John Wilkes Booth

this is my theory on the appreciation of music/movies/art/etc

it is a jewel of wisdom i have obtained through many years of strenuous online research and introspection

i have come to the conclusion that there are two basic ways to approach the appreciation of art

the first and more common way is to view the artists as contestants and yourself as the judge. either they make music/art/whatever that meets your standards, and thus earn your seal of approval, making you a fan, or they fail to meet said standards and you become a critic/hater/non-fan.

in this approach, you challenge artists to meet your subjective standards and leverage your position as the judge and arbitrator of artistic merit. this is basically a power play. the problem with this method is that you invest interest in yourself as a critic, which in some cases might actually act as an obstruction to you appreciating the art in question.

because you don't want your status as a person with good taste to be tainted by signing off on what is seen as a substandard artist by other critics. and so the messy business of diplomacy and politics begins to manifest among the cartels of critics.

the second way is to view any piece of art as an emotional message from the artist to the fan. a fan tries their best to decipher said message, but in some cases might lack the context for that message to really resonate. in such a case, the fan is missing out on appreciating the artist, rather than the artist failing to reach the fan.

the artist has already done their part in making the art. the onus is now on the fan to learn how to derive some sort of enjoyment from said art. a failure to do so is simply that, a failure. but you can't win em all.