What's musical taste?

What constitutes "good" or "bad" musical "taste"? Is taste the method with which we listen to music, dissecting its numerous layers, instruments, emotions, and subtitles? Is taste just another word for "preference"?

What did you think of this album? Love it? Hate it? Why? What should I review next, eh?

Y'all know this is just my opinion, right?

[K_DC]

Sadly I can only hear music, I can't taste it.

[johnmcclane]

The majority of people who listen to music, at least the people I've met in my life, don't actually take the time to analyze all of the sounds in a song when they hear it. They just want something catchy in the background.

[ricardo]

"Good Taste" is really subjective. I remember my uncle saying I had good taste because I liked Bob Dylan then my grandfather would say "Bob Dylan can't sing and he's always been a piece of shit" lol

[cyandinomashups]

Is there such thing as a musical vegan?

[JoeDirtisawsome]

I listen to vaporwave, drone music, lowercase music, and Like to hear paint dry. I have such refine tastes

[fabiobarresi]

I feel music taste is different for everyone - if someone says "I like the melody not the lyrics" then I can easily say "You have good taste because not only do you accept the a certain part of the song is bad but you can also look past it and give good reasons to justify the fact that its worth giving a listen to". That to me is music. an art form that like 70% of visual art is NOT perfect but still pleasant to look at and maybe even considered a masterpiece. Songs don't have to be perfect to be mind blowing and I feel like there are many that are seemingly perfect but that doesn't nescessarily mean that they are better than certain flawed songs.

[TheMagicRat]

I really don't see what's bad about only appreciating a piece of music on a superficial level. You can always look deeper into something and maybe gain a deeper appreciation, but a lot of the time that just isn't necessary. I appreciate the view outside my window, but I'm not gonna bother to try and distinguish every leaf on every branch on every tree or even just try and tell the ashes from the willows and the beeches. Maybe it would make a difference to some tree enthusiast and good for him, but I don't have "bad taste" in trees just because my appreciation doesn't go any deeper than to the fact that there actually are trees outside my window.

[IceCreeeaaam]

Interesting. I hate the terms "good taste" and "bad taste" in terms of objective better than thou attitudes to music. In that regards music is subjective. It's simply what you're into. However some people do listen to music on a deeper level and have a greater awareness and understanding of the intricacies of the music so maybe in that way you could say somebody has perhaps more of a "meticulous taste" in music or something 

[MrEzradelucas]

your confusing taste with judgement, taste is just preferences for categories or genres,
judgement is based on how well a performance corresponds to recognised classificatory criteria in terms of the features, attributes and techniques of a genre

[troysson]

"Good" and "bad" taste do not exist. At all. They just don't. The entire concept of "good" and "bad" taste is based around what people dictate you're _supposed_ to like; what you're _supposed_ to not like.

For example, someone who likes The Beatles would be considered to have "good" taste, because they're a popular band that left a significant mark on music history, and therefore *not* liking them would seem absurd to most.

Someone who likes Smooth Jazz would be said to have "bad" taste because the genre is seen as cheesy, lame, boring, and stock, which has led to the public deeming it as unacceptable. Same goes for Dubstep, most mainstream music, and Country.

"Good" and "bad" taste are nothing more than ways to say "You like something I like! Nice!" and "You like something I don't? You suck!" respectively, and frankly, they're things people need to stop saying.

[simonbe]

All music is beautiful. From Metal to Pop and from Classic Music to Techno or Rap. You just have to listen to it and enjoy it as he says. Nobody has a bad taste.

[SkyFoxTale]

"destinctify"  lol - you mean distinguish 

[Braxium]

Sometimes I like the way Fandango thinks exactly the way I do. This was one of these moments D:

[EMH-Ascending]

It’s funny when someone shows me new music and they’re talking over it the whole time. Are we gonna listen to it, or host a podcast over it?

[YellowSpaceMarine]

I feel like listening to all the component parts actually distracts from really listening to the music a lot of the time. Distraction actually makes me like music more

[CrappyBaraLugnt]

I'm a "background listener" and I know exactly songs should be the soundtracks of my life. My "taste" can tell me that, my ears knows what's going well with my mindset and all my other senses for any given moment. So my ears might not have the best taste according to you, but while you enjoy music in it's seperateness I enjoy the world in all it's fullness, with my bad tastes acting all at the same time.

[theplasticmind]

I don't think there is something wrong with enjoying a song for a melody or a lyric, that is basic, you don't watch a movie and pay attention to lightning, the script, the interpretation and everything you sit and watch if you like it you like it, what i think is that music is a form of art so when you listen to a song and you like it you are automatically connected to it you don't have to necessarily know all the instrumental that is being played, you don't have to understad musical theories, there is a lot of amazing popular songs that are classics now (purple rain, billie jean, like a prayer) and i don't think that at the time this song became so popular because everybody who was listening to them were musical experts, they just liked it. Also, there is two ways to treat music and that's the point, you can treat music as entertainment or in you case i believe as art, as a serious form of art so you wanna dig everything inside the song, but believe me 80 percent of the planet only cares about the melody and sometimes the lyrics, and i don't think there is something wrong with that, for me is very simple, it's all about taste.

[juliangonzalez]

I enjoy anything loud, dark, angry and/or depressing, but I also like stuff that's loud but comedic or satirical

[aagantuk]

if you *only* listen to top 40, you don't have a taste. you're gobbling down whatever they're selling you, period.

[kiwikakashi]

I just find the whole notion of 'good' or 'bad' taste to be silly in itself. There is no way to indicate whether or not an album/song is objectively good/bad, what it comes down to is simply whether or not you like it.