Artistic taste

[Leanne]

Any "ism" (and almost all of them make me itch and shiver) views the world through a very narrow filter -- but so too does "popular culture". We are constantly bombarded by some critic's notion of "fashion" and how we should present ourselves, "what's hot and what's not", what toys to buy our kids, what books we should have read to achieve this level of sophistication, what magazines we should have read to achieve this level of celebrity awareness, what cheese is bad for us this week and what plastic milkshake will fill us up enough to magically shrink our stomachs and turn flab into ab with no exercise except pressing the dial button on the telephone. My point is that everyone who tells us en masse that something is good, acceptable, culturally significant or just "in right now" has an agenda. It may not necessarily be a sinister agenda and it may indeed coincide with our own personal goals (not just those we've been told we ought to have by Cosmo or The New Yorker -- yes, I put them together for a bloody good reason).

The fact is, if we choose to be impressionable beyond our impressionable years of youth, we will always have our thoughts and tastes dictated to us by others. I am unashamed to enjoy many pursuits that are considered "lowbrow" by "those who know" -- similarly, I enjoy many "snobbish" things and if I had a more snobbish budget, I'd be filling my house with Impressionist paintings and attend the opera every weekend Of course, my decor and dress would remain dreadfully unfashionable!

I think I've wandered... this happens... anyway, the confidence to buck trends and make your own decisions on what you find aesthetically pleasing probably comes from knowledge. Try everything at least once before you decide if you like it, then try it again a few years later to see if your tastes have changed. And never, ever be satisfied with the status quo -- they were a rubbish band in the 70s and they're just feeble now.