What makes music good

Powered by Facebook Comments. Sign up to get our free acclaimed eBook plus our regular newsletter. Ian Clifford is the owner of Illicit Media, a music management and consulting company. He is also the owner of Make It In Music, an online site that is the ultimate resource for aspiring musicians offering advice, tips, and insight on all the skills needed by modern artists to succeed in the rapidly changing music industry.

Great article! Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Like you said it was catchy, it got stuck in your head, and it had to be played to get it out. Without a strong hook that would have just been an alright track that everyone soon forgot about. The hook held it together and gave people something to talk about and make parodies of — no publicity is bad publicity.

The key to getting there with these tips is choosing the universal idea! Good stuff. Dont uderestimate the power of the soul behind the music. All songs have been created in the universe the soul has to harness the power to reach out and grab them. Just fill in the form with your first name and best email address to receive your free 7 day email course plus your Music Success Blueprint Workbook and Checklist today!

A version of this article has previously appeared on IXL Comments comments. Ian Ian Clifford is the owner of Illicit Media, a music management and consulting company. It is a novelty, but that does not preclude it from being good music. The piece is impressive because it is music composed largely from non-music. Yet, it still has most all? It has a catchy tune, but is still innovative. It is technically impressive -- the arranger had to sift through the entire film to find sounds and phrases that form appealing musical phrases and fit together in a certain key.

It may not have much depth or "truth" unto itself -- Frith might criticize it for this reason -- but it does evoke emotions or feelings of a sentimental film. Though, in broadening our traditional conception of music, it does challenge us to rethink our own definitions of music.

The song, written by Paul Simon, is super good; the performance of it is not. The performance seems to rely largely on its fan base and its appreciation of the original song, and the timing makes it all a bit too gimmicky. I would characterize this as lacking in Frith's categories of truth, taste, and intelligence. The band is full of incredible musicians, which best comes out towards the end in an electric violin solo, but really what I like about the song is an association it carries to a leadership weekend I led for underclassmen at my high school- it was a really wonderful weekend, and this song played into the message's climax late Saturday afternoon- since then listening to the song has always brought me back to that time.

I'm no music lover- I rarely listen to it, just not finding the time, and although I do have iTunes although no music player of any kind , even my computer only has 13 songs on it, all of which have particular meanings hearkening back to different times in my life, leading to my liking them. I think this is what makes for good music- connections to goodness of other kinds.

As bad music, I chose The Fishhead Song. It's annoying. It's meaningless and purposeless. But mostly, it was the song my best childhood friend would sing whenever there was a free moment that could possibly be filled with the annoyingness that fourth grade boys could be characterized by, and it's badness was defined by its purpose. Fortunately, it's only two-and-a-half minutes long- the torture need only last so long There's no ugliness in music. I don't think. Actually, I'd like to talk about that.

Although really, that part of my title was just for show. This is the type of song that puts the hair on the back of my neck up everytime I hear it, it really strikes a chord with me. It's interesting to say however that up to this point I've never really paused to think of why I like it so much. If I had to say one thing that really sticks out to me it is how much emotion and feeling Marley pours into the song.

He is not simply recreating a recording, but breathes new life into the song with this performance. The song also has a 'jam session' feel to it that I love, especially the guitar solo. Finally, I also love how it changes and mixes up, passing from a deep relfective feel to cheerful and exciting all in a smooth and coherent manner. From the second I heard this song probably late night somewhere at Amherst I hated it and continue to cringe everytime I hear it. I think part of the reason has to do with what Frith said about feeling as cheated by formualized piece of music.

The song seems to me something desgned specifically to be a hit. The hook is repeated far too often and the verses seem to be nothing but filler. In contrast to Marley's "No Woman No Cry", there is no emotion, no feeling of sincerity in the lyrics or performance of the song. Lately, there has been this debate regarding whether hip-hop is dead or not.

I personally believe that hip-hop is not dead but it is very weak and dying. There are too many artists today who are making extremely commercial music and are selling.

Can you blame them? With a good beat and a catchy hook anybody can make a record today. These artists are destroying a true art form because of the money. These artist lyrics are stupid and require no talent at all.

Hip-Hop used to be about lyrical ability, clever phrasing, the use of sampling and referencing, and the art of making the most normal aspects of life beautiful and funny. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy listening to some of the commercial music today but overall I think the music is dying and is being replaced by this watered down garbage.

However, there are still artists today that are selling are true to the art form such as Kanye West. Devil in a New Dress is a breath of fresh air for all hip-hop fans.

I think Drake had talent at some point in his career but he became so commercial that his music has no substance to it. He is the most unbelievable artist I have seen in a long time. This song Over is a clear example of the garbage he is putting out. In a sense there is a tension in performance between the consciousness or ego of the performer and that of the composer —interplay entre these two participants in this creation of a musical moment. But, I guess I should save that for our discussion of transcription.

The Chaconne is one of the most technically difficult pieces for violin. However, the basis for this music is profoundly simple. Everything you hear in this piece is based on a 4-note motif that is explored through variations. Both add some fancy timbre and rhythm, but are essentially still random. Dmitri Tymoczko b. A fourth, Fools and Angels is available from New Focus. What makes music sound "good? We begin with random notes , three at a time at a constant rhythm.

I've added some random dynamic variation to ease the monotony. Now constrain the notes of each chord to move by short distances to the next. This music exhibits efficient voice leading. Alternatively, we can require that all our chords belong to the same type.

Here I've used the stack of fourths, which music theorists would call an " chord. Now combine efficient voice leading and harmonic consistency.

It already sounds much more musical.