A question of taste
Prince played Vancouver last Friday night. I was chatting about the fey, left-handed musician with a friend of mine recently. Our conversation went something like this:
ME: Yeah, Prince is really not to my taste.
HER: But he’s amazing, what’s not to like?
ME: I acknowledge that he’s a super guitarist, a great songwriter and a fantastic showman. I just don’t care for his music.
HER: Blerg.
I find myself saying a variation of “it’s good, but not to my taste” all the time. And I often find that people seem baffled or disappointed by my response. I guess it’s because they want me to like what they like too.
But–and here’s where I sound like a you-kids-get-off-my-lawn curmudgeon–I feel like there’s been a decline in the idea of taste in our culture. Or maybe it’s a decline in a respect of different tastes.
You would think that, in a increasingly balkanized cultural landscape, people would more readily accept differences like this. But it’s my sense that the opposite is true. What do you think?
