I wrote:

>>Suppose that, while listening to the radio, I hear something I don't like.
>>I can either make a mental note to avoid that composer in future, or I can
>>decide that the music had something to it, buy the CD, and listen to it
>>again in the hope that my opinion changes.  There has to be a convincing
>>reason to take the second approach - "someone else likes it" isn't normally
>>good enough.

Deryk Barker asks:

>How about "someone whose opinions/tastes I usually respect likes it"?

That's not really enough, I'm afraid.  For example, there are several
people on this list whose opinions I respect but whose tastes differ from
mine.

"Someone whose opinions/tastes I usually share" would probably do, but
that's harder to determine.  It's a particular problem with magazines where
they have specialist reviewers for each part of the repertoire.  For all I
know, the reviewer for 20th-century symphonic music might be someone who
finds Schubert boring or Boccherini fascinating, and if that's the case,
our views on the 20th-century symphony being reviewed might also be wildly
different.

Peter Varley
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