Taste is a bizarre and fickle term, don't you think? On the one hand, it can describe the merit of whatever you ate this morning, and - on the other - it can refer to the resonance between people's opinions about just about anything.
But how much does this term matter when it is so subjective? Clearly, collectives don't respond similarly to everything that happens to them. Just look at what Kanye did at the VMAs. Facebook and Twitter blew up with people arguing about whether what he did was in good taste, while others pondered whether it was even as spontaneous as it appeared. If that's how people are going to react, then does taste even have a point anymore?
I've got to admit, the outlook for the existence of genuine taste is looking pretty bleak. In a world in which attention spans are getting shorter, it's quite difficult to actually expand opinions beyond quantitative answers toward something that may actually require a response of the qualitative variety.
But we can do better. Move over Metacritic - and all those who fall in line, assigning numerical scores to everything from the latest Cohen brothers flick to Daft Punk albums - I would forever say yes, yes, a million times yes in response to whether or not taste is still important.
I mean, the term has only been called into question because taste has continually been removed from its context. And, in that form, taste only matters to those that already are predisposed to agree or like something. But unlike all those quantitative scale-users out there, tableau is on a mission restore context. How? By immersing ourselves in cultural knowledge and writing about it in such a way that we resonate that little window of taste left in the world in hopes of shattering it into something wonderful.
We don't simply assign scores to things and then fling about pithy, loaded remarks that either baselessly attack or laud a particular piece of A&E. We have enough respect for our subject material to answer questions like why Jay-Z's new album is so awesome in and of itself, and hopefully you do too.
So if you're tired of aggregate scores and bulleted lists, perhaps we can provide a place of refuge to which you can look each week. You could even take it one step further and join our cause if you'd like but don't rush into that decision. After all, it's the speed and desire for instant reaction that has created this unfortunate situation in the first place.
So, even if you don't agree with a particular article or review, it is our hope that you can at least appreciate the respectful reasoning - you know, the stuff that Metacritic doesn't offer - that goes behind each and every tableau issue. If you can do that, it doesn't matter whether you like to explore experimental soundscapes on your epic stereo system or prefer the simple pleasure of blasting YouTube-quality frat tunes out of stock speakers because either way, you've got taste.
-campbell bird
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