the significance of opinions

[Floating teetH]

It is often said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

What bothers me is how people will argue, based on this principle, that no song can possibly be better than another. Now, this would be like saying that I'm wrong for saying Woopie Goldberg is not as sexually attractive as......enter name of beautiful woman here.

Do all people who take philosophy classes have this annoying habit of "correcting" anyone who says one song is better than another? Just the ones I know? I'm concerned for the world in general.

[Peter Squire]

Have fun in Tin Pan Alley!

[Floating teetH]

isn't tpa for political threads?

[Peter Squire]

true, its for political threads. what i was saying is that opinions turn discussions into rampant slag matches - just have a look in TPA!

[P. Aaron]

Some songs are better than others. Except, to all of those people that listen to stuff I think is awful. But I agree with you, some songs are better than others.

Some versions of songs are better than other versions too. It's almost worth arguing about...almost.

[jay_t]

Originally Posted by P. Aaron

Some songs are better than others. Except, to all of those people that listen to stuff I think is awful. But I agree with you, some songs are better than others.

Some versions of songs are better than other versions too. It's almost worth arguing about...almost.

We can't all of the songs just get along!

[Syeknom]

Originally Posted by medic8ed

Do all people who take philosophy classes have this annoying habit of "correcting" anyone who says one song is better than another? Just the ones I know? I'm concerned for the world in general.

I take philosophy and absolutely love it, but wouldn't say anything so half assed and rubbish =P
Just because art is subjective does not make it impossible to talk about two different art pieces and compare the quality of those pieces against one another. Talent and creativity are measurable to a degree, and the work will reflect that - talent and creativity aren't entirely subjective things at all. The artwork usually derives from those quantifable qualities and is therefore comparable.
Also, when saying a sentence such as "X is better than Y" in terms of artwork, the clause "in my opinion" is already presupposed in order for it to work - smart asses who say: "only in your opinion though" with a smug grin on their face are just demonstrating an inability to recognise what the sentence is and how it came to be.

And the other thing is that "better" is a loose term, and needs to be defined by some measurable thing, such as talent or such. To say something is "better" without defining (either by implication or explicitly) what that thing is better at is a bit weak.

It's therefore perfectly fine to discuss why a piece of art (film, music, literature, drawing etc) is better than another, because you compare and discuss the two pieces in relation to measurable things.