Fragment on quality

In college, confronted with the value of lots of contemporary music I'd previously failed to understand, I began to set my tastes and opinions aside. I tried to move past simple statements of like or dislike, feeling they contained little information, were always informed by ephemeral subjective influences, and would always change before too long.

But "objective" information about musical quality is laced with subjectivity, too, if not founded upon it. There are so many competing views, so many different criteria, so many different values to put in order.

A few years, two degrees, and a lot of listening later, I'm getting a bit tired of the noise, and I find that my own tastes and opinions are about all that I can count on.

They remain mutable, but actually I've grown to find some comfort in this.

I maintain that they contain little information about the music, but recognize that they represent much information about me.