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What is the benchmark of good music ??

Topic started by Sankaran (@ webgate0.mot.com) on Sat Aug 22 10:53:04 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

What is good music ? This question continues to baffle music-lovers since time immemorial.There are two ways in which music can affect the listener. The first one is when the mood of the song(melancholy, romantic etc.,) affects the person's mood directly. In the second case, irrespective of the music's mood, the listener is overjoyed because of his identifying with the music.Which of these is the more important indication of greatness of music? Personally, my vote would go to the second one.
It would be nice to know of the sentiments of other DFers.

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Responses:

• From: Ravi (@ envy.cs.umass.edu) on: Sat Aug 22 13:10:54 EDT 1998
  
  Good music is what you feel is good. It is pointless to try to come up with an objective definition of good music.
  
  
• From: Ravi (@ envy.cs.umass.edu) on: Sat Aug 22 13:18:35 EDT 1998
  
  Anyway my contribution to the effort... I cannot say anything about greatness, but if a person can identify with the music (your second case), then he is going to claim that that music is good. This in itself doesn't make the music good IMO though. :-).
  
  
• From: NaNbaN (@ barcache1.caribsurf.com) on: Sat Aug 22 13:25:01 EDT 1998
  
  Now it seems to me as music that sounds like ARR
  
  Reality,
  NaNbaN
  
  
• From: Ramanan (@ faraday.bfsec.bt.co.uk) on: Mon Aug 24 09:08:07 EDT 1998
  
  Sankaran: what do you mean by identifying with the music ?
  Good topic. hope we have lot of I/P on this .
  
  
  
• From: balaji (@ denver.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Mon Aug 24 23:26:29 EDT 1998
  
  i think good music is one where u feel the mood and one
  which touches a raw nerve.IR for example, has composed
  several songs, which on the musical side of them, may
  not be great, but on the screen , are excellent. examples
  are the ones in mahanadi, nayakan etc. it is impossible
  to view music as detached from the mood. that is why
  raagams have some characteristics in them, like boopaalam
  early in the morning, or desh for patriotism. ARR has
  not been able to perform that much probably bcos he
  has not got that many situations , as of now. he did
  a good job with "porale ponnuthayi".
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ gate6.ca.us.ibm.com) on: Tue Aug 25 13:35:27 EDT 1998
  
  Art is a refined form of expression. The most expressive music would be the best. To a certain extent it depends on what the listener thinks is good - but that is only when the listener is able to understand what the musician is trying to express. Music cannot be good because the listener is able to hum along. To really qualify music one would have to listen to it with a purpose in mind (or what is shown on screen) and then decide whether that purpose is served. There are a lot of songs that have been appreciated for the wrong purpose and similarly there are a lot of songs that have not been appreciated because the listener is not aware of the purpose or the musician has not done justice to the purpose. One example of the former would be an article in an English magazine which hailed "Anjali"'s music saying that people would love the little 'ditty' "Anjali, Anjali, Anjali". That song is as far away from being a ditty as is possible. That song is a masterpiece in orchestration. Yet, a lot of people liked it because the first few bars were hummable.
  
  
• From: Keith Case (@ ) on: Sun Apr 29 21:41:32 EDT 2001
  
  The benchmark of good music is it's popularity. The more people that like a song the better it is. That is why Pop music is the best kind of music out there.
  
  
• From: Karthi (@ 63.21.181.129) on: Sun Apr 29 22:34:42 EDT 2001
  
  Good music to me is that which is resounding. That which makes you want to hear more and more. That which you cannot have enough of. The only purpose I see there is - the purpose of the listening pleasure - be it joy or sadness - it brings to you when you go into the song.
  
  
• From: comment (@ 65.9.136.158) on: Sun Apr 29 22:44:08 EDT 2001
  
  what ever your ears decides, at times your heart also decides this,
  
  
  
• From: cosmician (@ 194.170.127.53) on: Sun Apr 29 23:23:55 EDT 2001
  
  Good music is what inspires you creating emotions in you and opening up new vistas of imagination by it s creativeness and innovativeness....like they say :
  
  "Heard melodies are sweet but the unheard are sweeter !"
  
  

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