'Good' music.

My own personal definition of "good" music is the absence of anything "bad" in it. It's just a lot easier to notice flaws.

I don't have any real concrete ideas, but one "bad" thing for me is when something in music becomes distracting or irritating. When there is some element of discord that takes me out of the music. This might be a really jarring lyric that doesn't fit with the theme of the song, or has some blatant awful message. Or it might be a singer going off key rather prominently at the height of the song.

I would like to say that a good song is one that makes me want to listen to it over and over, but that's really just another way of saying I enjoy it.

Do you think that particularly intricate and complex music showing great levels of musicianship makes music good? Emotional and deep lyrics? Or do you simply like particularly catchy music?

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Yes, and no. Good music, in my opinion, can have that, and it also can be rather simple and still a darn good song.

Scarf sums it up pretty well imo; a song I do not like as much as others is one that has at least one noticeable aspect I would have a qualm with (at any rate to be a 'great' song or not). A good song for me would be just something that does what it does well; say if it is complex then it excels in that aspect, and so forth. Catchiness less so as annoying songs can be earworms too, which just makes me hate them more. D=

For me it's definitely the lyrics. They don't have to be emotional or deep, they just have to strike me in some way, whether it be emotionally or just make me think "wow that's really clever".

As for the music itself, again it doesn't have to be overly technical or show amazing musicianship (seriously had no idea that was a word until now) but the tune has to work in sync with the lyrics to make them go through me rather than come at me. That sounds so lame and wishy-washy but it's the best way I can describe it lol.

Razor Leaf said:

What, in your opinion, qualifies music as 'good'? By that I don't mean I want a list of music you enjoy, but rather, I want you to explain why you enjoy the music that you like and what exactly it is that makes it so enjoyable for you. Do you think that particularly intricate and complex music showing great levels of musicianship makes music good? Emotional and deep lyrics? Or do you simply like particularly catchy music?

Fire away.

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I guess one can think/acknowledge that music is 'good' without actually liking the music, as such. For me, I love to hear third-harmonies (so you'd hear the notes C and E at the same time and so on, to put it extremely bluntly). Certain chord progressions make me love a song regardless of genre, too. And if a song has any kind of sound that is remotely 8-bit sounding, I'll more than likely think it's awesome.

Gah, it's harder to answer this than I thought. I think that when you can see that a song was made with talent and skill, you can't deny that the song is good (but you can of course NOT like it). However I think sometimes, for certain genre, it's as though the performers are too aware of that, and when a song's JUST got technique going for it rather than actually having good composition behind it.. then I won't think it's good. I think that's why I don't like some reeeeeeeeeeeally heavy Rock music (though you can split that into about four hundred genre now). It just seems to focus too much on "Oh check out how many times I can change time signature in the space of ten seconds" or "Check how loud I can scream these awesome lyrics that you can't understand". I'm not trying to offend anyone who likes Rock and I'm saying this in reference to just some bands I've heard, so be cool ;)

To sum up (since I probably didn't answer properly), for me... There's too many things to consider, I actually can't. Fail.

No auto-tune (unless I'm just in that posh electromood)
Don't repeat the same lines 20 freaking times

Other than that, I don't really care. I'm not musical at all, barely listen to music, but on the rare occasion I do, that's usually my criteria.

I'm guilty have having some hipster tendencies when it comes to what I define to be good music. I respect people a lot more if they have any of the following (though, this is just a very, very condensed list because I'm lazy to find them all) in their library:

Florence + the Machine, Lana Del Rey, Wolf Gang, Passion Pit, Mumford & Sons, Imagine Dragons, Adele, Two Door Cinema Club, Bon Iver, Foster the People, Of Monsters and Men, Phoenix, Metric, Discovery, First Aid Kid, Walk the Moon, MGMT, Friendly Fires, Neon Trees, Bombay Bicycle Club, Feet Foxes, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Vampire Weekend, The Tallest Man on Earth, Marina & the Diamonds, Ellie Goulding, The Naked and Famous, Miike Snow, fun., The Civil Wars, Young the Giant, Grouplove, The Lumineers, etc.

