I know that the subject of the blog is music and that music, theoretically, is apolitical. But think for a moment: Is that really the case?
Insofar as the country is now reeling under issues concerning the extent to which money controls the nation's electoral process, shouldn't we also be raising consciousness about the extent to which money controls the nation's taste -- but wait a minute, does a nation have taste?
That is precisely the point. Individuals have taste. What is taste? The simple pronouncement: "I like it." "I don't like it."
Sometimes we like things in spite of ourselves. We start out not expecting to be moved and find ourselves vulnerable, in a new state of being, somehow altered by what we have just seen or heard.
No algorithms at work there!
And that is the source of these blog posts: Individual experience of what has come to be a standardized commodity, pre-digested for us by--by whom, exactly? I used to think it was by the big-time producers of perfect renditions of classical music. Now I think it is by the many individuals who no longer trust themselves to notice that they do or do not like what they are hearing.
