So said Jon Caramanica on yesterday's episode of the NYT podcast "The Daily," which was titled "The Summer in Culture." (Transcript and audio at Podscribe.)
Caramanica he written about that interview back in June, in "TikTok Made Addison Rae Famous. Pop Made Her Cool. The onetime social media superstar has re-emerged as the most surprising rookie pop star of the year."
Annoyingly, the word "privilege" does not appear in the article. But I am seeing "taste is a luxury":
“When I reflect back on that time,” she said, “I’ve recognized how much choice and taste is kind of a luxury. I was definitely strategic with it.... It was a lot about like, ‘How am I just going to get out of here?’ It wasn’t about like, ‘Let me show the intricacies of myself right now.’” Pursuing her own taste, whatever that might have been, wasn’t an option — “a sacrifice that had to be made,” she said.
"Luxury" and "privilege" are not synonyms, but the slippage from "luxury" to "privilege" seems to have occurred in the mind of Caramanica. What is the more interesting idea — "Taste is a privilege" or "Taste is a luxury"? "Taste is a luxury" seems more like what it looks like it means in context: She was in a hurry. "Taste is a privilege" sounds more like something they'd teach about in a fancy college, full of deep political and sociological meaning. "Taste is a privilege" is a luxury for those who are not in a hurry.
ADDED AFTERTHOUGHT: Someone in a hurry could use AI to impose taste on a musical composition.
***
Also in that podcast is some "discourse" — they call it that — about shorts. My old topic: Men in shorts. In this case, it's a man in shorts, Travis Kelce. I hadn't even noticed that he was wearing shorts in that highly viral, highly staged engagement announcement:MALE VOICE #1: "I am mad — small mad — about the shorts. It's just like, I don't care how warm it is. These are engagement photos. They are gonna go around the world. They're gonna live in their, you know, in their couple them forever. They're gonna be up in every house that they own and the guy is freaking wearing shorts."
MALE VOICE #3: "I do think that that speaks to Travis emerging not from the world of true celebrity Hollywood. It's because he is emerging from the world of athletics. And I just like, this is no commentary on Travis's legs. You know, two thumbs up. But I do think like that this is a person who likes to bum around in casual wear and now he likes to get engaged in casual wear as well."
FEMALE VOICE: "I'm just gonna proffer up a third option. Maybe he was just hot. Perhaps it is summer...."
Posts
18 comments:
Like, like, like. You know?
Taste is a skill, according to my late great art teacher.
Thank you, Mr. Begley. I don't think that there is anything more that needs to be said on this particular topic.
Some people never really grow up.
When the foundations of morality crumble, good and bad devolve into aesthetic judgments.
"Privilege" is also a way of haranguing people who do have "taste" into feeling guilty about it, and excusing people who don't because of course they couldn't - all with a strong racialist overtone. And (lest we forget) using "taste" as a shibboleth to open the gates of Society... even if you do feel a little guilty for knowing the password.
If you like this "rookie pop star" then you, like her and the writer, have taste. If you don't, then you don't. I've not heard her so far, but I'm guessing there will be some kind of ironic take on something, as with Chappell Roan - but who knows? Maybe she'll surprise me by being willing to be seen actually uncynically caring about something.
It was in Atlas Shrugged that Ayn Rand wrote a scene in which the protagonist, searching for John Galt, came upon a lunch counter in a small town in Colorado. There he ate what she said was just an excellent hamburger - simple food, but prepared with care and skill. (This was a clue, but that's not the important thing for my purposes here.) Taste, it seems to me, is subjective, but the process of applying it can be observed. The deliberate choosing of things for reasons you are aware of and have considered - that will get you to a manifestation of your taste. A loved one of mine has filled her home (not in a hoarder way - she's quite minimalist) with things that are meaningful to her. They're arranged thematically - all these family pictures on this wall, these perpetually displayed Christmas ornaments of this shelf, these books about animals grouped together. Her taste is not to everyone's taste, so to speak, but there's no denying that she employed her taste very consciously.
De Gustibus ain't what it used to be.
Meh, she has that same half-whisper, auto-tune voice that all the girls that age use, and seems to be much less creative with it (although that could be her producer(s) and not her, not sure how much creative control any of these pop stars have).
There's no accounting for taste.
Thank you, tommyesq, for listening so I won't have to! The whisper-voice... The singing version of vocal fry. But what is the super-annoying whistle register of Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande and that one-hit chick from the seventies (I'm drawing a blank on the one hit!) the equivalent of? "Check your privilege, bigot"?
@Jamie - Minnie Ripperton?
Taste is a personal experiment.
Taste is a privilege. I learned that this week after starting a new chemo treatment. I've lost my sense of taste. Eating is a slog.
I thought, this is so cool, I don't know a single name in the whole Althouse post. Then I came to Travis Kelce. What a bore!
@IgnoranceBliss, good luck with that. I hope for your best outcome.
"'Luxury' and 'taste' are not synonyms, but the slippage from 'luxury' to 'taste' seems to have occurred in the mind of Caramanica."
I believe you mean "luxury" and "privilege", not "taste", in both places. The slippage from "privilege" to "taste" seems to have occurred in the mind of Althouse.
“ I believe you mean "luxury" and "privilege", not "taste", in both places. The slippage from "privilege" to "taste" seems to have occurred in the mind of Althouse.”
Yes, thanks. I thought I’d corrected that. Will fix.
Hey Ignorance is Bliss--Hang in there. Pulling for you.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.