Bar Adele, who I think is just great vocally with no use of productions necessary to enhance her sound, these artists are tagged indie and other things like that on Last.fm. So most artists tagged indie on Last.fm are what I define to be good music. Of course, there are tons of artists I haven't even heard of on Last.fm who have that tag, but you know what I mean. Most of them have thought provoking lyrics and aren't meant to make you dance. Don't get me wrong, I love pop music just as much as I love them (probably more-so for some artists [like Lady Gaga]), but when I think of 'good' music, pop isn't what comes to mind.

I qualify music as an artist and therefore I look at an artist's album. I like alot of music, and that isn't always easy. I get bored pretty often as I usually listen albums instead of seperate songs.

There are the typical examples of good albums like one of my favorites; 'Songs for the deaf' by Queens of the Stone Age. The album is someone who keeps on tuning frequencies on his radio and keeps on stumbling on songs. As long as it's different and not the same as the 3 songs before it, I'm good :)

Some of the responses have gotten me thinking more about this. I think good music also has to have a uniqueness to it. Not that it has to be completely different from everything else, but it has to have its own identity. It's got to have at least one aspect which makes it stand out. I don't have the musical know-how to word that any better, but I hope you know what I mean. Derivative. I think good music isn't derivative. Or in other words good music doesn't make you go "Oh, this sounds just like _______."

I also think that good music is something that can change and still sound good. Like, not just changing keys (?) every few seconds, but maybe the "feel" of the song like the message or story in the lyrics, or maybe just the way the instruments are arranged can shift around in the middle or something like that. If a song can do that and not feel jarring then I'd probably say it's good. Of course not all good songs have to do this. Gah. There's not a single thing that's a part of all good music.

I usually can listen to any type of music and say it's good. It's just music, after all. Not that music's anything miniscule, but it is for our entertainment.

I personally find though that the only music I'll listen to voluntarily is ones that have deep basslines or a really strong beat. (a really great example is Goin' In by Birdy Nam Nam) But that's because I need to keep out crazy noises out there in the background so some classical piece won't be able to cover up the background noise so I can feel good.

I was thinking of making this thread actually! Anyway, I can like a song for a lot of reasons. To be honest, I think the number one reason I will think a song is good is for the way it makes me feel. There are some songs where every component in it just come together for me and it gives me a good feeling. Don't confuse that with the song Good Feeling btw. I hate that song, lol. But yeah. I would say that if the song makes you feel good, it can still be good. So this includes the obnoxious catchy songs, haha. Buhhhh I think I explained this so baddd.

Overall to be good, I'm gonna go with Nick's hipster tendencies haha. I think almost anything with the indie tag is good. It has good feels... v_v

I don't know. I mean, I listen to various things for different reasons... but like those different types of music for various things. I have a few criteria that music most at least meet one of for me to give it a decent chance. If the musicianship is top notch, there's a good chance I'll dig it. That's my reasoning for being into Prog and Jazz. If music is very atmospheric, I can definitely enjoy it. Mostly depressive stuff, even if I'm in the best of moods. That's why I'm into Dark Ambient and Black Metal (I guess there could be an argument against that, but meh). Lyrics! That's another huge thing to me. If lyrics are super meaningful I can get behind a song no matter the genre.

Then there's all the 80s pop stuff I dig. Hrm. I just don't know about that. Nostalgia for an age I didn't live through? I can't explain that one.

I don't put 'music I like' and 'music that's good' in the same category. Music that shows both technical ability and good songwriting/composition skills, to me define what music is 'good'. But that doesn't define at all what I like. Often the most technically talented musicians are in the genre of heavy metal/heavy rock, because they can show off their skills the best there, but a lot of the time I don't like that kind of music.

