What Makes Music Bad?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What Makes Music Bad?

1) I don't think overproduction or the amount of production has a lot to do with making good music. Like SPTO said earlier, overproduction has been used to produce some amazing stuff with Phil Spector, The Beatles, and the Beach Boys and continuing to this day. There are some songs where there's a ****load of "extra" stuff going on throughout the song that are amazing.

2) Even with awful, or unoriginal lyrics, a song can be good. I think rhythm, tone, timing, and melody is a lot more important than the actual words. If it sounds good, its good even if it doesn't make sense.

3) Hard-work will most likely result in bad music because it comes off as forced and calculated. There are a ton of songs out there that sound amazing and were written in 5-15 minutes.

Anyway, here are my thoughts:

Lack of personal conflict - It seems to me that the best songs are driven by some kind of personal or internal conflict that the writer is going through. Really, the worst songs seem to just be neutral - no real drive or focus, they just exist with no genuine emotion or point of being.

Redundancy & Complacency - Once an artist becomes repetitive and redundant, the creative drive usually goes down hill and the quality of the music follows suit. There's nothing new creatively and the artist seems to just be floating along with no focus or drive.

Lack of substance abuse - I don't care what it is, but whenever somebody is hooked on something their music sounds a lot better to me.

[SPTO]

Re: What Makes Music Bad?

Lack of substance abuse - I don't care what it is, but whenever somebody is hooked on something their music sounds a lot better to me.

You know what though? It's true. It seems when the song writer/producer/singer what have you are hooked on some drugs the music comes out better in some ways. Even in the genres of music I don't care for I can sense something interesting and heartfelt even though they're clearly in another world on some crazy trip due to drugs.

[Misfit]

Re: What Makes Music Bad?

Its such a loaded question and hard to answer from a non-personal perspective. I think, in general, something loud with no obvious melody would be considered bad by most tastes. Or something so simplistic that any idiot could do it would likely also be considered bad. To answer the question one must accept that there is no song that everyone likes, and there is no song that everyone hates.

I liked YankeePride's approach as it pertains to era. What is popular has changed over the years. I would say that, by and large, most pop music over the last hundred years has featured some kind of a melody that people generally enjoy. Lyrical content is an after thought and its more important that voice just sounds pleasant. And even though it makes no sense, image plays a large role as well. Elvis would not have been the King without his hips and good looks, and the Beatles would have never found the same success if they had all been overweight and 40 when they started out.

The most interesting era of pop music, from my perspective, is the Jazz era where musicianship was celebrated and people were not put off by unpredictable time changes and improv. Most generations seem averse to this technique and would rather a constant, steady, predictable melody but the Jazz did not always go for that (or at least, the Jazz musicians did not have to stick with the given formula all the time).

As SPTO mentioned, overproduction is not really frowned upon by mass audiences. The Beatles stopped live very early in their career and a lot of their stuff could be considered over-produced. When most people say overproduction as a negative their obviously speaking from a personal view, and its not one I disagree with. Most pop songs are impossible to produce live with real instruments and the vocals are smothered under many layers and a backing track is used by all of the big pop acts of today.

Right now is a good time to get a glimpse of the different eras of what's popular. The Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne's of the world sell out their shows to an audience of teenagers and twenty-somethings, while U2 does the same to mostly older crowd. And it seems every summer a Genesis or Judas Priest emerges for a reunion tour and all of their fans seem to materialize out of thin air to sell out big arena shows all over the world.

Ultimately, what makes music bad is always going to be a matter of taste. The easiest way to say something is bad is to label it within a genre, and then compare it to that genre's best. To even the most amateur ear a thrash band such as AxCx sounds inferior to Mega Deth or Slayer. I personally try to avoid saying something is garbage as I acknowledge there's a fan for everyone, but something that is bad to me is usually just something uninspired. If you're a Rap group or a Metal band or whatever but you can't distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack (musically, not commercially) then you're probably not very good.

[Fluffhead]

Re: What Makes Music Bad?

If it's made after 1985 and not by The Beatles, it probably sucks

Fixed again.

[Buckeyes_Doc]

Stuff that i cant dance too and get crunk too.

[bucksfan07]

Re: What Makes Music Bad?

Stuff that i cant dance too and get crunk too.

let me guess, if it's not the musical greatness of a "soulja boy"

[ehh]

Re: What Makes Music Bad?

"I dumb down my lyrics to double my dollars."

It's about getting paid, not making great music anymore.


The blending of genres doesn't help either, seeing Common with the Jonas Brothers, really? Everything is one big crap show, practically everything is pop these days.

[CMH]

Re: What Makes Music Bad?

I think you're confusing the radio industry with the overall popularity of bands.

I'm not confusing them; I'm talking about radio music.

There is another world out there, I'm aware of that. I don't disagree with anything you said because I know it's true.