I’ve always had bad taste; it never bothered me, but I know it bothered some of my exes! I actually have few regrets about my intellectual life —I mostly just get too enthusiastic about movies or music; the books I relate to stably— but Christ have I made myself look even uglier and more buffoonish with personal style gaffes!
I'm wrestling with this because obviously taste is mostly a way to justify classism, but also it's kindof all we have? I love music, and I love the music I love, and I want that to mean something?
oh that's a good post — i also like the idea of taste as "earned," and i do think some art is semi-objectively better/worse than others
i think the thing i'm trying to say & wrestle with myself here, in a very roundabout way, is that 1) taste can also be earned through context/relation/personal history, and meaning can therefore be endowed on even art that is "bad," and 2) if you're just buying all the same expensive things as the indie tastemakers around you then it's just as unearned as a top 40 list
yeah, and that context is always shifting. i'm beginning to re-enjoy pieces i found shameful post-college for the subtle reason that taste around me has shifted and the more overt reason that i'm not that taste baby anymore.
I think that learning to be content with your own "bad" taste is a sign of maturity and can be a superpower when you're trying to build anything for a mass market.
(Also, and possibly relatedly, I'm a 52 year old man who enjoys listening to Taylor Swift and if that's the hill I die on, I am ready. Also also, I tend to think of bad taste these days as "wearing/watching/eating what everyone else is, but not actually enjoying it at all", so it's an internal personal mismanagement thing rather than an external one. But this may just be me trying to explain away why I like Taylor Swift.)
true! to paste what i wrote in another comment here, "i think the thing i'm trying to say & wrestle with myself here, in a very roundabout way, is that 1) taste can also be earned through context/relation/personal history, and meaning can therefore be endowed on even art that is "bad," and 2) if you're just buying all the same expensive things as the indie tastemakers around you then it's just as unearned as a top 40 list"
Sapiens is unbearably normie!!! Don't worry about impressing THAT guy. Impress us, the people who think Sapiens is lowbrow.
In all seriousness I think that my whole life improved immeasurably when I decided to validate my own taste. Like, once I decide that my taste in music/books/food/art is good, I can take delight in it even when it diverges from those whose taste I respect. So I can enjoy both disdaining what others think is good (eg Andy Warhol, or Murakami) and liking what others think is bad (eg fanfic as a genre, or Eat Pray Love) because I respect my own taste as well.
The 200 dollar electric kettle is worth it btw :P !
What bad taste is incredibly subjective. I like Taylor Swift & Olivia Rodrigo and found myself a bit ashamed to talk about my musical taste, mainly pop and indie pop. Why should pop be considered "bad taste" vs. the more rarefied or not as mainstream artists. I think it's ridiculous - you like what you like thats all
Fb marketplace has turned into the most addictive app for me so I feel personally attacked.
But the thing that really got me were the song descriptions - i have definitely put in more effort listening to some playlists from ppl I never speak to anymore than I did to some assigned readings
I loved reading this! Both because it efficiently diagnoses the way that I (and pretty much all my friends, tbh) approach culture: enthusiastic and ambitious about reading Big Sociology Books and Big Theory Books and picking our friends and lovers based on mutually compatible aesthetic vibes…but also feeling a bit exhausted about it all and finding comfort in normie music, normie entertainment.
I care a lot about taste—theorising about it, cultivating it, sharpening it—but it's exhausting to pick everything so carefully. I end up repeating a lot: outfits, music (been rinsing the same Soundcloud mix for almost 2 weeks now). And I've definitely done #2 on your list and picked the first YT makeu ptutorial and called it a day…
yeah totally, i def write this from a place of spending a looot of time developing my taste in a highly conscious, aesthetic-intellectual way — & needing to remind myself of all the other organic ways i have grown to love things
i was also talking to my younger sister & she mentioned that it's actually a bit suspicious if someone has good taste in *literally everything* haha. most of us have a few things we care deeply to curate (for me, mostly books/writing) but at a certain point perhaps one needs to stop consuming so much content & touch grass
loved this! "don't kill the part of you that's cringe, kill the part that cringes"-core. "You end up with the furnishing God thinks you deserve." perfect.
"you wonder if future-you will cringe at the books you think are changing your life today"
I often scroll through my Goodreads and laugh at the books I gave a 5-star after reading a particularly perspective-altering book. it's funny what we deem life-changing in each era of our life
i only buy clothes secondhand, not out of any ethical conviction but more for the same serendipity and cosmic alignment you write about re: furniture! found this whole piece so relatable
Bad taste? Or tastes bad? Paxlovid tastes bad, but is necessary to recover from Covid. I'm not sure your list here shows "bad taste," Jasmine, as much as it is coming to terms with your middle school and teenage self. Which for you are fairly recent, so they linger. Decades ago in dating mode, I would always look through a prospective mates record collection: A much more accurate gauge than "swiping left" (or is it right? I've never had a dating app). The question seems akin to the notion of "guilty pleasures," which I no longer believe exist. Because there is no pleasure we should feel guilty about.
I’ve always had bad taste; it never bothered me, but I know it bothered some of my exes! I actually have few regrets about my intellectual life —I mostly just get too enthusiastic about movies or music; the books I relate to stably— but Christ have I made myself look even uglier and more buffoonish with personal style gaffes!
Love reading a post from you!!! What a blast.
Silicon Valley mindset. Iterate quickly and make mistakes to figure out what works.
