Scratch

as a musician, (I play piano, violin, viola, guitar, and a little mandolin) I think that any song that uses a unique sets of notes combined with dynamics and has thought put into it, is a good song.  For me to like it, it has to be something really unique.

fire219 wrote:

I think music with lyrics is good if it you can actually understand what the heck the singer  is saying, the singer has an IQ of more than 20, and there aren't curse words every other line. (Almost all music without lyrics is good to me.) This pretty much knocks out 95% of today's mainstream music, which is why I stick with 80s and video game music, with a sprinkling of alternative.

exactly!

What nakes music good is a catchy beat, meaningful lyrics, and a good singing voice.

Which is why pop is my favorite kind of music. 

The rythm is the most important thing for me. I love Salsa Rythm (I don't know the word in English, but it sound spanish/ cuban). On the radio, I often don't understand the text (because it's mostly english and very fast) so the lyrics aren't important for me.

You all need to see the world's ugliest music.
The guy gives a whole talk on what makes music good to people, and then plays music that doesn't have it.

I like music that's slightly crazy.

Ironically, I consider all those bands you listed to be mainstream.

I like music that sounds good to me, I guess. Instruments include more common ones, like electric and acoustic guitars, drums, bass guitars, and synthesizers, but also include more uncommon ones that have unique beautiful sounds, like accordions, banjos, and various other instruments. I like pop music (not popular, just like "poppy") that has lots of instruments. Some examples include They Might Be Giants, Self, Dictionary Attack, Tally Hall, etc.

A lot of the music I listen to and like has an apparent deep meaning. I like songs that strike a chord in me, so to speak. "Appels + Oranjes" by the Smashing Pumpkins. "River Valley" by Moxy Fruvous.
Other songs are completely ridiculous and silly. Songs about accidentally throwing a brick at someone's face. Songs about becoming king of the world. They don't feature any musical accomplishment of any kind, but I just really like how they sound and they're catchy. Catchiness is important with music.

Vocals and words aren't a necessity for me, either. I really like post rock bands, like Sigur Ros and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. While Sigur Ros' stuff isn't usually instrumental, the vocals in a lot of their songs are often wordless and are just used as another instrument. I've also gotten into this one classical album recently that's really good by some French guy I think.

I also don't really care what a song's length is. Some people I know will only listen to songs under four minutes long; I really don't care. Some bands I listen to only do songs ten minutes or more in length, with several musical "movements".

I guess going along with the music with a meaning is the music that just changes your mood. My favourite kind of music that is mood-changing is probably melancholy. A good word for these is "soundscapes", I guess. There are also several songs that, when I listen to them, I just feel like I need to make some sort of important contribution to society and I don't know why. These songs can even be instrumentals, like "IZ-US" by Aphex Twin or "Lullatone (instrumental)" by Disastertron.

I like a large variety of music. Decades-wise, 60s (Beatles, Beach Boys, etc.), 70s (Jethro Tull, Yes, etc.), 80s (Bauhaus, Devo, Smiths, etc.), 90s (Guided by Voices, Radiohead, Aphex Twin, etc.), 00s (Arctic Monkeys, Jeff Hanson, etc.)
Genres-wise, prog (Yes, Jethro Tull, King Crimson), electronic (Aphex Twin, Autechre, Burial, Brian Eno, Justice), proto-goth/goth (The Cure, Bauhaus), punk/pop punk (Wire, Green Day, ASOB, Bomb the Music Industry!), alternative (The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Sloan), post rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Ros), hip hop (The Go! Team, Deltron 3030), and twee (The Unicorns, Vampire Weekend, Apples in stereo), among others.

So um I don't know what the point of this post was or where I'm going and it turned out kinda really long but whatever.

funelephant wrote:

From experience, I have learned that I cannot post my musical styles without people screaming at me and starting a flame war, so I will refrain from doing so.

Or your signature.
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I don't listen to a lot of music. Mainly, I like stuff like the music from MineCraft and RuneScape. No lyrics, just sound.

I like songs and music when it tells a story through the music.

brinkbrink wrote:

I like songs and music when it tells a story through the music.

I like some of those. But it's not always the best. (Which I will refrain from saying my favorite)

funelephant wrote:

From experience, I have learned that I cannot post my musical styles without people screaming at me and starting a flame war, so I will refrain from doing so.

No offense, but that post's more likely to cause a flame war than simply posing your opinion on music.

It needs to be written by the artist, and it can't be heavily autotuned. So that rules out 95% of mainstream bands. It just loses some of its "meaning", I guess. I also generally prefer songs about uncommon subjects (usually serious stuff like animal rights and how terrible the government is and stuff lol [although basically anything apart from love, love songs are so old and boring now]). Uh loads of guitars and drums too.

If that made any sense whatsoever I'll be amazed.

jji7skyline wrote:

Good beat, proper melody, appropriate lyrics, good guitar playing...

I assume no guitar playing qualifies as 100% accuracy?