ABSTRACT
Taste-making: the introduction, development, and fostering of taste is seldom discussed in great detail in popular music discourses, being somewhat partially hidden from view. The history of these multifaceted and often interconnecting pathways involves tracing the convoluted routes by which music comes into being, gains a market and is heard. The Beatles were among an important battalion of popular music artists to recognize the creative potential of sound manipulation. Record collectors became important people in and around Liverpool. The history of record retailing is linked not only to profit and loss accounting, but also to significant creative communities. The North End Music Stores was originally the name of an annexe to the Epstein furniture store, selling pianos and sheet music in the Walton area of Liverpool. Popular music is often set as a kind of allegory of the consumer society, a place of absolute iconism and iconography, a place of passivity.
