Feeling as if you “should” enjoy something seems like a natural reaction to a -wanting/-liking/+approving behavior, in this case enjoying the Great Fugue. For the most part +approving behaviors have high status, so feeling confused that you don’t like it isn’t surprising—different parts of your desire are conflicting.
There is a fifth hypothesis, which is a more general form of #4, that could explain the popularity of the piece: when appreciation for an art form becomes sufficiently developed, the criteria for judging it changes as a result of the psychologies of the people who make up the institutions devoted to that art form. For example: literary criticism. What the layman looks for in a novel is drastically different from what an English professor looks for, and that’s because of the institution of literary criticism and the kinds of people it attracts. This trend probably has a self-reinforcing effect for two reasons: a) there are strong status reasons to signal enjoying +approving works, e.g. literary critics gain status by saying they enjoy Shakespeare, and b) institutions devoted to art forms can become more homogenous over time. Thus, a popular piece of art need not be more novel to be “fine art,” it just needs to be better optimized for the new criteria. This hypothesis is consistent with pattern features 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Come to think of it, it does resemble a “peakcock’s tail” much more than it resembles #4. But I don’t think it’s identical because the peacock’s tail hypothesis doesn’t account for the judgement criteria changing based on how appreciation for an art form transforms itself into an institution. (And, more crucially, how the institution’s subsequent evolution affects the judgement criteria.)
Feeling as if you “should” enjoy something seems like a natural reaction to a -wanting/-liking/+approving behavior, in this case enjoying the Great Fugue. For the most part +approving behaviors have high status, so feeling confused that you don’t like it isn’t surprising—different parts of your desire are conflicting.
There is a fifth hypothesis, which is a more general form of #4, that could explain the popularity of the piece: when appreciation for an art form becomes sufficiently developed, the criteria for judging it changes as a result of the psychologies of the people who make up the institutions devoted to that art form. For example: literary criticism. What the layman looks for in a novel is drastically different from what an English professor looks for, and that’s because of the institution of literary criticism and the kinds of people it attracts. This trend probably has a self-reinforcing effect for two reasons: a) there are strong status reasons to signal enjoying +approving works, e.g. literary critics gain status by saying they enjoy Shakespeare, and b) institutions devoted to art forms can become more homogenous over time. Thus, a popular piece of art need not be more novel to be “fine art,” it just needs to be better optimized for the new criteria. This hypothesis is consistent with pattern features 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Is that different from a “peacock’s tail”?
Come to think of it, it does resemble a “peakcock’s tail” much more than it resembles #4. But I don’t think it’s identical because the peacock’s tail hypothesis doesn’t account for the judgement criteria changing based on how appreciation for an art form transforms itself into an institution. (And, more crucially, how the institution’s subsequent evolution affects the judgement criteria.)