Attention music trogs, snobs, plebes, elites: Bad may be better when writing about popular music. Those with "bad" taste make a more compelling subjects than those with "good." In this talk I will look at my roles as a writing curator, scholar/researcher, commercial press author and critic/journalist to discuss the role taste plays in choosing creative projects, methods to approaching taste in an objective way, examples of how "bad" taste can be the inspiration for great art, and the role taste will play in the 21st century mediascape. Are you ready to get good at bad?