I read this a while ago and realize I barely remember it because my brain is mush, but the thing that stuck with me is the idea that "taste is earned". https://smathewss.substack.com/p/whats-earned-whats-not
I'm wrestling with this because obviously taste is mostly a way to justify classism, but also it's kindof all we have? I love music, and I love the music I love, and I want that to mean something?
oh that's a good post — i also like the idea of taste as "earned," and i do think some art is semi-objectively better/worse than others
i think the thing i'm trying to say & wrestle with myself here, in a very roundabout way, is that 1) taste can also be earned through context/relation/personal history, and meaning can therefore be endowed on even art that is "bad," and 2) if you're just buying all the same expensive things as the indie tastemakers around you then it's just as unearned as a top 40 list
yeah, and that context is always shifting. i'm beginning to re-enjoy pieces i found shameful post-college for the subtle reason that taste around me has shifted and the more overt reason that i'm not that taste baby anymore.
Great post. The opposite of desultory!
I think that learning to be content with your own "bad" taste is a sign of maturity and can be a superpower when you're trying to build anything for a mass market.
substack is like quintessentially "nerd product designed in a mass market way" which is why i think it works!!
man do i agree with that last part!!!!
I enjoyed this a lot.
(Also, and possibly relatedly, I'm a 52 year old man who enjoys listening to Taylor Swift and if that's the hill I die on, I am ready. Also also, I tend to think of bad taste these days as "wearing/watching/eating what everyone else is, but not actually enjoying it at all", so it's an internal personal mismanagement thing rather than an external one. But this may just be me trying to explain away why I like Taylor Swift.)
true! to paste what i wrote in another comment here, "i think the thing i'm trying to say & wrestle with myself here, in a very roundabout way, is that 1) taste can also be earned through context/relation/personal history, and meaning can therefore be endowed on even art that is "bad," and 2) if you're just buying all the same expensive things as the indie tastemakers around you then it's just as unearned as a top 40 list"
I'm with you there with Taylor !!
I love this: This one is good, I feel like it sparkles. Do you, um, like music that sounds bad on purpose?
someday i will understand the genre “noise”
Sapiens is unbearably normie!!! Don't worry about impressing THAT guy. Impress us, the people who think Sapiens is lowbrow.
In all seriousness I think that my whole life improved immeasurably when I decided to validate my own taste. Like, once I decide that my taste in music/books/food/art is good, I can take delight in it even when it diverges from those whose taste I respect. So I can enjoy both disdaining what others think is good (eg Andy Warhol, or Murakami) and liking what others think is bad (eg fanfic as a genre, or Eat Pray Love) because I respect my own taste as well.
The 200 dollar electric kettle is worth it btw :P !
Sapiens is unbearably fresh, weird, thoughtful, and accessible :)
What bad taste is incredibly subjective. I like Taylor Swift & Olivia Rodrigo and found myself a bit ashamed to talk about my musical taste, mainly pop and indie pop. Why should pop be considered "bad taste" vs. the more rarefied or not as mainstream artists. I think it's ridiculous - you like what you like thats all
seeing olivia rodrigo for my birthday this year & i am very excited
Fb marketplace has turned into the most addictive app for me so I feel personally attacked.
But the thing that really got me were the song descriptions - i have definitely put in more effort listening to some playlists from ppl I never speak to anymore than I did to some assigned readings
I loved reading this! Both because it efficiently diagnoses the way that I (and pretty much all my friends, tbh) approach culture: enthusiastic and ambitious about reading Big Sociology Books and Big Theory Books and picking our friends and lovers based on mutually compatible aesthetic vibes…but also feeling a bit exhausted about it all and finding comfort in normie music, normie entertainment.
I care a lot about taste—theorising about it, cultivating it, sharpening it—but it's exhausting to pick everything so carefully. I end up repeating a lot: outfits, music (been rinsing the same Soundcloud mix for almost 2 weeks now). And I've definitely done #2 on your list and picked the first YT makeu ptutorial and called it a day…
yeah totally, i def write this from a place of spending a looot of time developing my taste in a highly conscious, aesthetic-intellectual way — & needing to remind myself of all the other organic ways i have grown to love things
i was also talking to my younger sister & she mentioned that it's actually a bit suspicious if someone has good taste in *literally everything* haha. most of us have a few things we care deeply to curate (for me, mostly books/writing) but at a certain point perhaps one needs to stop consuming so much content & touch grass
loved this! "don't kill the part of you that's cringe, kill the part that cringes"-core. "You end up with the furnishing God thinks you deserve." perfect.
i'm reminded of this essay by brandon taylor https://blgtylr.substack.com/p/spotify-lowkey-giving-sola-fide-vibes, which lives in my head rent-free, and the book "tacky" by rax king (unfortunately never finished it but what i read was fantastic).
love brandon taylor but somehow missed this one!! will read
#10 🫶 i love this
"you wonder if future-you will cringe at the books you think are changing your life today"
I often scroll through my Goodreads and laugh at the books I gave a 5-star after reading a particularly perspective-altering book. it's funny what we deem life-changing in each era of our life
i only buy clothes secondhand, not out of any ethical conviction but more for the same serendipity and cosmic alignment you write about re: furniture! found this whole piece so relatable
yayy thank you i love that. i still haven't figured out how to thrift clothes but i guess it is the same!
the 2009 cds dad ripped from the public library was tooo specific😭
Hahah love this, i’ll add it to my post “collated notes on taste”, which i made after my posting my other essay on, well, taste 😂
Bad taste? Or tastes bad? Paxlovid tastes bad, but is necessary to recover from Covid. I'm not sure your list here shows "bad taste," Jasmine, as much as it is coming to terms with your middle school and teenage self. Which for you are fairly recent, so they linger. Decades ago in dating mode, I would always look through a prospective mates record collection: A much more accurate gauge than "swiping left" (or is it right? I've never had a dating app). The question seems akin to the notion of "guilty pleasures," which I no longer believe exist. Because there is no pleasure we should feel guilty about.