All 3 of those have to come together though. Technical talent in the musicians performing it, songwriting that creates effective and moving lyrics, and musical composition that highlights the talents of the musicians while creating a musical narrative. This is an ideal song though, an archetype that most songs wouldn't be able to meet. But to be a good song, you have to have reasonable success in each one, on a bit of a sliding scale (if you have ultra-good composition and songwriting, your technical ability doesn't necessarily have to be top notch, but if you only have nice lyrics and the rest isn't good then it shouldn't be considered good).

I don't see catchiness as any sign of anything being good or even necessarily enjoyable. "It's a Small World" isn't a particularly good or enjoyable song for most people but the second you hear it it's stuck in your head for days.

Sydian said:

To be honest, I think the number one reason I will think a song is good is for the way it makes me feel.

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You are absolutely right, anything that makes a song 'good' is the way it makes their audience feel. People can say "That song's crap because blah and I study music so therefore blah blah" all they want but if someone somewhere enjoys it, it classifies as 'good' somewhere.

giradialkia said:

I think that's why I don't like some reeeeeeeeeeeally heavy Rock music (though you can split that into about four hundred genre now). It just seems to focus too much on "Oh check out how many times I can change time signature in the space of ten seconds" or "Check how loud I can scream these awesome lyrics that you can't understand". I'm not trying to offend anyone who likes Rock and I'm saying this in reference to just some bands I've heard, so be cool ;)

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I understand what you are saying and I appreciate it, but as a member of the "Hardcore scene" or whatever some of the guys call it, I do want to point at that because of the technical restrictions that separate the (stupid) sub-genres that we have going on it is very difficult for bands to diversify and find their own unique sounds, especially when they're shunned for separating too far from the main sound.
I know it's paradoxical but that's how this genre developed. I'll be the first to admit we have some of the most closed minded listeners and that's why they're always trying to out-do each other having the biggest drops or the heaviest breakdowns or whatever, because they're trying to be the best at what already works.

I just wanted to make that clear and I'm not telling you you're wrong because it is impossible for you to be wrong in the context of personal perception. I'm just here to give you a little insight into why that happened, and don't worry nobody will get mad at you if you don't change your listening habits hah.

Scarf said:

I think good music isn't derivative. Or in other words good music doesn't make you go "Oh, this sounds just like _______."

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Unfortunately it's getting to a stage where in this musical time period everything is starting to coincidently sound similar. We're overdue for a musical paradigm overhaul.

It all boils done to what the person thinks is good. For example I prefer Carly Rae over Madonna and Fall Out Boy over Queen. I do know people would argue with me but it is my taste

For me. Anything that's not mainstream. I listen to mostly rap and metal. When listening to rap I go for good lyrics and not up-beat, metal just takes skill in general because you gotta learn everybody's role in the band. If your the guitar player you gotta know about drums, vocals, and bass guitar or you won't stay in rhythm. You gotta find a way to have a sound that goes with that band. That's why I listen to those genres. But mainstream, is not even close to being on the list.

A nice sounding instrumental that shows the player's technical and writing skills, as well as a sense of melody according to the subject of the song.
Also nice well-thought lyrics with a good melody that flow with the song - not these partying and hanging out lyrics crap you see everyday. No autotune as well.

Being someone who likes dubstep and that kind of thing, good music for to me is basically anything that doesn't go something like: start with some simple melody, add in bassline, wait untill :55 seconds then the totally unexpected drop. Intense, growling sub bass line continues throughout left unattended coupled with whining noises here and there. After 3 minutes or so the music fades.

Lately I've been hearing dubstep which now have more focus on the accompanying melody as well as the bassline possibly as a response to mainstream dubstep today. The drop doesn't feel like the killer thing people react to like OH MAH GOD or <some curse word here> as it was back then.

The instrumental is the main priority for me which is why I like more modern music.