9 June

People who swear that the best music is ‘subjective’ can’t explain manias. Where millions of people suddenly all swarm around a single act. That’s not subjective, when everybody likes the same thing. Humans don’t desire things, they desire what other people desire. It’s a social, competitive process, they want to be part of the in-crowd. You can see the same with anything. Take interior design. In the 1960s and 70s, the widespread ‘subjective’ view was that strong colours were best. Then the very same people in the 1980s and 90s swore it was washed-out pastels. Then in the 2000s, suddenly the very same people were all about monochromatic whites and greys. There must be an objective reason these clear patterns happen. If it was just subjective, you wouldn’t get these huge swarms of unified desire. And there is, what we like is a social process of fitting in with the crowd. It has nothing to do with the things we say we like.