Bowie Drummer Turned Down Lady Gaga Grammys Tribute: “No, Fuck Off, That’s Stupid”

You're not wrong per se, but the problem is that if you try to rank the top 100 guitarists by mechanical skill you'd end up with a list of people that nobody's ever heard of.

Well, okay. But like I said, I'm not a music guy- so I'll admit that I'm certainly not one to speak with any merit on what particular parameters would make for an objectively insightful, informative, and essential list. But I'd also contend that those with the requisite merit would be able to intelligibly distill the essence of being a good guitar player- and I'd assume that a kind of holistic way of understanding such an essence would be correct. This would mean that individuals who approximate a golden mean between all of the essential elements would be up for consideration. To be overly simplistic, individuals who are all style but lack substance (and vice versa) would not qualify.

What you end up with inevitably is an ultimately subjective list, which is cool in its own way, but then we're back to the problem that /u/Shhhhhhhh_Im_At_Work was talking about, it's a bit silly to objectively try to rate things like this when there are so many unknown parameters.

Initially, I was inclined to say "the way I would put it would be: the parameters for the list are subjectively chosen. Where individual-with-merit A would choose parameters xyz, individual-with-merit B may choose parameters wxy. But, just because the parameters would be subjectively chosen by the individual, that doesn't mean that the individual can't give an objectively true ranking based on those subjectively selected parameters."

So yes, in a way, the list may be subjective... but it need only be in the sense that the parameters are subjectively chosen. I respectfully disagree, however, with the claim that there is any "problem" with that, or that "it's a bit silly to objectively try to rate things like this when there are so many unknown parameters" when that contention seems to miss the point. One can objectively rate these things, but the parameters chosen to do so will inevitably be subjectively and pragmatically chosen.

So the problem seems not to be that an objective ranking based on such parameters wouldn't be possible; rather it seems that we ought to remain epistemically humble with regard to what particular parameters are best if we're pragmatically trying to come up with a list

/r/Music Thread Parent Link - pitchfork.com