I often times find that it's difficult to differentiate between "bests" and "favorites," as they can tend to get blurred and we then mistake one for the other and vice versa. Just a couple weeks ago, someone asked me to name what I thought were the five best songs of all time. This was incredibly difficult on multiple fronts. First off, how exactly would one define "best" in this situation? The five most influential songs of all time? The five most technically sound songs of all time? The five most emotionally-charged, inspirational, or affecting songs of all time? There are a number of different routes one could travel when being asked such a question. It's also difficult to discern one's own personal best to the best at large. Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" - is it one of my personal favorite songs? No. But do I feel it's probably one of the best rock songs in the genre's history? Yes. In both scenarios, a person's viewpoint is subjective, however, with the latter, a person is attempting to combine that subjectivity with a certain amount of objectivity, regardless of how unbiased and educated that objectivity may or may not be. Often times, though, a person will blur the two, and when asked what the best movie of all time is, they may respond by saying, "Definitely The Notebook," since it's their personal favorite, and therefore, in their mind, it's the best. However, if they were to stand back and not look through a biased lens, would they still answer in the same manner? While it's possible, the odds are probably fairly slim.
So how does one discern between the two? While it can be difficult, I tend to differentiate the two by thinking about the following:
- If it's a personal best or favorite, it's something we watch or listen to with a great deal of frequency, more than any other song, show, band, or movie (or what have you). For me, some of my favorite movies are: The Naked Gun, Clue, When Harry Met Sally, Airplane, among many others I watch fairly regularly.
- If it's classified as one of the very best, it had a grand influence and impact on oneself as well as potentially many others; it was innovative, well constructed, and technically-sound. Whenever one hears this type of song or sees this type of film, he or she may feel goosebumps and the song or film may not leave their mind for several hours or days due to the significant impact it left on them. For me, such films would be: American Beauty, The Lives of Others (German), Songs From the Second Floor (Swedish), The Usual Suspects, among many others.
- The two groups can overlap at times, but I rarely find that to be the case.
At the end of the day, though, no matter whether one is listing off personal favorite songs or films or laying claim they're the very best, it's all quite subjective. Even experts in the fields of music and film rarely ever come to a consensus about what constitutes as the "best." That's why there's always so much debate come Grammy and Oscar season.
Well, on that note, I better get going and attempt to list the five best songs ever. Five seems to be too low of a number, though, which prompts a headache just thinking about it. Maybe I'll up that number to ten. Hmm... That seems a bit low too. Fifteen or twenty? Ah, screw it; I'll make it 100 and see how that goes. Wish me luck!
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