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what is good music?

opinions abound as to the merits of a piece of music. we all have our opinions as to music we like and dislike.

i believe there are two ways to judge a musical composition, namely, based upon the intrinsic qualities of the composition or by the reaction you get when listening to the music.

are there any health benefits to listening to a piece of music--physically or psychologically. such an approach relies on extrinsic criteria.

thus with each approach a piece of music may be jidged "good", as to composition, but if someone has a negative reaction to it, it could be judged "bad" based upon one's listening experience.

can a case be made to exclude either as a basis for judging the quality of music ?
mrtennis
tobias
1,534 posts
 
OK, I'll bite. If the music is good, from moment to moment I don't know what is coming next.

This doesn't hold true for recordings I've listened to many times, obviously. For these, I think what makes them "good" is the elegance I perceive in the artist's solutions to the problems posed by the musical structure.

If that doesn't make sense, what I mean is this. Each musical moment is a statement. The next moment has a relation to it. The artist's decisions about these relations are what I am calling solutions to problems. The sum of all these relations or connections is musical meaning.

Somebody has said the above, and more, much better elsewhere, but hey, I bit.
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
any music that 'moves you' is good music. its a spiritual thing
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
I can't define it, but I know it when I hear it.

With respect and credit to Potter Stewart.
shubertmaniac
350 posts
 
I find "good" is not the right word. By your definition something like Schnittke's 2nd violin sonata would be "bad" music, which this piece is anything but. It is highly dissonant, highly atonal ( though it is not readily serially atonal), there is no melody. In fact near the end,
the accompanying piano strucks in the C major key, the basic C chord in all its glory and loud. Wow! Here is the most basic of basic stuff, and it was so out of place! Probably the most gratifying concert I have ever been to yet the piece played would hardly be called "good". So it is more of the aesthetics of music as art, that determines whether the piece is "good" or "bad".

In the world of Adorno, the dialectical master of musical aesthetics, the commercial side of music, he deemed corruptible and not worthy of being considered, it was all "bad". However I take a different take on commercial music, it is just a form of entertainment, just like TV or football, whether it is the Beatles or Nirvana or James Brown or any rap group, its only entertainment in the form of music. So enjoy it and relax, and as the Stones' said..."it's only rock and roll!"
nuguy
195 posts
 
I've actually sat here for 15 minutes wondering "what is good music" and I really have no idea.
I do like chicken wings...............I'm hungry.
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