Is taste subjective?

[Ashleyxoxo]

In my early teen years, I wanted desperately to fit in with the kids who listened to stuff like Nirvana. They seemed so confident in that music, and being brown, I had an admiration for "white people music." So I bought a Nirvana album and forced myself to listen to it. I concentrated really, really hard on what could make it good, and eventually I did get his voice and started liking the music.

In my 20s, I went to college and the social sciences made me question my entire worldview. It was then that I started liking indie. I noticed that my taste changed each time I got smarter. Is there a link? I don't have the research tools to make such a conjecture, but I firmly believe, from my own experience as I've stated it, that taste is linked to intelligence.

What are your thoughts? Is the supposed subjectivity of taste another lie to make people feel better, similar to "beauty is on the inside"? Is it really that far off to say that taste matters?

[Katie N]

Do people like this? I like it.

[Grimbold21]

Do people like this? I like it.

No, it's industry propelled garbage

[Deja Thoris]

Taste is absolutely subjective.

What gets me is you're trying to imply its somehow linked to intelligence. As if there wasn't a spectrum of people that liked Nirvana from "as thivk as bricks" to "ultrasmart".

[minteK917]

I think you are confusing Maturity with Intelligence. Intelligence has nothing to do with taste. However maturity makes you less likely to feel self-conscious about your taste and hide it from others. Intelligence helps you mature faster in some case i suppose so thats the only link i could make to it.

You can easily spot someone that has yet to mature much, they will be acting like teenagers:
-This is for gays
-This is for girls
-This is for kids
-This is for old folks
-This is for Boys
-Cant understand why someone else loves something they dont, have to fight about it too.

You like what you like, trying to dismiss your own taste or that of others by being for X, is the sign of immature self-consciousness, this has nothing to do with age, some people never grow up past being a teenager really. This is coming from someone that was a teenager that used to make fun of people that listened to musics other then metal (in retrospective i must have looked like such a child, trying to pretend i was manly and adult). If you like something and your first reflex is, what will people think of me now? You have some work to do on yourself, your self confidence must be very low.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

You like what you like. You dislike what you dislike.


Wtf is this? Why is this even a topic to discuss?

I noticed that my taste changed each time I got smarter.

Oh I see. Validation thread. I forgot - you are in fact the OP who only posts with no substance just to post. What was it again? Notifications?

I post so I can get serotonin boosts from notifications of replies. Mmm, yes, notifications. I don’t have real friends, so I can’t rely on social media. Instead, I use forums to get notifications, which make me happy until I need more! More notifications!

Now you create this thread.


Interesting I guess.

[vindicatorx]

In my 20s, I went to college and the social sciences made me question my entire worldview. It was then that I started liking indie. I noticed that my taste changed each time I got smarter. Is there a link? I don't have the research tools to make such a conjecture, but I firmly believe, from my own experience as I've stated it, that taste is linked to intelligence.

You aren't getting smarter, you are being influenced by other ideologies.

What are your thoughts? Is the supposed subjectivity of taste another lie to make people feel better, similar to "beauty is on the inside"? Is it really that far off to say that taste matters?

Taste in music is 100% subjective, if it wasn't there wouldn't be as much variation as there is. As you are influenced and your mindset changes you seek music that appeals to your changing mindset.

[conceptKitty]

You like what you like but what you end up liking can be influenced by others.
I liked scene kids and that style because it's what was cool at the time in my teens. Of course I was a child during that time and getting validation from others was important.

Maturity has something to do with it but then again adults or at least some, still chase every next clothing trend.

[Puri]

I love David Hasselhoff. I hope that makes me intelligent.

[ranzino]

"De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum"
Source

nope, not sorry to invoke posh latin; the case WAS settled long ago

[Temp name]

I noticed that my taste changed each time I got smarter.

Or maybe it was because you were influenced by other things.
Or because you got older.

I guarantee you, there are people dumb as bricks who like what you listen to, and people smarter than you who like things you deem "stupid," which I guess would also include Nirvana.

If your tastes didn't change as you got older and experienced new things, I'd be more worried than when it does.

[Ghostpanther]

Of course. It is like music or art. People have different likes and dislikes.

[deepr]

Of course taste is subjective, such as taste in music.

But apart from your own subjective taste, there are certain qualities to music that are there, whether you personally like them or not.

For example, classical music from hundreds of years ago is still being taught, studied, practiced and played today. There might not be a huge audience for it, but it's still here. So there is at least a consensus, one that's consistent over time, that certain music is "great" and still worthy of being played today.
And while it might not be possible to measure the quality/greatness of music in a purely objective way, this consensus does say a lot about the music.

The average crap you'll find in the pop music charts today, will soon be forgotten, while great art music will still be listened to a hundred or more years from now.

