Taste - a social and cultural phenomenon

Abstract

Each one of us belongs to a certain social class in the society that defines who we are and how we see our self in relations to other social classes and groups. The social classes tend to determine a person’s likes and interests and define aesthetic concepts such as “taste”. Regarding Cooleys Looking-glass-self theory, our own identity or self is the result of how we learn to see ourself as others do. The way we judge ourself and our behavior in society is always a result of how we think we must appear to others. People imitate and compare themselves towards those in higher positions and that is the start of a common trend and taste within a field. Artists should appear within the existing taste frame, and they judge themselves and compare themselves within that frame. Therefore originality and new ways of creation is not pure, but highly related to others and the already existing tastes. A change of taste within a field happens in small steps through time. The only way to change a certain taste and trend direction is to have new agents stepping into the field, doing something that is slightly different but still within the acceptance of what is already there.