As I said before, it’s really about trust and respect. I imagine that it would be very difficult to set a goal and say, “I will become an international taste maker.” It’s much more organic that that. The trust, respect and relationship that are necessary for a person’s opinion to matter take time to develop.

You’re right though, not everyone wants to have their tastes influenced. (Of course, they are being influenced whether they like it or not!) But I think the majority of people appreciate having a trustworthy voice to tell them what to listen to and what to like.

From what I read here, what differentiates ‘hits’ from ‘filler’ is what the taste-maker critic tells me. Just like the ‘gate-keeping’ editor in news journalism – what makes the paper is what the editor likes – but, as we’ve seen many a time, this isn’t often the full story.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m respectful of those who take the time and effort to blog about the music they love, but I’m conscious that what taste-makers choose to write about is based purely on subjectivity. Sometimes I like music that certain taste-makers might not, should I feel guilty about that?

Sometimes, It almost seems that taste-makers need people to think they require people to tell them what are hits and what ain’t to justify their own occupation or hobby or what not. Do people really want to be told what to like or not? Well, some people will do, others won’t.

I think a great philosophy towards critical music writing is to be honest but never disguise for a second that the perspective one takes is purely their own. I also think it is a waste of time and words to write about stuff you don’t like. I don’t see how that is constructive at all. I realise that if someone was in the music magazine business that you are forced to attempt to take an objective standpoint, but since musical taste seems impossible to measure, it therefore is impossible to be objective.

Anyway, good article, made me think, made me write these fairly jumbled up thoughts!

I’m largely a live music critic, which means that I’m aware of most bands that I’m to review before seeing them. So there’s that exploration phase that every music fan goes through when finding new artists, and deciding on who’s worth their time. My role as a live critic has shifted since I began two years ago, as I’m now much more focused on the performances on the night, instead of wasting words on periphery events. If you’re interested, you can view my reviews at http://last.fm/user/NiteShok/journal

Like you said, there’s more music being uploaded each day than you could ever hope to keep up with. And much of it will be outside your tastes. Which is where the role of the tastemaker comes in: to wade through the shit and find the gold.

A side note – are you aware of http://wearehunted.com? It’s an aggregator that charts the most talked-about tracks online each day.

I believe that there’ll always be an interest in reading critical appraisal of musicians’ works. Perhaps the hardest part for someone who sets out to fulfill the tastemaker role is to choose their medium: blog, Twitter, mailing list, all of the above, or am I missing something?

Cheers Refe.

Critics didn’t play a very direct role in shaping my early musical tastes, to be honest. I guess growing up the local scene that I was a part of always had a bit of a distrust toward them.

This isn’t something I’ve thought a lot about, so take it for what it’s worth, but I think that for a music critic to be relevant in the social media world they’d have to be more than a critic – they would have to be a personality themselves. To effectively shape the way people look at music they have to have some level of trust or respect for you, and for that they have to feel like they know you. Thankfully, that type of relationship has been made pretty accessible through social media.

I took the liberty of checking out your site (enjoyed it quite a bit, actually) and couldn’t help but notice that you yourself are a music critic. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. Do you feel like you and your ilk have been successful or effective as tastemakers?