[PC2]

In my early teen years, I wanted desperately to fit in with the kids who listened to stuff like Nirvana. They seemed so confident in that music, and being brown, I had an admiration for "white people music." So I bought a Nirvana album and forced myself to listen to it. I concentrated really, really hard on what could make it good, and eventually I did get his voice and started liking the music.

In my 20s, I went to college and the social sciences made me question my entire worldview. It was then that I started liking indie. I noticed that my taste changed each time I got smarter. Is there a link? I don't have the research tools to make such a conjecture, but I firmly believe, from my own experience as I've stated it, that taste is linked to intelligence.

What are your thoughts? Is the supposed subjectivity of taste another lie to make people feel better, similar to "beauty is on the inside"? Is it really that far off to say that taste matters?

All observations are theory-laden. (Including air waves hitting your ear drums)

How much you appreciate music depends on the sum total of your experiences in life, culture, and how they have altered the theories that you hold in your head. If music speaks to you and feels good it's because it resonates with your current theories and their associated problems.

Music is objectively better or worse, but it depends on the particular subject/person, their theories about the world, aesthetics, music, etc. Some people have radically different theories so it's easy to have to two people having opposite theories/tastes of the same song. Regardless of how popular it is in general.

Ideally an artist could make a piece so perfect that 100% of people say it's a masterpiece. It's objectively good. This probably won't happen since at least 1 person will be able to detect a flaw in it. Requiring a new and improved artpiece, ad infinitum.

- - - Updated - - -

In my I noticed that my taste changed each time I got smarter. Is there a link?

Yes because your theories become more accurate as you get smarter and that directly effects how you value the streams of observations as they relate to music, movies, games, etc. If your tastes never change over time then you are probably stuck in a static lifestyle.

[Mistame]

I don't have the research tools to make such a conjecture, but I firmly believe, from my own experience as I've stated it, that taste is linked to intelligence.

Deciding that something must be true based purely on your own experiences isn't what one would call "intelligence".

Is the supposed subjectivity of taste another lie to make people feel better, similar to "beauty is on the inside"?

By definition, anything that falls under personal preference is inherently subjective. That's what that word means.

Do people like this? I like it.

I suppose it's cultural or something. To me it sounds like someone threw a bunch of random sounds into a blender and recorded it. But then, I dislike virtually all pop music so...

[PC2]

By definition, anything that falls under personal preference is inherently subjective. That's what that word means.

Ultimately it's not subjective though. If pre-historic cavemen make a song banging rocks together it will almost assuredly be objectively worse than Beethoven's Ode to Joy. The issue is when you compare Beethoven's work to say Mozart's work we don't, and never will, have the means of measuring which one is better or worse. But just because we don't have the capacity to prove that something is objectively better or worse when it comes to non-scientific matters, that doesn't actually mean there isn't a truth to the matter.

[Egomaniac]

Ultimately it's not subjective though. If pre-historic cavemen make a song banging rocks together it will almost assuredly be objectively worse than Beethoven's Ode to Joy. The issue is when you compare Beethoven's work to say Mozart's work we don't, and never will, have the means of measuring which one is better or worse. But just because we don't have the capacity to prove that something is objectively better or worse when it comes to non-scientific matters, that doesn't actually mean there isn't a truth to the matter.

There is nothing objective about personal preference though.

Yes, Beethoven is objectively better at composing music than Cavemen banging rocks...but that has nothing to do with what I like to listen to.

[PC2]

There is nothing objective about personal preference though.

Yes, Beethoven is objectively better at composing music than Cavemen banging rocks...but that has nothing to do with what I like to listen to.

Okay so my claim is that personal preference doesn't justify the correctness of that preferance. If you prefer the taste of feces and I prefer the taste of filet mignon it's not merely a personal subjective disagreement. One side is objectively more or less wrong. Problems only arise when we lack the knowledge to distinguish between hard cases like filet mignon vs lobster.

[LilSaihah]

I love David Hasselhoff. I hope that makes me intelligent.

So long as you stay away from Rick and Morty. Your head'd explode.

[Egomaniac]

Okay so my claim is that personal preference doesn't justifying the correctness of that preferance. If you prefer the taste of feces and I prefer the taste of filet mignon it's not merely a personal subjective disagreement. One side is objectively more or less wrong. Problems only arise when we lack the knowledge to distinguish between hard cases like filet mignon vs lobster.

Again, objectivity has nothing to do with personal taste though. There are people that think Nickelback is the greatest band of all time and there are those that think they are the worst god damn band of all time. The objective truth is probably somewhere between those two extremes...but that doesn't change the preferences of those involved. There are bands that I love that I know are objectively worse than bands that I hate...but that doesn't change my preference.

Even if you were to prove, to use your previous example, that Mozart is objectively better than Beethoven...it wouldn't make people like Beethoven less or Mozart more.