A fascinating read till the end, A Matter of Taste by Stanley Lieberson explores how names, fashion, and culture change over time.
NEED TO EXPRESS
Nowadays you can see more individualistic people. They are willing to express themselves.
Every person has special characteristics, but they also have few similar characteristics in common. For example, if you were to ask a group of people what they enjoy and don't like, their responses will be identical because they all share the same common preferences and dislikes.
Different generations have different names and they change time by time.
So, while our individuality cannot justify whether anything is becoming popular or controversial among the whole society, it allows us to consider how present preferences vary from past tastes.
We can get answers to many questions. For example, in this book, A Matter of Taste, Lieberson will show why people get taste sense sometimes inaccurate, why Mexican Americans do not call their sons Joshua, and the reason behind fashion trends on Donald Duck.
FEELING THE NEED TO KEEP UP WITH TRENDS
The thing you get in your mind, in the beginning, is Fashion when you hear the word. Yet fashion is not just about clothes and designer brands. It's a pattern in every field of culture. Fashion is a trendy trend that's common because it's new. People want to buy new shoes even though there is pair of old good condition shoes in their home, only because the shoes are trendy. However, fashion is not only about buying items for the sake of novelty; often consumers are buying something with an objective benefit over their predecessor.
FASHION EVOLVES OVER TIME
Apart from being novel and aesthetically appealing, fashion must also evolve on a daily basis – if not, it would become customs rather than fashion. Let’s see one example, wearing traditional Japanese clothes like kimonos is not considered fashion because they haven't evolved a lot over time despite having esthetic importance. If Japanese designers decided to resurrect the kimono, they'd be making fashion. This is because we create fashion as people begin to change their styles for novelty and variation.
Fashion is evolving over time. Hair trends and music from the old times, for example, are not as common today. Even the popular musical items that influenced a generation are no longer performed in any concert hall.
Haven’t read the book, A Matter of Taste yet? Then you should read this book once which gives you a detailed description about why you can not be a master in taste, reason behind no name like Joshua in Mexican American people and many more things that you like about this book. So check this book once and read this.
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