Views: 1755 What is good music? An academic approach
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Hey guys, I'm making this blog post in regards to a conversation I had in the moba chatroom. Ardeon (I think that's his name, not sure) was touting Nightwish. I have a personal bone to pick with Nightwish. I was first forcefully subjugated to their garbage when they shared a stage with a stage I adore. At first, I thought they were intentionally raping my ears. Their music was uninspired, musically simplistic, uninspired, and obnoxious. Chick singer + boring riffs + uninspired lyrics = Ow my ears.
I checked out a vid he linked, and to my surprise, it had 5+ million views. This reinforced my notion of 'the majority of people' have a ****ty taste in music. He also touted that it was not only 'symphonic metal', but 'power metal' as well. Seeing as those are my 2 absolute favorite genre's of music, I corrected him, saying that just because they had a keyboard in the band, that makes it neither symphonic nor power. He linked me some wikipedia page about symphonic metal, which lists Nightwish as it's line 1 symphonic power metal band. OUCH MY BRAIN HURTS. Why does some drunk idiot get to post nonsense like that on wikipedia?
I immediately linked him to a video. (Youtube 'yngwie malmsteen japan') The vid was yngwie playing his icarus opus with the japanese philharmonic. He replied, that's not symphonic metal. I replied, he's playing metal and being backed up by a symphony. Dafuq? Go watch the video. metal guitarist + symphony /= symphonic metal. dafuq.
This leads me to make a blog post about what I determine to be 'great music.' I'm a classically trained pianist, and I play 4 additional instruments. I've experimented with many different genres of music. I was also a keyboardist in a high school metal band (we wrote our own music, but we also covered 'chop suey.' ah, the good 'ol days).
When listening to a new band, there are several criterion it must meet to make it onto my playlist. They don't have to satisfy them all, but the more the merrier. I'm not a metal snob. I listen to multiple genres, including classic rock, some proggy ****, operas, etc.
1. Initial hearing:
A track has to 'grab' and interest me when I first hear it. If I'm not engrossed or interested in it remotely when I first hear a song, I won't listen further.
2. Must play actual instruments
Immediately, dubstep, rap, etc. bite the dust. I give no ***** about some 'catchy beat' that some knuckledragger pulled out of a computer program. I think music should come from musicians, but hey, I'm wierd like that.
3. No auto tune.
As soon as I hear auto tune, I'm done. No auto tune, thanks.
These are initial requirements. If they pass these, I have more criterion.
Ok, this is catchy, and they use instruments and their own voices. Is it...
1. Lyrically inspired?
"*****es and Hoes" bore me. I don't care how much ***** you slay, how many crimes you commit, etc. What are you singing about? Is your message conveyed in a concise and interesting manner? With a lot of metal bands, their vocals are incomprehensible, so they get a pass in that aspect. I can't handle super DUPER heavy growling, so I sparsely listen to bands like 'spawn of possession' and others.
Winners: symphony X, Nekrogoblikon, Blind Guardian, Kamelot
Losers: Nightwish 'Nemo' - "This is me for forever / One of the lost ones / The one without a name / Without an honest heart as compass / This is me for forever " Kill me please.
2. Musically intricate?
Do they adhere to good structure (Kamelot) or deviate and make extremely interesting structured songs (Diabolic Masquerade)? Do they blow my mind with intricate and complex riffs (Stratovarius, Wintersun, Symphony X) or are they lazy chord mashing losers? (New radicals) Do they draw from classical roots? (Yngwie malmsteen) Do they even have music at all? (all rap)
3. Are their songs indistinguishable?
Lots of bands suffer from adhering to their 'blueprints' so much that their music starts to become indistinguishable from their other songs. Basically, when you play an album, do you space out and completely 'miss' whole blocks of songs? I do that constantly when playing League. It might be a combination of focusing on the game and other factors, but it's undeniable that some bands just get stale and monotonous. In flames did an amazing job of distinguishing itself as a breakout band with innovative sounds, but compare 'come clarity' with their other works. It sounds like you took their entire discography, threw it in a blender with some human feces, blended it, and 'come clarity' popped out. It's also a big reason why I don't like Type O Negative. I really like about 10 individual ToN songs, but as a block of work, it sometimes just sounds like one long song.
Winners: symphony X, Tiamat, The The, In flames (Pre evil in a closet), Luca Turilli
4. Can I dance to it?
If yes, it sucks.
I checked out a vid he linked, and to my surprise, it had 5+ million views. This reinforced my notion of 'the majority of people' have a ****ty taste in music. He also touted that it was not only 'symphonic metal', but 'power metal' as well. Seeing as those are my 2 absolute favorite genre's of music, I corrected him, saying that just because they had a keyboard in the band, that makes it neither symphonic nor power. He linked me some wikipedia page about symphonic metal, which lists Nightwish as it's line 1 symphonic power metal band. OUCH MY BRAIN HURTS. Why does some drunk idiot get to post nonsense like that on wikipedia?
I immediately linked him to a video. (Youtube 'yngwie malmsteen japan') The vid was yngwie playing his icarus opus with the japanese philharmonic. He replied, that's not symphonic metal. I replied, he's playing metal and being backed up by a symphony. Dafuq? Go watch the video. metal guitarist + symphony /= symphonic metal. dafuq.
