Let's Talk About Love

Yup, that's Celine there. As you may have figured out, I've been reading a bunch of the 33 1/3 series of books. One of the more critically acclaimed of those books centres on her album Let's Talk About Love. And I read it. And I enjoyed it. It's probably the best of the series I've read so far (and I've read at least 7 of them now). Thing is, it's not really about the album; it is about taste, and class, and the reasons we listen to what we listen to. It actually centres on Celine because of what she represents. The thing that sits a little uncomfortably with me though, aside from the apparent sexual innuendos in the lyrics to "The Reason" ("In the middle of the night / I'm going down 'cause I adore you"), is the argument that much of our taste serves the purpose of signifying our class. That is, using taste telling others who we are, and are not, who we are above in terms of sophistication. Basically emphasizing the whole music snobbery thing that we are supposedly over now that we all so openly embrace our guilty pleasures.