[kj] [OT] Music Snobbery

[Darren A. Peace]

Excellent points. You answered the question I posted in your second
sentence, though; the arbiter you're using  is "critical credibility". And
you identify the pointlessness of this in your fourth sentence. The world
doesn't need music critics. What I think the world needs is strongly
opinionated reviewers who the reader can form a view of over time to
establish whether a bad review from one means that the reader will either
like or dislike it. Music criticism is surely (almost) entirely about the
rhetoric - as you say, there is no "easily quantifiable measurement of
merit". If lots of people buy something, it is a quantifiable measurement of
how popular it is, and that's about as quantitative as it's possible to get.

 

Music I like over here, music I don't like over there. And I don't care what
anyone else thinks, although I always enjoy being told why I shouldn't like
an artist; leads to interesting conversations, generally.

 

I think I agree with you, but I am attempting to diminish several other
people's fervour for the music of Michael Jackson at the moment, not least
MY FUCKING NEIGHBOURS!

 

Darren

Hungerford, UK

 

From: Alexander Smith [mailto:vassifer at earthlink.net] 
Sent: 08 July 2009 6:39 PM
To: dpeace at suspiria.demon.co.uk
Cc: 'A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)'
Subject: Re: [OT] Music Snobbery

 

 

Well, that's my point. I may know full well that, say, Kiss or The Exploited
or The Fixx or The Wonder Stuff make music that is bereft of critical
credibility, but my reasons for appreciating the music of each of those
bands (and scores of others) has nothing to do with popular consensus or any
easily quantifiable measurement of merit. People identify with music because
it speaks to them on some indefinable level. This is largely why the world
doesn't need music critics. I could write volume after laboriously wordy
volume about why you shouldn't listen to indefensible piffle like Lady GaGa
or Michael Jackson, but if you like it -- you like it. And know
cleverly-worded screed penned by me or anyone else can change that. Music is
about -- or should be about, at least -- emotion. Emotions cannot be
controlled so simply.

 

At the end of the day, if someone doesn't understand my affinity for one
artist or another, that's ultimately THEIR loss in the end. I know full well
that Kiss made largely meaningless music, but I still like it. I'll lambast
Michael Jackson's music as worthless product, but I doubt that diminishes
anyone else's fervor for it.

 

 

 

Alex in NYC

 

 

 

 

On Jul 8, 2009, at 12:57 PM, Darren A. Peace wrote:





Heh! That rankles a bit. If you think that some of what you like is "dubious
crap", but you still like it, that can only mean that you like things that
you think other people will think less of you for liking. That's awful. What
does it matter what anyone else thinks? Which arbiter of fashionable taste
are you flouting?

 

When people harangue me because they don't like some of the stuff I like, I
a) point out something far worse that they like and b) laugh at them.

 

Darren

Hungerford, UK

 

From: Alexander Smith [mailto:vassifer at earthlink.net] 
Sent: 08 July 2009 5:36 PM
To: dpeace at suspiria.demon.co.uk; A list about all things Killing Joke (the
band!)
Subject: Re: [kj] 2003 Tour DVD/CD

 

 

I'll be the first to admit that I like a whole lot of dubious crap, but who
cares?

 

Alex in NYC

 

 

On Jul 8, 2009, at 12:15 PM, Darren A. Peace wrote:

 

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