This leads me to make a blog post about what I determine to be 'great music.' I'm a classically trained pianist, and I play 4 additional instruments. I've experimented with many different genres of music. I was also a keyboardist in a high school metal band (we wrote our own music, but we also covered 'chop suey.' ah, the good 'ol days).
When listening to a new band, there are several criterion it must meet to make it onto my playlist. They don't have to satisfy them all, but the more the merrier. I'm not a metal snob. I listen to multiple genres, including classic rock, some proggy ****, operas, etc.
1. Initial hearing:
A track has to 'grab' and interest me when I first hear it. If I'm not engrossed or interested in it remotely when I first hear a song, I won't listen further.
2. Must play actual instruments
Immediately, dubstep, rap, etc. bite the dust. I give no ***** about some 'catchy beat' that some knuckledragger pulled out of a computer program. I think music should come from musicians, but hey, I'm wierd like that.
3. No auto tune.
As soon as I hear auto tune, I'm done. No auto tune, thanks.
These are initial requirements. If they pass these, I have more criterion.
Ok, this is catchy, and they use instruments and their own voices. Is it...
1. Lyrically inspired?
"*****es and Hoes" bore me. I don't care how much ***** you slay, how many crimes you commit, etc. What are you singing about? Is your message conveyed in a concise and interesting manner? With a lot of metal bands, their vocals are incomprehensible, so they get a pass in that aspect. I can't handle super DUPER heavy growling, so I sparsely listen to bands like 'spawn of possession' and others.
Winners: symphony X, Nekrogoblikon, Blind Guardian, Kamelot
Losers: Nightwish 'Nemo' - "This is me for forever / One of the lost ones / The one without a name / Without an honest heart as compass / This is me for forever " Kill me please.
2. Musically intricate?
Do they adhere to good structure (Kamelot) or deviate and make extremely interesting structured songs (Diabolic Masquerade)? Do they blow my mind with intricate and complex riffs (Stratovarius, Wintersun, Symphony X) or are they lazy chord mashing losers? (New radicals) Do they draw from classical roots? (Yngwie malmsteen) Do they even have music at all? (all rap)
3. Are their songs indistinguishable?
Lots of bands suffer from adhering to their 'blueprints' so much that their music starts to become indistinguishable from their other songs. Basically, when you play an album, do you space out and completely 'miss' whole blocks of songs? I do that constantly when playing League. It might be a combination of focusing on the game and other factors, but it's undeniable that some bands just get stale and monotonous. In flames did an amazing job of distinguishing itself as a breakout band with innovative sounds, but compare 'come clarity' with their other works. It sounds like you took their entire discography, threw it in a blender with some human feces, blended it, and 'come clarity' popped out. It's also a big reason why I don't like Type O Negative. I really like about 10 individual ToN songs, but as a block of work, it sometimes just sounds like one long song.
Winners: symphony X, Tiamat, The The, In flames (Pre evil in a closet), Luca Turilli
4. Can I dance to it?
If yes, it sucks.
What i really hate is when people who listen to a certain type of music and believe that their music taste is better than everyone elses.
''In flames did an amazing job of distinguishing itself as a breakout band with innovative sounds, but compare 'come clarity' with their other works. It sounds like you took their entire discography, threw it in a blender with some human feces, blended it, and 'come clarity' popped out.''
Everyone that has listen to In Flames says this, but I disagree. Come Clarity was one of the best albums made by In Flames, for me the lyrics made me love it, same thing with Sound Of A Playground Fading.
*Warning! A lot of metal songs linked here!*
As a true metal head I agree to most of this though!
And finally some dance tunes, because I do dance (like break, locking, popping and so on).
Obviously I also listen to fairly popular stuff like Michael Buble... I joke, I only have one of his songs."
I have no idea what you just said.
Nightwish is a ****ty version of Kamelot. Kamelot gets sappy, but they present it in an awesome way. Look up 'soul society' by kamelot
I listen to Taylor Swift a lot - she can play guitar (and variants thereof, like a banjo) and piano, as well as being a decent vocalist. Not sure, but she might play the violin too. However, virtually all of her music is either about love, family or relationships. If that kind of soppy shizz ain't for you, then you probably won't like her. Incidentally, she got 3 EMAs last night :P.
Other than that, I listen to KPop - Girls Generation, U-Kiss, Shinhwa, Big Bang, etc. And also JPop - Arashi, Kat-Tun, AKB48.
And finally some dance tunes, because I do dance (like break, locking, popping and so on).
Obviously I also listen to fairly popular stuff like Michael Buble... I joke, I only have one of his songs.
If yes, it sucks.
As a dancer, i feel offended. I changege you to a duel!
Now lets get serious...I like the 90% of the points. I just dislike the 4 and the 2. The 4th...well, i told it after. And the two...I think you should explain it more, i mean...It looks like you are disliking anything with computer on the sound...Or maybe it´s just what i understand.
I really don't know **** about complicated riffs and w/e so toss that **** out immediately.
I've heard some stuff where auto tune WHEN DONE WELL can sound fine, I barely listen to anything like that but I think it can be alright.
I like house music, so it's not necessary for them to play an actual instrument imo.
But hey. That's just me. I don't like Rap, and yet I like a fair few of Eminem's pieces.