How can music possibly be bad?

[ontupite]

I used to be somewhat of a music snob, listening to lesser known bands/artists etc. and thinking that people who enjoy popular music and 'cheesey' songs are deplorable, misguided fools. For example, I'd listen to a Katy Perry song, and despise it, and think it was shit. But I have grown out of that, and now its pretty much the opposite. Barely any music sounds bad to me any more. Some sounds better than others, but none sounds shit.

I mean, how can there be so such thing as a bad song, when music is a man-made art form/construct? At this moment, pretty much no song sounds bad to me (as in ugly, though I can appreciate that there are more complex songs/tracks than others, and ones made by people who better understand music).

As you may be able to tell, this whole issue is rather confused in my head at the moment; but wonder what others' opinions are.

[garethom]

u buggin

[uvnoise]

http://arthistory.about.com/cs/referenc ... is_art.htm

[JBoy]

The answer is simply that some music is just shit, no matter what people say or think about it.

[ontupite]

The answer is simply that some music is just shit, no matter what people say or think about it.

What makes it shit? Most of the time, the things that make it shit cannot be objectively proven as factors that make a track shit.

[JBoy]

If i think a track is shit it usually is.

[ontupite]

If i think a track is shit it usually is.

That's circular as circular.

[JBoy]

Well lets look at it this way, for example you could say the new katy perry song is really good and thats your opinion which you are entitled to. However anyone with any knowledge of production, skill and love for music could easily quantify how simplistic, formulaic, basic and shitty 'her' music is. Its all relative anyway, i doubt that many popstars actually write their own music nowadays anyway, its all churned out of some super computer at sony records. If thats not shit then i dont know what is. You can always sense if some put time and effort into a track, whether thats through meaningful lyrics or top notch production. On the other hand some tracks are so easy to distinguish immediately as shit because of the opposite reasons.

[ultraspatial]

enjoy

[Jurrecane]

What the..
Music is subjective..
How can music be bad? One may find it bad the other may find it good.. This is just ridiculous.

[uvnoise]

What the..
Music is subjective..
How can music be bad? One may find it bad the other may find it good.. This is just ridiculous.

[Muncey]

If no music is 'shit' you then get into the discussion of what defines music? What makes a group of sounds music? You could take any sound and arrange it in a way that makes a catchy beat and could be considered music.. you could equally arrange those sounds to be the most god awful mess of sound ever. One could be good, one could be shit.. does that mean one is music and one isnt despite it just being the same sounds but arranged differently?

You are right to a certain degree. Music is based on opinion and tastes. But the same could be said about eating dog shit. Most people would agree it would taste horrible, but that is opinion.. you'll get some oddball who finds it lovely to eat, just like you'll get some numbnut who loves listening to 'shit music'.

[ontupite]

What's the point of music. People can 'get into' anything they choose to get into. They might as well 'get into' the sound of cars passing through their window, because once into it, as much enjoyment can be got out of it as listening to any other piece.

Surely there is no such thing as good music, or a masterly track, there are just pieces that a large number of people have got into.

Edit:

replace window with road. I'm very tired. The sound of cars crashing through ones front window probably would take a lot of work to get into.

[JBoy]

People cant be serious, so youre saying every song ever made can be interpreted as good? No, just no.

[ontupite]

If no music is 'shit' you then get into the discussion of what defines music? What makes a group of sounds music? You could take any sound and arrange it in a way that makes a catchy beat and could be considered music.. you could equally arrange those sounds to be the most god awful mess of sound ever. One could be good, one could be shit.. does that mean one is music and one isnt despite it just being the same sounds but arranged differently?

You are right to a certain degree. Music is based on opinion and tastes. But the same could be said about eating dog shit. Most people would agree it would taste horrible, but that is opinion.. you'll get some oddball who finds it lovely to eat, just like you'll get some numbnut who loves listening to 'shit music'.

Exactly, this is an issue that touches upon the whole way that we think. Which is so painfully flawed, yet its so painfully hard to express or work out what those flaws are.

[Muncey]

If no music is 'shit' you then get into the discussion of what defines music? What makes a group of sounds music? You could take any sound and arrange it in a way that makes a catchy beat and could be considered music.. you could equally arrange those sounds to be the most god awful mess of sound ever. One could be good, one could be shit.. does that mean one is music and one isnt despite it just being the same sounds but arranged differently?

You are right to a certain degree. Music is based on opinion and tastes. But the same could be said about eating dog shit. Most people would agree it would taste horrible, but that is opinion.. you'll get some oddball who finds it lovely to eat, just like you'll get some numbnut who loves listening to 'shit music'.

Exactly, this is an issue that touches upon the whole way that we think. Which is so painfully flawed, yet its so painfully hard to express or work out what those flaws are.

Its just the most convenient way of explaining things. If no shit music exists, no good music exists.. because someone somewhere will hate it. I don't think its a flawed way in which we think.. if someone told me a song was shit i wouldn't instantly believe it to be fact, i'd assume it may be.. but won't decide until i've heard it. You are technically right because its opinion... but that is a very literal way of thinking. If 99.99% of people thought something was shit, we'd say it was shit.. for convenience sake.

[dickman69]

This is dumb, is a 4 year old's artwork shit? Answer, yes. Music is same thing. Katy Perry is good enough music for midless masses to sing along to on the radio and a 4 year old's artwork is good enough to be hung on the refridgerator. Neither is good, both are shit

[Clean]

I say we all just stop listening to music, and turn dubstepforum into food network or something.

[JBoy]

But theres no such thing as bad food, its your tastebuds that are wrong and telling you that the pile of shit you just ate was nasty.

[ontupite]

But theres no such thing as bad food, its your tastebuds that are wrong and telling you that the pile of shit you just ate was nasty.

Surely thats true, because it is possible to acquire tastes. For example, that pile of shit coffee that we all drink originally tasted bitter and horrible to us, but we chose to 'get into it' and then it started becoming delicious. And alcohol is an even better example. And once we 'acquire the taste' we compare different tastes, marvelling at their subtlety and complexity, - much like we do with music.

Fuck this.