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Originally Posted by Pedestrian
I think that's more because of your nature. You're not very confrontational, and you try to keep your opinions inoffensive, because you do care how you come across to people and how your opinions affect your relationships. I'm not saying this to be insulting, because I'm exactly the same way.
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I can relate to this quite well, and me mentioning Wagner is indirectly demonstrates this. I was at a performance of The Ring and when it was being discussed afterwards, in a conversation I admitted that I really couldn't connect to this music as I would to an artist like the Fall or even something like Joplin, who I happen to be immensely fond of. Of course this was met with polite condescension.
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Unfortunately subjectivity just isn't any fun. If everyone treated music subjectively, this would be a very boring place. What we have instead, is relativity, which takes in a great deal more factors for both the artist and the listener, including everything from the listener's experience with music and personal preference to the artist's mastery of their instrument and decades of influence.
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I think this is probably spot on, and the distinction between subjectivity and relativity is clearly an important one. You mentioned this concerning the way the artist can interact with the senses of the listener, and I think that connecting with people's feelings isn't something anyone can do universally, hence the "relativity".
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Point is, there is no way to objectively rate the value of a piece of music. You can however, provide a better argument for your preference than your discussion partner, and thus still win a debate, which is always fun.
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Indeed! This, I suppose, is the challenge of the reviewer - they are required to do exactly that. Although I'm not a fan of postmodernist philosophy, I still accept that with an art such as music it is not possible to objectively assess it's merit when it's purpose isn't meant to register objectively.
And it certainly is satisfying to "win" a discussion on something such as this, although I personally think that for me "street cred" on the internet is far less important than the opportunity to learn something. I know people often admire the tendency certain people have to argue for the sake of the argument, and some individuals are evidently at the stage where they are able to do this in any situation for their own amusement as much as anything.
Although I admire this, I'm perfectly content to accept when I'm wrong and try and learn something constructive, and I think this is one of the benefits of a discussion here. I'll often come away having changed my mind about something and consider it educational.