Tommy, no one listens to music in a vacuum. Every time you listen to something, you create a mental image of what that music embodies. Even when you listen to a guy playing the violin, you conjure up imagery that goes along with what you hear. Try listening to a Ray Charles track and tell me you can't see Ray bobbing around to the rhythm smiling. That's one example of many.
The majority won't follow you to the "you should only listen to the music and not look at the show" because they don't think as much about it as you or I do... they just enjoy what they like to listen to, and they listen to things which they identify with, be it a cultural message or whatever.
And by the way, I can use your argument about pop stars against you: Who is to say that the violinist was as talented as everyone thinks he is? Who is to say his violin is worth the many millions he paid for it? Who is to say that violin is more enjoyable to listen to that a one-string slide guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCFXeChXfcI ?
Every person has their personal taste in music, and let the record / tix sales speak for themselves!
Well, let's not misrepresent my stance: I
never said one should only listen to the music and ignore the context but I completely agree with the gist of your post hence, why I
probed the evaluation process of music, art, taste in general, etc.
When people praise something, they give all kinds of reasons for why they think that way. But sometimes the reason they cite isn’t the actual reason at all. They’re not lying; it’s usually because they are not consciously aware of how their perception is being coloured.
Here’s one parallel just to finish up on the topic:
When religious people are asked for why they believe, and then why
other religious people believe, the reasons are not the same.
Michael Shermer took part in a survey that he collaborated on with Frank Sulloway which explored the reasons that religious people give for belief. When people were asked why they themselves personally believed in god, the responses broke down as follows:
1. Good design/natural beauty/perfection/complexity of the world or universe (28.6%)
2. Experience of God in everyday life/a feeling that God is in us (20.6%)
3. It is comforting, relieving, consoling, and gives meaning and purpose to life (10.3%)
4. The Bible says so (9.8%)
5. Just because/faith/or the need to believe in something (8.2%)
6. Raised to believe in God (7.2%)
7. God answers prayers (6.4%)
8. Without God there would be no morality (4.0%)
9. God has a plan for the world, history, destiny, and us (3.8%)
10. To account for good and avenge evil in the world (1.0%)
But when the same people are asked why they think
other people believe in god, the results are as follows:
1. It is comforting, relieving, consoling, and gives meaning and purpose to life. (26.3%)
2. Raised to believe in God. (22.4%)
3. Experience of God in everyday life/a feeling that God is in us. (16.2%)
4. Just because/faith/or the need to believe in something. (13.0%)
5. People believe because they fear death and the unknown. (9.1%)
6. Good design/natural beauty/perfection/complexity of the world or universe. (6.0%)
7. The Bible says so (5.0%)
8. Without God there would be no morality (3.5%)
9. To account for good and avenge evil in the world (1.5%)
10. God answers prayers (1.0%)
Emotions and wishful thinking (1, 4, 5, 8, 9) now rise to the top (53.4%), habit and authority (2, 7) comes second at 27.4%, while evidence (3, 6, 10) comes in last at 23.2%.
What is interesting about these results is that believers tend to think that while they themselves have rational reasons to believe in god, they think
other people do so for emotional or irrational reasons.
A long time ago, I used to get into heated discussions over music; why
this band was greater than the other and the only reasons people could like some other band (that I disliked) was because the band had a sexy female singer or because the fans had bad taste. Think of the indie rocker kid dissing commercial pop music.
I think the majority of discussions about taste lead to a kind of dead end. And like I was saying in the Great Musicianship = Limited Access? thread:
No judgement on taste is innocent. We are all snobs. In the course of everyday life we constantly choose between what we find aesthetically pleasing and what we find tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Taste is not pure, and Bourdieu demonstrates that our different aesthetic choices are all distinctions – that is, choices made in opposition to those made by others.