Your personal taste, what does it actually mean?

Formentera Lady wrote: - sophisticated construction with beginning, middle part, ending

Part of the original post involved the question of "musical beauty" that might exist independent of personal taste. The orthodoxy that seems to be emerging from the discussion--pretty much as expected given the orthodoxy of post-modern culture (and yes, there is such a thing)--is that everythng depends on personal taste. "Good is good, and bad is bad." So just for the sake of argument, or rmore accurately for healthy discussion, I'd like to suggest an opposing position: Yes, there is such a thing as musical beauty independent of individual taste.

rod65 wrote: Part of the original post involved the question of "musical beauty" that might exist independent of personal taste.  (.......) I've gone on long enough. Hopefully, some of the more patient among you will actualy have read all of this, and offer a response.

Crickey.  I really don't understand my personal preferences half the time.  Some things I can state with (relative) certainty:

Not a big progressive metal fan.  I do make some allowances (Ayreon, Ice Age), but for the most part, my tastes veer in a more eclectic, less thunderous vein.

I really enjoy proto-prog, psychedelia and (most of all) early prog groups from 70-74.  I'm a slavering Hammond organ addict, so a decent keyboard player if often essential to the music I prefer.  I tend to veer away from Yes-style symphonic...indeed, I have yet to listen to a Yes album from end to end.  I've tried Close to the Edge about two dozen times, and I can never get past And You And I.  Genesis has also been a problem.  Yet I really enjoy some symphonic...I'm a huge Kansas, Beggars Opera, Fantasy, Camel, ELP fan, so essentially my tastes don't make any gorram sense.  Really, eclectic and crossover prog is where it's at for me...GG, VdGG (leading up to Godbluff, I'm still struggling with their stuff post-Pawn Hearts), earlier KC (Lizard is a MUST), alongside stuff like Gnidrolog, Gracious etc.  If it came out before 75, I'll probably be all over it.

Now for the analysis...I think my preoccupation with early prog has to do with recording techniques and the energy inherent to an emergent genre.  I have a real difficult time getting into contemporary prog, and no small portion of this involves the fact that so much modern prog is merely emulating without innovating.  Also, it all sounds so slick...sterile might be another word.  I just picked up the big release of 2010, Excavation of the Mind by Sky Architect, and so far it's leaving me very cold.  Again, it's the weirdly clinical aspect of digital recording...I like Presto Ballet based almost solely on their use of analogue tape.  Call me shallow, but production values really, really matter to me.  Cut back to the great albums of the late 60s-early 70s, and the sound is just there.  Usually it's most noticeable to me in the resonance of the drums...I am a drummer, and I like a crisp, organic sound to my snares (one of the curses that's kept me from enjoying a lot of prog's more industrial products, actually).  I also...and yes, I will claim this...I'm a sucker for catchy vocal lines.  If a band's vocalist meanders around like a drunken bee hunting for a flower, I'll get bored very quickly.  Not surprising, I suppose - my first (and still greatest) love is Queen.

So what is personal taste?  Well.......it's personal. 




Edited by Lozlan - September 22 2010 at 16:38

rod65 wrote:   I've gone on long enough. Hopefully, some of the more patient among you will actualy have read all of this, and offer a response.

I just quote this last bit so that i don't make a mess out of the thread. That's a very nice explanation of what musical beuty might be. And i happen to agree in most points, except the evolutionary part which might have been only an accident IMO, that's kind of a mistery... why did we developed a taste for organized sounds, the thing is, we did. So now what? why do some people find some music interesting and other not. I think that's the question of the century AND the thread itself.

Regarding taste, I like ethnic music, so I have a soft spot for any prog band with these tendencies. Bands with folk influences, like Jethro Tull for example, or with classical tendencies, are always on my "favorites" list. 

I'm not sure if my personal taste actually means anything other than this is the music that I enjoy listening too and that makes me happy. We are all wired differently, so different things appeal to each of us. Personal taste is unique for us all. 

"Your personal taste, what does it actually mean?"

Why ask the question? Is the OP, and many responding, in need of having his/her personal preferences validated? It seems to me that this is how the concept of taste is most often used. I like what I like, but I tell you about it because I seek your approval or I am keen to join your club - taste is normative. This is consistent with the social/hierarchical roots of tastes discussed earlier; to say "I like Mozart" is to say I wish to be seen as middle-class.

As to how we arrive at our taste, I cannot believe, at least in the subtle distinction between Canterbury and Jazz-fusion or Symphonic Prog and P-funk (in the grand scheme of 50,000 years of human culture Yes and Funkadelic are almost identical) that this is physiological. That said, I recently attended a small Space Rock festival where I found myself surrounded by people who, like me, really could not dance; out attempts to move in time to the rhythm were comedic and spastic - all of us. So, maybe Hawkwind only appeals to the rhythmically challenged, maybe we are wired differently. This doesn't explain why taste changes - quite frankly much of the stuff I adored as a younger man - Yes, Genesis, Renaissance (especially Renaissance) I have no time for now, finding myself listening to the more succinct loveliness of Tool or Opeth or Magma; curiously, still prog, just different prog. Did I get bored? Did I hear Songd from the Wood or Novella or Close tot he Edge too many times? Perhaps, but these days I eschew Heinz ketchup for the hand made ketchup from the deli - but that might just be normative too.

And a Grand and Mellow Hello to all on the forum

Lozlan wrote: I strongly believe that personal taste revolves exclusively around the power of the listener to interpret.  In literary circles, the concept is known as 'The Author is Dead,' and it's one of the fundamental pillars of post-modern literary criticism.

Edited by moshkito - September 23 2010 at 19:06

The Highly Charged wrote: "Your personal taste, what does it actually mean?" Why ask the question? Is the OP, and many responding, in need of having his/her personal preferences validated? It seems to me that this is how the concept of taste is most often used. I like what I like, but I tell you about it because I seek your approval or I am keen to join your club - taste is normative. This is consistent with the social/hierarchical roots of tastes discussed earlier; to say "I like Mozart" is to say I wish to be seen as middle-class. As to how we arrive at our taste, I cannot believe, at least in the subtle distinction between Canterbury and Jazz-fusion or Symphonic Prog and P-funk (in the grand scheme of 50,000 years of human culture Yes and Funkadelic are almost identical) that this is physiological. That said, I recently attended a small Space Rock festival where I found myself surrounded by people who, like me, really could not dance; out attempts to move in time to the rhythm were comedic and spastic - all of us. So, maybe Hawkwind only appeals to the rhythmically challenged, maybe we are wired differently. This doesn't explain why taste changes - quite frankly much of the stuff I adored as a younger man - Yes, Genesis, Renaissance (especially Renaissance) I have no time for now, finding myself listening to the more succinct loveliness of Tool or Opeth or Magma; curiously, still prog, just different prog. Did I get bored? Did I hear Songd from the Wood or Novella or Close tot he Edge too many times? Perhaps, but these days I eschew Heinz ketchup for the hand made ketchup from the deli - but that might just be normative too. And a Grand and Mellow Hello to all on the forum

I tend to want people joining my club