them just to see what it’s all about, but I don’t have that much to say about them other than “This isn’t my thing.” But that’s okay – there are plenty of people out there for whom it is their thing, and they can talk intelligently about them. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to wade into dumb Internet arguments about them if it seems like fun, though. I’m only human.
One of the things I enjoyed most about doing WAYPOINT was having the freedom to synthesize my taste in science fiction and mystery stories into something that felt like me. It provides vector points that tell the reader what I enjoy while not being beholden to any specific one of them. Plus I’ve included some pretty killer playlists in the back of the book so I got to sneak in my love of music as well.
At the top of this article, I made the joking claim that I have good taste. Obviously that’s entirely subjective. I would argue, however, that I have informed taste in the places I’ve chosen to make my own. I try to be discerning. Even if somebody disagrees with or doesn’t like my recommendations, I want it to be clear that I’ve actually thought about it beyond just “I like this.” To me, that’s what it means to be considered to have taste. It’s not a matter of good or bad. It’s a matter of knowledgeable or ignorant.
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NOW SPINNING
Herbie Hancock – Head Hunters
Voivod – Dimension Hatröss
Raven – Who Do You See…
Atarashii Gakko! – AG! Calling
Motorhead – Bomber
