"Dire cela, sans savoir quoi..."

I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to do what I do (with a little helping hand from HSBC). I've studied music since I was seven and I haven't wanted to stop since (except maybe when I couldn't be bothered to do my piano practice, but that was a long time ago) and so here I am, sixteen years later at Goldsmiths', still doing it. What is slightly irritating about studying music, though, is that everybody has an opinion on the subject. I don't think there are many other subjects outside of the arts that have quite the same wide-ranging reach, in terms of inducing a reaction and hence, an opinion. Therefore, I'd wager that there aren't very many people who haven't got into a heated argument about music. People have the unfortunate ability to make rather polarized statements on the subject (I have been guilty of this myself) and perhaps inevitably, disaster ensues.
Down the pub t'other night, an aquaintance said, "Nirvana weren't very good and Jeff Buckley is over-rated." I used to expropriate the use of "I think.." before those kind of statements, to inject a little credibility into the argument, but now, I think even that doesn't go far enough. It's fairly clear he thinks that, since he made a fairly concrete statement on his thoughts, but how does he know Nirvana weren't very good? Based upon which criterion? I might have accepted his opinions a bit more had he unpacked his argument a little, placing his argument into a more qualitative context, for example, in the context of technical instrumental ability or originality of songwriting, for example. Instead his argument lay in this.. "the only reason they're popular is because he [Kurt Cobain] killed himself..", which isn't even an argument on their musical quality, but on their popularity!! After this, I stopped listening, because I was tired and couln't be bothered engaging in a dialectic with somebody who didn't even know the terms of his own argument. Had he maybe said "I don't like Nirvana or Jeff Buckley" or "I think people are attracted to the maudlin appeal of dead musicians and don't listen to the music, which I personally do not like", I may have kept my ears open a little longer.
This is kind of indicative of the polarized views that cause me pain. It doesn't stop at popular (with a small p) music though. People have views on every kind of music, even contemporary 'serious/classical' music. This is the kind of music I compose. Because of this, I have had my work disregarded as "not music" and "arty farty crap (or something like that)", and my opinions on music therefore make me a "snob". By who? Usually people with an extended listening of readily available music, but whose arrogant attitudes towards music render them unable to see any further than the end of their own nose. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm all that special, but at least give me a little credit for knowing what I am at least trying to do. This is not arrogance on my part, I accept fully that everybody has the right to an opinion on art and music, but many do not know where the line between subjective opinion and objective fact lies. So when somebody makes objective statements that they've mistaken for opinion, (based on what they know from having a semi-interest in music) it's comparable to somebody correcting a political science graduate (perhaps from LSE) on the finer points of American foreign policy because they read some of what Simon Heffer (or someone) had said in 'The Daily Mail'.
I have to say, the 'What is Art?' or 'What is Music?' debate really bores me. The dialectic largely ends in what art or music is for the individual, which is a most ridiculously arrogant standpoint. The individual therefore assumes complete knowledge, since their objective truth on the identity and boundries of music/art are limited by what they, at that point, understand. How on earth do these people think art ever progresses, if it is limited by what we now understand? Thank heavens history gave us people, pioneers, that were able to think outside of their own understanding.
Damn this postmodern world...