Taste & Art

I was busy last weekend as I was in Hong Kong for two days in a row for two events, but now I am making up for the last post :)

I was interviewing students at my school for my podcast teaser on Wednesday on whether 2026 will be the next 2016 and some said that it is not possible due to the dominance of AI producing so much of what we see, some said that 2016 was before the pandemic and the economy was growing. One answer stood out to me—as time progresses, one’s perception of beauty becomes more simple, thus, 2026 will not be able to be the next 2016. I did not expect to hear this from a fifteen year old, especially when we all grew up in the same era of the rise of pop music. 2016 was the year when so many pop songs were becoming popular—Let Me Love You, Closer, Don’t Let Me Down, The Ocean… Those pop songs symbolize the rise of pop culture in that year and in my opinion, those songs are one of the most pop songs of all time. For the context, this student is a music student and spends most of his time on the organ and studying perhaps more traditional classical music. For me, I listen to English pop music more than any other genre or language, thus, perhaps most of my taste of music is in the pop music category. In that student’s eyes, classical music is more complicated, sophisticated, and artistic than any other modern or contemporary, thus, more and more people liking pop music is an indication of one’s taste is becoming more and more simple, making it inferior.

Art is of course subjective. Personal taste is also subjective. What we like and what we see as sophisticated is of course subjective. To me, pop music consists of so many elements and the possibilities of its composition is endless. Because of the lack of boundaries and ways that this type of music can be done, pop music is simply more artistic as not only do artists get to express their ideas and emotions in more diverse outlets and ways, the numerous ways sounds can be made and be edited makes art return to its original state. One’s taste might give them labels of their social status and upbringing, which is labelled as expensive and cheap, thus, one gravitating towards more sophisticated and complex objects is seen as a type of expensive taste. So much of our lives depend on those nonchalant preferences to create impressions and to show who we are in society, so I think it is important to note that just because one likes pop music and street food like burgers and not classical music and caviar, that doesn’t mean we see them in a lower status in society. This is a cliche lesson, but I guess comments like this do matter, and we just need to constantly be aware of this perception, and be inclusive of it.