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We’re much more likely to use “taste” in a fuzzy, laissez-faire way, dismissing (or accommodating) difference by saying “oh, it’s just different tastes” or “well, people have different tastes.”Īs a scholar, I’m constantly called upon to appreciate works that may not be to my taste. Making judgments on taste feels anachronistic or elitist. We don’t use bad taste except as a jocular antagonym in which bad means good” (149-150).

As Wilson puts it, “We don’t commend someone’s good taste because we don’t want to be caught wearing morning coats and waxed mustaches and asking what the devil is up with the wogs. In the twenty-first century, we don’t talk much about taste any more. I especially enjoy that the book engages with questions of taste –Â and, yes, Hume, Kant, Bourdieu, & others make appearances here (Wilson has done his homework). But schmaltz can be about big emotions… which, of course, are what defines CÃ©line’s music. However, if it has too much, then it’s, well, schmaltzy. If a song or performance lacks schmaltz, then it’s too dry. In “Let’s Talk in French,” he considers her Quebec roots and the province’s particular musical culture –Â specifically, the conflict between the chanson (the poetic, sometimes political work of “homegrown Gainsbourgs and Dylans (it was mostly guys)” that began in the 60s) and the kÃ©taine ( “tacky” or “hickish,” pre-60s “variety-pop”) (26-27).Â In “Let’s Talk About Schmaltz,” he historicizes the term: Yiddish for “chicken fat,” schmaltz comes from vaudeville, and it’s not a bad thing. The book both is and is not about CÃ©line Dion.Â Wilson takes her and her work seriously, but does so as part of his larger inquiry. As anyone who has spoken to me in the last few weeks will tell you, I’ve been evangelizing it – rather as one does upon hearing a particularly wonderful piece of music.Â I want to share this book with everyone.Â If you have any interest in taste or in music, you really must read it. He picked her Let’s Talk About Love because it has that Titanic song on it.Īnd because it gives him an opportunity to create humorous chapter titles: “Let’s Talk About Hate,” “Let’s Talk About Schmaltz,” “Let’s Sing Really Loud,” and “Let’s Talk About Taste” are a few of them.Â A music critic for Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Wilson has a sense of humor, but the book is a serious inquiry into taste.Â It’s also become one of my favorite books.

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In his book Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste (2007), Carl Wilson tackles this question using another Canadian megastar as his case study: CÃ©line Dion.Â Most of the books in Continuum’s 33 1/3 series examine a critically important album: the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Prince’s Sign â˜® the Times, Talking Heads’ Fear of Music, Elliott Smith’s X/O.Â For his entry in the series, Wilson chose CÃ©line Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love because he wanted to answer the question of why “do each of us hate some songs, or the entire output of some musicians, that millions upon millions of other people adore?” (1).

Or perhaps it’s more complicated.Â Certainly, it’s a question of taste. Perhaps they hear vocalist Chad Kroeger’s raspy shout as emotional intensity, the bland homilies (“every second counts because there’s no second try / so live like you’ll never live it twice”) as profound insights, and the bombastic production as appropriately anthemic. Yet Nickelback’s massive success suggests that its fans are hearing something that I’m missing. I could imagine it being used to sell soda or life insurance.

At best, I find the group’s music benign. The joke depends upon pervasive dislike of the popular Canadian band. There’s a new Facebook meme: “How to determine who to unfriend on Facebook.”Ĭlick on the link, and you get a list of “Friends who like Nickelback.”

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