How much of taste in music is a matter of what flaws (from your own point of view) you are currently willing to accept in the music you listen to?

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I think there's probably only a small percentage of music that I really like 100% as it is, without thinking that some changes ought to be made.

Often what seems to be happening with my taste in music is that while getting to like music I didn't like at first, I am learning to put up with flaws that I had trouble getting past before; and if I'm losing my appetite for some music I liked previously, it's often because I can no longer put up with the things in it that I never really liked (or in some cases, I now hear things in it that have becoming stumbling blocks for me).

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 9 December 2002 03:11 (twenty-three years ago)

That's definitely part of it. It also matters how much in the music you REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like, not just the lack of crap. An album devoid of true flaw might not be as enjoyed by me as an album that's hit or miss if the hits make me ecstatic.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 9 December 2002 03:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Anthony, yes that's a point I forgot. If it's giving me something I really want, and especially if I can't get it elsewhere, then I am more likely to deal with its flaws.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 9 December 2002 03:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Sounds pretty plausible to me.

I can put up with any other flaws if the melody grabs me.

― phil jones (interstar), Monday, 9 December 2002 04:23 (twenty-three years ago)

It's true,

I've been thinking a lot about this recently - I'd be hard pressed to name a record that I think is absolutely PERFECT; whether it's the 'message' behind the music (Hip-Hop, R&B, Pop) or the production or whatever.

But it's probably better to listen to the slightly flawed album as a way of interacting with the music. "I would've changed that or this", it becomes personal because the 'problems' are actually gaps that allow investment.

I'm trying to think of some concrete examples...

― Michael Dieter, Monday, 9 December 2002 04:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Every album is perfect. Every album is incomplete. Every album will eventually scratch and my stereo will refuse to play it. Every album comes in a case. Every album weighs less than a small bird. Every album is the last thing I will ever hear, but probably not the most important. Every album is a letter half-delivered.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 9 December 2002 06:39 (twenty-three years ago)

no-one epitomizes this better for me than Frank Zappa. i really can't think of anyone else where i'd put up with the long instrumental solos, smarmy humor, the "serious/classical" recordings, the genre-hopping -- unless any of those are done well (i.e., Prince, Ween, Mr. Bungle).

to a lesser extent, that would also apply to mbv/slowdive (which is why i hate Sigur Ros so much, because they're so deficient in comparison to those two), the stones (i'm indifferent to the blues and normally i despise blues-rock).

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 9 December 2002 08:45 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm willing to put up with any amount of self-pitying whining from Jason Pierce.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 9 December 2002 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

The most in the way of flaws as I see it is the occasional 'why try?' vocalist like, oh, I dunno, Wayne Hussey or something. Beyond that...flaws? ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 9 December 2002 14:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I should have become a record producer so that I could "correct" everyone's flaws.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 9 December 2002 15:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Every album is rounder than an egg.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:39 (twenty-three years ago)

"albumen"

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 9 December 2002 20:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I wasn't specifically thinking in terms of albums. (That's fine. I'm glad anyone has bothered to respond to such a dryly worded question.)

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 9 December 2002 21:43 (twenty-three years ago)

There are no flaws, only absences.

― B.Rad (Brad), Monday, 9 December 2002 23:37 (twenty-three years ago)

(OK, I'm not as good at being gnomic as Sterling, but that's merely an absence.)

― B.Rad (Brad), Monday, 9 December 2002 23:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, right.

You have to listen to the notes that aren't being played ;)

― Michael Dieter, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 00:56 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Revive. (I think I'd be less likely to use the word "flaw" at all at this point, even though I made it clear I meant it to be very subjective. There's nothing about this relatively traditional music that I don't like except the vocal timbre of the chorus.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

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