Bad taste
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"In order to acquire bad taste one must first have very good taste." - John Waters Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing. [Good] taste is the enemy of creativity. -Picasso |
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Bad taste is the quality of any object or idea that does not fall within the normal social standards. Varying from society to society and from time to time, bad taste is generally thought of as a negative thing, but also changes with each individual.
Some varieties of black humor employ bad taste for its shock value, such as Pink Flamingos or the appropriately titled Bad Taste. Similarly, some artists deliberately create vulgar or kitsch works of art to defy critical standards or social norms. Some artists argue that the only things that is in really bad taste or that is vulgar, is kitsch. Despite the economic risks, some retailers also deliberately design and sell objects which would ordinarily be regarded as vulgar, relying on inflated price tags to instill an Emperor's new clothes effect amongst customers.
Aristophanes, Plautus, François Rabelais, Laurence Sterne and Jonathan Swift never considered "good" or "bad" taste to be a way to judge their classic works of art.
Tasteless
Namesakes
- Bad Taste, the 1987 New Zealand cult film by Peter Jackson
See also
- Parent categories: bad - taste
- Camp
- Kitsch
- "low culture"
- Trash
- Taboo
- Guilty pleasures
- National Lampoon
- Foute CD, foute muziek
- A concept of music anthologies featuring popular music in "poor taste".
- Taste (sociology)
- Schlock
- Gross out
- Garish
- The Structure of Bad Taste