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Date: Tue, 10 Aug 93 15:02:45 -0500
From:     pickerin%ssc.wisc.edu%UCSD.EDU%Sdsc.bitnet@emuvm1.cc.emory.edu
To:       "socgrad%ucsd.edu"%ssc.wisc.edu%UCSD.EDU%Sdsc.bitnet@emuvm1.cc.emory.edu
Subject: laundry lists,etc.,etc.,etc!


Hi,

I have stayed out of the music discussion. But I feel the need to respond
to something posted today. But first, an anecdote.

When I was in college, a new person in town asked my friend "Do you
like cool music?" My friend replied "No, I like music that sucks."

Pickering writes "Therefore to rely solely on 'objective'
P>and logical explanations as to why people like the music that they do,
P>there's going to be a lot going on that you might miss...Since music is
P>such a visceral art form, often people simply like something because
P>'it rules' or dislike it because 'it sucks.'
P>Sure,there are countless other factors that go into the construction of
P>individual preferences, but in the case of music (and this is what my
P>subjective insight tells me)there is a great deal going on that logical
P>explanations cannot account for. Musical preference is more or less a
P>relative concept with no 'objective' standard as such."

Look, this is what sociology is all about.  None of us, whether we study
unions or community organizations or churches or whatever, would disagree
with the argument "there is a great deal going on that logical
explanations cannot account for" (without going into definitions for
logical, of course.) By that I mean,don't think music is so special.

All any of us are trying to do is help illuminate to some extent why
certain things occur inthe ways that they do. We try to find patterns,
see if they help make sense of things. We don't claim to completely
understand a set of events based on "logical explanations." Let's
leave that to the economists (it's a joke!).

Peace,
Joya Misra

P.S. You guys are certainly welcome to my presentation, but it conflicts
with the big Soc of Music roundtable, so...