Diana Krall

Of course there are standards of excellence in the arts and this comment is not about DK.  Why should the arts be any different than any other endeavor in that regard.  Is the relatively casual observer/fan of figure skating just as qualified to discern the level of excellence (or lack of) in a skater as someone who has devoted a lifetime to studying the sport or is a skater himself?  I don’t think so.  Relativism in order to justify personal taste (subjectivity) is a sure way to stop learning and growing as a listener; and there is so much to learn.  

any person with average smarts that lacks sportsmanship is no connoisseur.

It's blunt.

Minor detail ,lalitk .
Classical and Jazz and much of true folk music are Fine Arts not Sports .
Take decades to learn to play and listen to .
I’ll really do care who or what people want to listen to, I do care if they
elevate a mediocre artist to a level they do not deserve .
Not for me, I am nothing  , I run my mouth for others who might believe that and never get into the best .
And and at its best Music can do what no sport can do or for that matter no other Fine Art can do, raise the human
mind , body and soul to the highest level  . The other Arts are representational, music is the thing itself .

If you want to hear true feminine Fine Art , listen to Nina Simone singing
"Porgy" and listen close .

schubert,

“I do care if they elevate a mediocre artist to a level they do not deserve”

And why do you care so much if few folks out of the millions chose to put DK on a pedestal. As it’s been said repeatedly in this thread, music or artist is a personal choice or preference.

Although Nina Simone is a fine artist, do you think everyone out there should appreciate her true feminine art as much you do?

AMERICA is built on diversity my friend, you should learn to embrace and appreciate the freedom of choice we all have been afforded (and often taken for granted).