"good taste"

There has been a recurring phrase in my life recently.

It's not a phrase that describes my life by any stretch of the imagination.  It's just there.  Hovering.  Bothering.  Eating away at me.

The phrase is this:

"Good taste in music."

I hate that phrase.

What does that phrase even mean?

If you say, "I have really good taste in music," what you're really saying is, "I have better taste in music than other people and the music I listen to is better than the kind of music they listen to."  Well, for rude.

Everybody thinks they have good taste in music.  Am I right?  Otherwise you wouldn't like the kind of music that you like.  Listen to the kind of music you listen to.

Or if they're using that phrase to describe someone else (e.g., "So-and-so has really good taste in music"), they could mean one of two things.

1.  "They have exactly the same taste in music that I do!"

or

2.  "The music that they like is really popular right now and everybody else likes it and I should like it, too!"  Or similarly, "The music that they like is really popular right now and everybody else likes it and even though I really don't, I wish I liked it, too!"

Whatever.

It's all relative.

I think everybody should just listen to the music that they like and not worry about if they or someone else has really "good taste in music."  Because if you've found music that you like and that makes you happy, it shouldn't really matter.

I think the same goes for "good taste in clothes" and "good taste in décor" and "good taste in blah-blah-blah-freakin-blah."

Moral of the story?  Like what you like, and don't worry about "good taste."

Chances are, you'll probably be happier that way anyway.

p.s. In my Memory and Cognition psychology class, I learned that the more people hear something, the more they tend to like it.  We went over all the studies in class that back this theory up.  They're pretty legit.  So really, how much you like something is probably at least partially based on how many times you've heard it or at least something like it.  So if you're still heck-bent (*coughmormoncough*) on having "good taste" in music, then you should probably just listen to the popular-stuff-that-you-don't-really-like on repeat so you'll have a greater chance of having really great taste in music just like everybody else.

p.p.s. I love country music.  [taylorswiftismyhero.]  Just listen to it on repeat for a really long time and in a year, get back to me.  We can attend Country Thunder together.


Editor's note:  Now that I've written this, I feel like I'll never be able to use the phrase "good taste" in good faith ever again.  But.  I guess it wasn't the phrase so much as the attitude behind it.  I've always struggled with the idea of elitism.


But.


I promise that if you ever do say it, I won't jump down your throat or judge you.  Even a little bit.  I was just ranting to cyberspace in general.  And if I ever do say it [with my reputation on the line], I will probably, maybe, most likely, almost certainly mean, "So-and-so has exactly the same taste in [whatever] that I do!"  Not, "My taste is better than yours!"


Just so you know :)