A Question of Taste

As a society, we celebrate music. Nothing beats going to the concert of your favourite artist, spending the night dancing and screaming your lungs out to your favourite songs, it’s an unbeatable experience. Everyone has different tastes, be it you listen to Taylor Swift religiously, or maybe you’re more for artists like Sam Fender day and night. With our music taste often comes an unintentional bias and judgement towards what someone else is listening to, if we dislike the song, artist, or don’t understand the appeal of an album. A lot of people can be opinionated towards particular artists, disliking them for a handful of reasons, some valid, some questionable. The important part is how to approach our distaste for something or someone without bashing someone who enjoys it. There are limits to this, obviously supporting problematic artists who hurt people is very harmful, as is condoning the actions of an artist just because we like them, but if there’s no moral issue with listening to an artist or band, shouldn’t we just let people do what they want?

Besides the valid reasons to criticise someone’s music taste, there can be a superiority felt in listening to some artists over others. For example, listening to indie music as opposed to ‘basic’ pop. Although some of it does stem from genuinely not liking pop music, there is an element based on judgement, whether it’s internalised misogyny against big female artists or the want to be different from the crowd.

Maybe it’s about time we let people listen to whatever they want (within reason) and appreciate artists (even if we aren’t personally a fan of their work) if they make people happy. The potential of music to heal is known and it’s important to remember music means a lot to people and might put into words thoughts and feelings that are indescribable to them. Songs can exhibit experiences in a way we might not be able to describe in words of our own, and to hear someone sing of things we’ve experienced and have no option but to live through and grow from can be comforting and help in the process of healing if we feel understood. This is your permission to scream Taylor Swift as loud as you want, put on Olly Mars in your car and listen to whatever makes you feel safe.