Metal Reviews

I was discussing this with a friend today, he thought the music one listens to is a matter of taste, and there is no such thing as good or bad taste. While I agreed with the first, I do think there is a thing like bad taste in music. What do you think?

Well what constitutes bad taste is a matter of opinion. While I know Ken will have a field day with this thread, I know he will consider that you, Misha, have bad taste in music.

What I would consider having a bad taste in music is not being prepared to actually find out what you like listening to, if you know what I mean. People who find a little section that they like and stick to it. Whether that be chart pop fans, people who think Oasis are the be-all-end-all of music, power metal fans that point blank refuse to consider anything even slightly harsh, black metallers that won't listen to anything with even halfway decent production or whatever - living in a box, basically, is poor taste. However, in the same breath, I'd say professing to like a 'bit of everything' with no discrimination at all generally denotes something pretty superficial. Jack of all trades, master of none sort of thing.

So yeah this was all just me thinking out loud.

I'd say liking garbage like the Pussycat Dolls would constitute as bad taste.

yeah that's kinda what i wanted to say.

Yeah, I basically agree, but there also is... hmm, let's say, preferring the Backstreet Boys over Bach, isn't that factually a sign of bad taste?

And most modern R&B (R. Kellyish stuff).

And I listen to music inside Rad's mom's box. It's squishy in there.

yes. I say if you're focusing more on the image a group has than the music itself, you have bad taste in music.

if they truly like the music the backstreet boys (or rather, the backdoor boys, and yeah i'm really funny) make, then it's not bad taste, imo.

Fans without any critical sense have bad taste. F.ex. i had a friend who though St. Anger was the best Metallica album ever, even though he had all the other albums. Despite having a huge collection of (pussy) "metal", he will always be a fanboy to me who blindly follows his bands. And if a band released something slighty "heavy" after a calm period of time - it was the BEST ever!.. bah...

bad taste is:
when ppl lack critical sense
when ppl don't have an opinion themselves but needs to be guided
when the only thing ppl can manage to listen is easy listening/sing along music
when ppl who think they have good taste thinks other ppl are idiots for not liking the same
when ppl want to be cool (including teenage goths etc)
Guys who willingly listens to Pink, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and even have that on DVD.. What the FUCK are you doing?!?!
But the worst taste is this: Guys (same guy, don't you think? )who can't handle to listen to music unless it's recorded live in an über düber sound studio with supreme acoustic and supreme sound quality recorded onto a dvd so they can play it on their über düper surround sound high difinition hi-tech 3000 stereo with gold/optic cables worth a fortune, only to hear how well the guitar sound " just listen to the sound quality of that guitar recording, wow, man! cool right?" Yes, you are a fucking morron! The worst thing about this type is they can't handle to hear music or see movies elsewhere "it's not good enough, i might as well just stay home then!"

i also agree with Radagast on the "a little of everything", those ussual don't have a clue on what they are doing. Now i'm mostly thinking about teenagers who say so and old farts who only like metallica cuz "sad but true is a very good song"

i would like to think it's all relative, but it depends on your definition of "bad taste", i guess. By my definition a person who has no interest in music and doesn't know anything about it have bad taste (concerning music), and that's fair enough i think. It doesn't necessarily makes him or her an idiot, unless he thinks i'm an idiot for listening to my music, or not having the right stereo.

It's like a chef who spends hours making a 3 course meal filled with vegtables, rare spices, and top quality meat, vs. the guy at McDonald's who can make a Big Mac in 20 seconds. One may be of hihger quality, but you can't really make someone eat (or listen) to something they don't want to. Even though the 3 course meal may be healthier for you and of better quality, technically....sometimes big macs just hit the fucking spot. I'm hungry.

I think that's more just not being interested in music

I'd say if most/all of the music you like is white people playing electirc guitars, you have bad taste

Technically saying that someone has bad taste is opinion. Technically there's no real objective way to prove that a piece of music is 'good,' by any empirical measure.

