Quote:
Originally Posted by challenge_everything
This one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. This is basically the argumentum ad populum fallacy that JS Mill, among others, debunked hundreds of years ago. There is no logical connection between popularity and 'correctness' or 'truth'. And this is even more so in music.
I mean, there are surveys all the time showing just how stupid people are, ie a majority of people believe the Garden of Eden was a true story, that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 etc etc. Fact: most people are stupid --> most people have equally idiotic taste in music.
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Haha. Spouting some unexplained academic reference doesn't help your point.
The problem with your argument is that taste is different from facts. 99% of the world could believe that George W Bush piloted one of the planes into the WTC and that doesn't effect the legitimacy of their opinion on music. Since everybody's opinion on art is equal, things that are popular are "objectively" of high quality. You're free to disagree if you want, but it's of solid logic. I think you're being childish to say "durp, dem peeps have idiotic taste in music." I don't like their taste any more than you do, but I'm not about to say my opinion on good music is worth more than theirs. I would never let anyone tell me my opinion on music is worthless, and if you're saying that certain people's opinions are more accurate than others, then you're letting that happen. Maybe it's some other group that you're not a part of that has the "right" opinions on music, and everything you like sucks. Surely you don't just believe that you have the one and only ultimate taste in music, in a totally objective sense?
I do like what somebody said about longevity though. I can definetly dig their idea, that if something still stays strong after decades then it is good, whereas worthless music dies away. But things that are big enough will always stay around, I think. I mean even the silliest trends like The Spice Girls, they are still HUGE. There are still tons of people who respect and listen to The Backstreet Boys. There might even still be a lot of people who listen to Vanilla Ice, I don't know. But I do agree that longevity is another good criteria.