This is not about Celine Dion – or is it?

I’ve finally finished reading Carl Wilson’s “Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the end of Taste” (link on the right) and it’s the best book about music I’ve read in years (not that I've read a lot … but more about that later). Although the book uses Celine Dion and her 1997 release, “Let’s Talk About Love,” it’s not about her. It’s about aesthetics. Musical taste. What do our likes and (perhaps more importantly) our dislikes say about us?

Wilson is a music critic (The Globe and Mail) and he doesn’t particularly care for Celine Dion. However, millions throughout the world do. So he decides to examine that gap and understand it. And he covers a lot of ground, a lot. He also makes quite a few interesting points.

One he makes is that as things are now, the only kind of music anyone has to apologize for is mainstream, and I think that’s true. Everyone knows you have to have quirky tastes now. At the very least, they can't run the middle-ground.

He also comments that music such as death metal could be described as hyper-masculine music. So couldn’t Celine’s music be described as hyper-feminine? And if so, why does one get currency but the other is supposed to be something to be ashamed of?

However, the two most interesting aspects of his book, for me, were his discussion of Celine as French, being a Québécois artist, and how Anglo North America may not be able to quite process that. From our perspective, the point of entry is on a bit of an angle. We’re not quite sure how to view her, other than strange. I would add I think with Dion it’s not just that but her rural, large family roots that make her what she is. Although she sings in English, her sensibility is more Québécois/rural/European, hence the large gestures and the sentimental qualities. As far as I know, we’re the only ones embarrassed and apologetic for that sort of thing.

The other aspect I found interesting is the discussing of the cultural and social aspects of what we do and don’t like and how, to a great degree, it ends up being a class thing. “I’m better than you because I listen to the right music; you’re beneath me because you listen to that schmaltz.”

There’s also a fascinating history of schmaltz in the book.

Either way, the book is well worth reading. I particularly like that it isn’t dogmatic at all. It simply questions all those things we never question.

I should also say, it struck me as odd that Carl Wilson write and release this book now. Before I was aware of the book, I had started on my own exploration of Celine. I had read some comments online where someone was ranting about how much they hated her and that she should cut her son’s hair because it was too long. And I wondered, what’s her son’s hair got to do anything? Why are you even making a comment like that?

And although I, too, had a default, “Oh, I don’t like Celine Dion” position, I was aware I had never actually taken the time to really listen to her. I wondered if I had confused an excess of hype with the quality of the music.

As it turns out, I actually like Celine Dion. At least, her latest disc “Taking Chances” and her latest French language disc, “D’Elles.” There may be the odd time when they go a bit over the top, but I can live with that.

Hopefully, I’ll write something more later about how the discs are not really about Celine but about teams and producers. (And I don’t mean that as a slag.)

(btw ... You'll find Carl Wilson at zoilus.com.)