The Difference Between Taste and Talent

Recently, on my Facebook newsfeed, someone I know made a comment about how he doesn't care for the infamous Lady Gaga's music which, in turn, launched a full-on bash-fest. I was taken aback by some of the comments, one of which read "I'd like to punch her in the uterus." (I hope that commenter is about 14 years old, because that's the kind of crap I expect to come out of a teenager. From an adult, it's not funny or witty - it's just pathetic.)

Fashion is nuclear.

Let me send out a disclaimer: I'm not gaga about Gaga. She has some entertaining videos and a few of her more popular pieces are quite catchy. Would I spend money to go see a concert? Eh, probably not. I'm only using her as an example because she was the subject of this particular Facebook post. 

After reading many vitriolic statements about Gaga, I realized that there is a big disconnect. Huge, in fact. People don't understand the difference between personal musical tastes and recognizing other people's talents.

It's very simple. Just because you don't like someone's art is not a gauge of their talent.

There are thousands of talented musicians that will never see a recording contract in their lives. Why not? Because their music has zero commercial appeal. Lady Gaga happens to have huge commercial appeal. Don't agree? You don't have to. The money backing her speaks for itself.

And she is mega-talented. It can't be denied and if you do, you're just swimming in denial. She has a voice the size of a barn and a deep passion to back it. She sings, she dances, she plays piano, and she gives people something to talk about. She's a one-woman show. Before you criticize her (or anyone like her), let me ask a question: when was the last time anyone paid you to sing and dance for them? Uh-huh, that's what I thought.

I just remembered, someone mentioned their dissatisfaction with her "pandering" to the gay community in order to support her career. What she's doing is not pandering. She knows her market which is a key part of doing good business. It looks like she's doing pretty good business.

How about this: instead of bashing on other people's success or discussing whether they are talented or not, why don't you take some voice lessons or learn to dance, yourself? Seriously. It used to be that everyone had a talent because when the sun went down, all we had was ourselves. We told stories, sang, danced, or played instruments. We did shadow puppetry, played charades, and other games that engaged everyone. We weren't consumers of entertainment. It wasn't someone's job. It was part of the pleasure of living.

That would be far more interesting and entertaining than listening to talentless people sit around and bitch.