But if you listen to the Backstreet Boys, your taste is still crap. I don't care about the 'technically,' if you listen to crap, then you listen to crap.

The only bad taste is liking shit pop like Fergie, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, etc, etc...anything else is fine, even just listening to shit rock like Fall Out Boy and Linkin Park. Not everyone loves music, so I won't fault them if they don't want to listen to it seriously.

But there's no excuse for liking the shit pop stuff...

Oh!! Noodles went there!!

I'm so daring and edgy

Tough question, I think. Astaroth, in particular, had an interesting take I thought...

I don't really think you can have good or bad taste, I guess. I mean, your "taste" is a reflection of what you like or dislike, and that isn't a measure of good and bad.

"Taste" - a relish, liking, or partiality for something: a taste for music. (dictionary.com)

At any rate, even if you disagree with me so far, I don't think you could really say there is bad taste in music but not good, or vice versa. If there is one, there must be the other. Otherwise, you can't really define either. It's kinda like, if there is light, there must also be darkness...

People like different music, and they often like it for different reasons. I don't hold it against someone that they like swing or some other music you can dance to because they like to dance. It wouldn't make sense for that kind of person to put in a Xasthur album and try to dance to it, obviously. But those people can have a like for certain songs over others, just like I do. It's just likely to be for different reasons.

Same goes for casual listeners that don't really seek out music, they just kind of listen to whatever they hear. Now, if they don't really have any strong likes or dislikes at all, then I don't really think they have any taste in music. But at any rate, such people really aren't interested in music, it's just something that's kinda there... Similarly, people that like pretty much everything, I don't know... do they really have any taste either? Meh.

What you're talking about with Bach or Backstreet Boys is more a matter of music appreciation than taste, I think. A person might like the latter and not the former, but if they don't appreciate the quality of the former, and/or try to tell you how great the Backstreet Boys are, then they have a poor sense of music appreciation (though I would caution anyone to not focus too much on any one example). Again, a lot of this comes back to the question of whether a not a person can separate their taste from what is quality music or properties of music that can be measurable (or at least attributable to the music and not the preference of the listener). Many people have such a bias because of their preferences and a need for validation that they find this a difficult concept to grasp, let alone embrace.

-Tyrion

Now that I think on it, I agree with all of this...there's really no "good taste" or "bad taste", it's just a matter of whether someone can appreciate good music or not--even if they don't necessarily like it.

The point about someone having no tastes if they don't really dislike anything is a good one...hadn't thought of that.

Ehhhhh..... This is a tough call. I'm tempted to say it's completely 100% relative, but then I thought about it more and tried to compare it to something that, well, is easier to think about.

There are other things that really technically are a matter of opinion... but kind of aren't. Example: you can't prove someone is attractive or unattractive, but... you kind of can.

But if you think about it that way, beauty's kind of defined by popular opinion...




So yeah. There's such thing as bad taste, and all of us have it.

Well if theres no good or bad taste, theres no good or bad music...

No, I disagree with that. That would only be true if a person could only like "good" music and dislike "bad" music. And that is clearly not the case (to me anyway). Likes and dislikes, ie preferences, are not dependent on, nor do they necessarily equate to, what's good or bad.

For example, a person might still like and wear some falling apart, rotting, smelly pair of shoes that they've had for seven years. But their liking them doesn't somehow elevate those shoes to something they aren't. ... Women can like lousy boyfriends, guys can like poorly built cars (or ones that are falling apart), etc.

Edit-

Hmm, thinking more about what you said. I think I see what you're getting at, but I still don't think I agree. A person might like only "good" music, but how is that better than someone who likes say, a mixture of "good" and "bad" music. A person's tastes aren't really the measurable component here, the music is. Maybe to a certain extent I'm splitting hairs by keeping tastes separate from appreciation...

-Tyrion