In Search of Ancient Thread: Undebatably Awesome Things

June 9, 2018 8:39 AM

Many years ago, there was a thread that I'm 89% sure was on AskMe. The thrust of the question was: what cultural products enjoy a very broad consensus that they are good? Answers, for example, were things like The Beatles, Shakespeare, the jazz standards..things that have been respected from both popular and critical perspectives,. Things that a person might or might not like for themselves, but that few people would seriously dispute they were of great quality. Does anyone remember this thread? Did I make it up? Thanks for any help!
posted by Miko to MetaFilter-Related at 8:39 AM (7 comments total)

Maybe What is Quality? How does one measure it?
posted by lazuli at 9:51 AM on June 9, 2018

That's a good thread, but not the one I had in mind. The one I'm looking for was one in which people contributed other things that were undisputably excellent.
posted by Miko at 11:34 AM on June 9, 2018

For what it’s worth, I remember a similar question about basic standard-issue things that never seem to go out of style (e.g. Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, etc.), and another about the indisputably best whatever-the-heck of its kind (best can opener, etc.).

I’d link to them, but apparently there’s no way to search AskMe anymore, so I can’t find them.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:27 PM on June 9, 2018

Sys Rq:

Cheap but bombproof
Cheap but bombproof II
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:51 PM on June 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Not what you are looking for, but related: What we like, experts vs.laypeople edition; Help me find products that are universally considered the best in their category.; When did the Beatles become the Best?.
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:53 PM on June 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

While 2016 isn't ancient (though time dilation's been a beast these last few years), Taste in anything worries me mentions quality, jazz, Shakespeare, and the Beatles in the comments. It also mentions this article from The New Yorker--"People Who Like Céline Dion Are People, Too," concerning Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love, a book I've found several mentions of here while trying to answer your question. ("Let's Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste," from Pitchfork, might give you an overview of its premise.)
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:02 AM on June 10, 2018

apparently there’s no way to search AskMe anymore
Search still works for me. I can put a term in the search box at the top of this page and the resulting page has both posts and comments. There is a drop down box to select any subsite.
posted by soelo at 8:11 AM on June 12, 2018