On 04 Jul 2008, "John P." <JohnP@nospam.com> wrote in alt.guitar:
> If the like or dislike of music were an absolute, you might have a
> point.
That's my point.
> "I don't like it, so it sucks"
"It's blue. I don't like blue, so it sucks."
Invalid. That cannot be correct. You're preference is irrelevant to
anyone but yourself. Your preference says nothing about the music's
true value.
> "It sucks, therefore, I don't like it"
"It's blue. Blue sucks, therefore I don't like it."
Invalid. That cannot be proved. It may "suck" TO YOU PERSONALLY, but
that doesn't mean it "sucks" in general.
> "Any number of people can prove that a certain music, Zappa's for
> example, sucks, has no value and is of little or no interest."
Invalid. How can they prove that? They can't. For one thing, the best
"any number of people" can do is prove that they don't like it. But
that doesn't prove that it has no value in general, only to them
personally. If other people find value in it, then the presence of
value is proved.
> ...are all as valid an assessment of what Zappa did
No, those are all invalid.
> as is the claim "Any number of people can prove that a certain music,
> Zappa's for example, has value and interest."
That's valid. It's very easy to prove the existence of something if you
can point to it. It's not really possible to prove the NON-existence of
something because it might where you haven't looked yet. And if it's
existence has been shown, well, you've lost the argument already. In
other words, Frank's music has been clearly shown to have interest and
value. That can't be convincingly argued against. The worst anyone can
say against it is "I personally don't like it", or "I don't get it."
Personally, I get some of it, and I don't get some of it. Some of the
stuff I do get I find to be absolutely thrilling and awesome. Some of
the stuff I don't get makes me want to chuck the record out the window.
Some of it I used to like but don't so much now, and vice-versa. He's
made tons of music and it runs that whole spectrum. So, what, I should
condemn all of his music as "sucking" because some of it is hard to
take?
