A taste for Lamborghinis

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Taste is rum thing isn’t it? With no prior knowledge I would have assumed a Lamborghini Miura should not cost a huge amount of money because who would want one? A sixties/seventies car with an uninspiring interior trying to look like some kind of Le Mans racer.

It’s a matter of taste though and this site has one for sale at £949,995. So much for my assumption. Are they investments? Could be because horrible paintings can be investments so why not a car which isn’t horrible but isn’t particularly appealing. If I had that kind of money I wouldn’t spend it on a Lamborghini Miura but that’s taste for you.

For example Ed Sheeran, a chap who could afford a Miura, has been in the news recently. Some outfit is suing him for enough money to buy tons of Lamborghinis and here again the issue of taste arises. I loathe Mr Sheeran’s music but millions evidently lap it up. Must be a matter of taste but is it a matter of individual taste? Are we led astray by fads, fashions and fantasies? Is taste manipulated? Of course it is – we all know that.

There is an element of simplicity to many aspects of taste. It is simpler and easier to go along with popular tastes and accept what is widely accepted. The Lamborghini Miura is usually presented as an exotic classic so wanting one is easy to understand. It is understandable even for those in no position to buy one or even contemplate the possibility of buying one. It is a matter of taste, easier to accept than analyse.

Ed Sheeran’s music is popular so acquiring a taste for it was presumably easy for huge numbers of people. Easier than trying to analyse what might be wrong or culturally undesirable about popular music in general, let alone the music of a specific performer. Again it is a matter of taste, easier to accept than analyse. Analysis of popular taste seems futile because what difference does it make? Popularity sidelines analysis every time.