Music is a matter of personal taste

Music is absolutely a matter of individial taste. There are abundant reasons that would make a person like, love and enjoy a particular type of music.
One of the most contributing factors to this is “culture”. The abstruse ideas and influences of culture and religion have an unerring appeal. Culture influences the life style and the personal taste too, then why not music? We know of Carnatic, Hindustani, western classical, heavy metal, jazz and several other forms of music. All of these originate from different regions and are influenced by the cultural practices of those regions. To cite an example, Hindustani music of North India is said to have evolved from Islamic influence whereas South Indian Carnatic music is believed to have a Dravidian origin.

Culture is nothing but repeated habits. Repeatedly doing a particular thing would make you get acquainted with it. Culture does leave an influence, but only when there is an inclination towards it. The son of a professor may not be a class topper. This is absolutely possible! The daughter of an artist could become an artist more easily if there is a liking and an inclination for arts. I had believed so far that culture would have an influence on the kind of music that a person would like. But my perception is not completely right. I understand from a couple of people from my own cultural background that they seem to exhibit inclination towards other kinds of music than my liking. But why? The success and the love for a particular kind of music is ultimately in the mind of the listener, and of course the physical and the emotional changes that it provokes.

Now the question comes! Why some people enjoy some music and some different? Is it the responsibility of the performer to make everyone applaud and love his music?

I personally believe that the performer has just 2 tasks…
-To convey his love for music as intensely as possible through his performance
-To encourage listeners confront their love for music through his efforts
Now, going back to our earlier question of why different people enjoy different kinds of music? No two brains would be completely identical and so no two persons’ interests. The cultural influence and environmental factors just add to the unique interests generated natively in the brain. This is possibly the reason why I like and enjoy Carnatic classical music and somebody else would enjoy jazz. It’s not just this, a person’s musical taste changes with age too. There are people who start enjoying classical concerts at later ages of their life when they wouldn’t have shown any interest to that form of music earlier. There is no compelling factor for this! All I can say is “Any art is subjective”!