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barrettchase.com
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Mon, 09 Jan 2012

I don't understand other people's tastes in media. It's taken years, but I think I've finally learned to stop asking people on the internet for advice about what to watch, listen to, and read. Trent Reznor said about Spotify, "I don't care what my friends are listening to. Because I'm cooler than they are." Well, I'm definitely not cooler than anyone else, but I have to agree to disagree about almost everything media-related.

I think a lot of people define their own tastes by associating a certain type of person with a certain type of music or film or book, and then deciding whether they want to align themselves with or against that type of person. I don't agree with this tactic, but I get it, and I'm certainly not immune to it. For example, I really don't want to be the kind of person who recites TV catch phrases to their friends and co-workers. You'll never see me elbow someone, raise my eyebrows and cackle, "That's what she said!" Never. Consequently, I generally dislike catch-phrase-based sitcoms. The further a sitcoms sinks into that kind of pedestrian humor, the more I'll hate it, largely because I can't watch it without picturing the doofus with a "World's Greatest Boss" coffee mug cutting it up at the water cooler with last night's prime-time greatest hits rundown. As I said, though, this is generally not a good thing, and I like to think that I only do it in extreme cases.

The thing is, when other people express their prejudices, I generally don't understand them or share them. For example, if you don't want to be the type of person who listens to Florence and the Machine, well, I don't know what type of person that is. Heck you probably can't put it into words, either. Or maybe you could if you thought about it, but you never really have.

Other times, I do understand those prejudices perfectly, but I don't feel the same way about them that you do. Once when I was a kid, my sister tried to tell me why she didn't like John Cougar Mellencamp. She said he played music for guys who drink beer and play frisbee with dogs that have bandanas tied around their necks. Let me tell you, that is a spot-on assessment. The thing is, it made me like John Cougar Mellencamp. That whole scene sounded like a good time.

Lately, I've been trying to figure out what makes me love or hate certain types of books. It's really difficult. The only consistent thing I can come up with is that I seem to enjoy books that juxtapose two vastly different sets of characters. I also seem to enjoy magic realism sometimes, but strictly on a case-by-case basis. I like witty writing where the author uses totally original imagery and wordplay. I tend to hate books that are emotionally manipulative and books whose structure is so obvious that I can easily see the author's outline as I read along.

I do know this: Nine times out of ten, when someone recommends something to me and says, "You will love this," that just means that they loved it. I probably won't love it. I probably won't even like it. I might see its merits, but I'll probably spend a lot of time wondering what it is that the person recommending it loved so much. That's a losing situation. I can't even figure out why I like what I like, let alone how someone else justifies their opinions.

I think the perfect situation is when you come to something fresh, without any preconceived ideas about what you're getting into. I love watching movies I know nothing about beforehand. When I listen to music, I'd rather not know where the band is from and I certainly would rather not know what they look like. In the year 2012, the world wants the opposite experience for you. The world wants you to wear all of your media as if it is a fashion statement. The world wants to cram every funny joke into a movie trailer and show them to you hundreds of times before you pay $10 to sit and listen to the same jokes in a different venue. The world wants you to read a book because the author is a celebrity. The world wants you to like a song because you like the brands of clothes that the band wears. The world wants to craft a TV character and persuade you to identify with that character for the sole purpose of showing that character driving a Ford Explorer.

Meanwhile, the world is full of extremely talented people, and I want to hear what they have to say. However, if I don't understand other people's tastes, and if I can't even define my own tastes, and if I can't trust the marketeers, it's a difficult journey.

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