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What makes music good (in your opinion)?


Ataraxis

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Simple question, but the answer(s) are usually less so. By what merits (e.g. difficulty to play, mass appeal, etc.) do you guage how "good" a piece of music is? Or do you consider it as simple as "If I like it, it's good; if I don't, it's crap."

 

Discuss?

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I was going to nonchalantly agree that it was a silly question until I watched that informative and entertaining video.

 

I actually considered giving "evolutionary conditioning" as a reason exemplar, but chose not to so as to keep the list breif. However, in the video, the notion of the virtuoso (and so, skill, or difficulty of a piece) is brought into consideration and largely put forth as the reason why someone may like something as a result of that evolutionary conditioning. I take issue with this.

 

Regardless of the type of music, there is almost always some degree of skill or difficulty involved, but the degree to which varies. However, it's fairly common for music that is less technically involved to attract, and be enjoyed by, a much larger audience of people. The virtuoso is not always the preferred or enjoyed musician. As well, bringing musical genre back into consideration, some may enjoy a fantastic classical composition yet loathe its equivalent in metal, and vice versa.

 

My point here is that not everyone agrees with the notion that skill or difficulty level increases, or simply determines, the level of attractiveness a piece of music has (myself among them). While there is a degree of underlying objective consideration in play (again, music almost always involves some type of skill), I can't agree that there is a single objective answer.

 

Yee-haw. Good response, Raor.

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I didn't watch the vid, and don't really want to but I have a different view of music than other people I've asked.

 

Basically from my limited observations other people like to play songs that represent the mood they are in, so if a person is really angry they will probably play an angry song. Music is actually more of a tool to me, a tool that I use to control my mood at any given time. Rather than play an angry song when I'm angry I will play a calm one in contrast to induce me to calm down. Since angry and sad are emotions I never want, I typically don't listen to those kinds of songs at all and they make up maybe 3-4 of my 1000 or so library of songs. Also because of my take on music, the songs that are the best to me are the ones that can make the biggest change in my mood. For instance, Modal Soul by Nujabes has unconditionally put me in a state of serenity. Therefore it is one of the best in my list because of how effective it is for my goal. So things like difficulty and actual "goodness" don't show up anywhere in how much I like a song. Also as a result I am not a fan of any artists and I don't really share musical tastes with much of anyone :(

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I'd probably just music similar to other fine arts. Their merit is based upon a combination of lots of things.

 

It could be:

 

The meaning in the songs lyrics/ instrumental compositions and how strongly people associate with them

The portrayed effort said artist took towards the song, and what they're making the song for

The impact said songs/band has had on music in general-- a bit hard to judge unless it's an older artist

The quality of the actual recording and mastering of the song

The dynamism of the song's elements and passages, and how they interact

The degree of difficulty or talent shown by the artist/s playing the song

 

Among many more.

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The video I posted gives good concepts behind the subconscious factors to aesthetics.

 

All you have to do is throw a self-aware, learning system that's conditioned by nature and nurture, and organizes itself generally as a social organism; along with the psychological pitfalls of still being basically an educated ape.

 

Not to be a downer.

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To Raor;

 

 

It's not really a downer, because while it looks good on paper and/or sounds good as a conclusion of logical reasoning, it does not follow necessarily in what is actually observed. I agree with some of what was said in the video, but not all of it, and I don't really think this needs to be that complicated, either.

 

ren's answer covers my question best, so far. "How it influences my emotion" is a pretty great answer. I really was going for an "in your opinion" type thing, which I thought was implied in the original post, but...well, now it's edited into the topic title to make that clear.

 

What brought this up for me was reading a bunch of comments where people said things like "You listen to X? X can't do what Y does. X sucks." These types of comments occurred in a scenario where the two artists were in similar genres doing similar things (though, with different strengths), as well as comparisons between artists in completely different genres. I get that it's just music snob bullshit, but in some cases I honestly couldn't stand the artists they said were so great even though I recognized their technical skills. Good musician, bad music (in my opinion).

 

 

Clarification for urrrrrbody else (and Raor);

 

I'm not looking for why anyone thinks others like the music they do (or why people like music in general). I'm asking from each his or her opinion on why he or she thinks he or she likes the music he or she does, as an individual. What's the single most important factor?

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"The beauty we find in skilled performances" like the guy said in the video sounds about right for me. Regarding instruments, any player that shows any kind of finesse in music theory usually results in a good song to me. Regarding singing, any singer that I find can sing well likewise usually makes for a good song as well. Probably explains why I don't mind a lot of music genres ranging from

, to pop, to
, to
, to jazz (though frankly, I hardly have any exposure to jazz), to
, I mean, obviously there are certain extremes where no amount of instrumental skill can redeem horrible singing (which turned me off of ska, for example), and vice versa. It ends up, though, that I have a pretty conservative definition of what I consider "good" music, but I'm fine with that because I'll openly like songs that I don't consider good (ie
/
/
/
).

 

It's kind of interesting because before I knew anything about music theory, I'd agree with what Ren said about music tastes reflecting emotion. Post-music classes, though, I seem to have lost my keenness for emotion in music, and I'm always bewildered when people say that metal is angry music haha.

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...I'll openly like songs that I don't consider good (ie

/
/
/
).

 

This is a pretty interesting (and honest) comment. I'd have to think you'd still say that music "sounds" good, though, right? I mean, I can share the sentiment. I like some pretty tacky shit as far as paintings go, but I still end up saying it "looks good," rather than "Looks like shit. I love it." Haha.

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My musical tastes are completely skewed and bizarre. For the most part I can only enjoy fast hard electronic music. The "best" of my category have a lot of flow to the refrains and subsections of the songs, along with contrasting synths and melody. In general, the more complicated and finely composed while still retaining a characteristic flow = the better. I look at my music as fine art or abstract paintings. It's not so much about the "performance" or "execution" of the song, but rather it's intricate composition.

 

Also heavy beastly bass. I need lots and lots of bass. And general bipolarness.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVvLPxMYqR0

 

One of my favorite songs, Hixxy is a god of happycore. Dude sucks at dj'ing live, but damn can he compose a song.

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This is a pretty interesting (and honest) comment. I'd have to think you'd still say that music "sounds" good, though, right? I mean, I can share the sentiment. I like some pretty tacky shit as far as paintings go, but I still end up saying it "looks good," rather than "Looks like shit. I love it." Haha.

I think how it pans out is that it's some lower tier of "good," if you will. Like if someone said that a song I consider good-good is bad, I'd defend it pretty vehemently, but for "good"-good songs, I'd be pretty indifferent to it.

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The song has to be fun without being gimmicky.

Gimmicky = most of the garbage they consider new age hits on the radio.

Person also has to be able to sing. For example, first time I heard Tik Tok I thought it had a decent beat. Once Kesha started actually singing, I changed it. Also the reason I hate country is cause no country singer sings well. They sing like a redneck/hick (obviously) and that's unacceptable to me.

Nice beats, good vocals. Give me that and anything (cept country) could be good to me.

 

I think my tastes in music evolved in this order: my 'Pink Floyd' phase, then I listened to dance music on sirius, then more underground electronica which is basically the stuff I imagine Tsu to listen to, fell in love with house music, and then it became indie garbage. Took me to realize a lot of indie shit is not worth listening to, and now my tastes are refined.

 

I'm also a sucker for girly love songs. This is a terrible answer to the initial question.

Edited by Jackson Lacey
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