Most arts require, to an extent, some prior knowledge. It is not so much that there are distinctions but that previous study and understanding is required to make the most of any art (including &quot;pop&quot; or &quot;lowbrow&quot;).<p>A guest in my house this week is a big fan of very simple techno. I&#x27;m obsessively listening to and playing through Franck&#x27;s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue after hearing Stephen Hough play parts of it at a masterclass a month ago which gave me a new understanding of and hunger for the piece. I do so with headphones because I know the sound bothers my guest. What little techno I have heard from his computer bothers ME a little because of the absolute paucity of content (I say this as someone who brought a Daft Punk track to an analysis class as a joke which turned into a 1h30 discussion on the only three elements we were able to isolate).<p>My taste has evolved from over 25 years of investing in understanding (classical) music, probably well over the 10,000 hours mark. He hasn&#x27;t invested the hours (decades) so he doesn&#x27;t appreciate the art, much or at all. And that&#x27;s fine - he appreciates other things in life, in which he has invested time, and in which I understand very little. The content of the Franck is complex and high dimensional (if that makes sense) and requires that previous body of knowledge and experience to appreciate; in fact, as someone who has never played on an organ, I am probably lacking a fair amount of experience to make the most of Franck.<p>With that body of knowledge, you are able to judge and appreciate the piece according to objective standards. Without, you get the second graders and the tasting meal (and they did like the wagyu!). Untrained listeners will react to some of the harmonies. Take the famous hand jump chords [1]. A &quot;man in the street&quot; might appreciate the familiar chord progression. A pianist will react immediately to the genius of that hand jump that forces you to isolate the &quot;melody&quot; (and perhaps shaping the arpeggiated chord that ends up &quot;naturally&quot; leading to it) due to the physics of getting to that last note. I took a friend to that masterclass and he was as bored as I was fascinated.<p>From A Mathematician&#x27;s Apology: &quot;Mr. J. M. Lomas put this point more picturesquely when we were passing the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square. If I had a statue on a column in London, would I prefer the column to be so high that the statue was invisible, or low enough for the features to be recognizable? I would choose the first alternative, Dr. Snow, presumably, the second.&quot; [2]<p>That being said I think there is value in &quot;man on the street&quot; reviews. As such a man in the case of many fields, I would like to know how others reacted as a proxy for my own reaction. There is a place for Yelp, and for Michelin. One is wealthier for reading both.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Dq67nsDLucI&amp;t=5m32s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Dq67nsDLucI&amp;t=5m32s</a>
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Mathematicians-Apology-Canto-Classics&#x2F;dp&#x2F;110760463X&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Mathematicians-Apology-Canto-Classics&#x2F;...</a>