RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

Ljubomir Kocić

PUBLIC TASTE AS A FACTOR IN PROGRAMME ORIENTATION

In many works we encounter the term ’public taste 1 . It is conceived and interpreted variously, and often discussions of public taste are attributed an importance and a function that are not appropriate to its nature. M ost frequently it is equated with the taste of the public or masses - which in essence it is not - or it is treated as a product of mass culture - which cannot be accepted. The fact is that the term public taste does designate a concept A concept of something. Something we most often employ in reflections about art and culture. And this something that we call public taste has become embedded in the contemporary way of thinking. Although it is insufficiently clarified it is mostly used with regard to topics associated with the sphere of art Perhaps this was what spontaneously lay behind the inclusion of public taste in the title of this paper, since the substance of the topic is from the sphere of the role о/ music in radio programmes - which makes it obligatorv to begin with the exposition of a view of the conception and interpretation of public taste within the limits of the general and fundamental. So this should not be taken as an all-embracing theoretical discussion of public taste, because that is not the intention - but solelv as an introduction to discussion that should examine all questions related to the orientation of RTV Belgrade’s music programme. In the event that theoretical considerations are touched upon this is oniy to the extent necessarv to construct a кеу to open discussion, to give it a foundation and guide it into the subject-matter of the topic which is highlv complex and ramified Public taste exists in the life and being of music as a very complex phenomenon whose meaning and interpretation

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