Do you hate certain prog because of popularity?

 

I would claim that. But absolute objective taste is an abstract idea, and an impossible thing to possess, unless you have entered a higher form of consciousness and become one with the Absolute. Personal taste is a mixture of subjective experience and objective reason.

 

Paravion wrote: discussions where the participants assume that music actually has (value-laden) properties. Can you do that while maintaining that taste is completely subjective?

 

No. But I'm gonna take food as an example , as Equality did. Everyone has their own tastes. But still there is good and bad cooking. A fine restaurant makes better food than the average lunch restaurant. It's no question about it. To make the best cooking you have to master the art. And that requires knowledge, passion, inspiration etc. Just as with music. Can you really make great music if you have no passion for it? Well, some might like it. Some might like overcooked broccoli. Maybe becasue they haven't tried perfectly cooked broccoli.

 

It's more complicated with music, but you can still make objective distinctions, at least in regard to individual aspects of the music.

 

Among the worst music of all kinds I think is the typical rock cover band. Not only do they lack any material of their own, but they play well known "rock hits" , designing the set list to please the audience as much as they can. Usually they stay as close to the original as possible. It serves a function - many people like to hear music they recognize. But the quality can't go beyond the ambition of serving the intended function. It's not about art and creativity.It's like the difference between a wine glass and a plastic wine glass (or a good wine and a bad wine - whatever). I would say, from a standpoint I would claim to have a lot of objective weight to it, that the quality of such concerts generally sucks.

 

But you can argue that if it is what it's meant to be - then it is perfect in it's own sphere, because the artist have achieved the goals of their ambition. But, as with the case with overcooked broccoli, lack of knowledge, vision, passion etc, sets a limit for the quality, which can't be exceeded unless the artist is willing to raise the ambition and strive for higher artistic levels.