Is all music equal or not

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Id say its a mixture of objective and subjective.

Instrumental prowess: Is it hand crafted or contrived in post production
Catchiness or the opposite: virtuosity
Originality: has the idea been done to death already
Mood/ beauty
Character of artist
Is it using ground breaking technology, pushing sounds forward
Improvised vs structured
How dynamic the sound is

Probably more that i cant think of right now...

Some of these matter more to some genres than others. Context plays a big part.

Then you have personal taste which colours all that. What the listener finds important, what touches their heart.

Oh and dont forget how hot the singer is!

Chopin is probably my favorite composer of piano music. I play Bach sometimes, but his music doesn’t usually make me feel much. Of course, Toccata and Fugue in D minor is bad ass. Mozart‘s wit always shines through although he’s not my favorite, and Beethoven is pure awesomeness. I adore Liszt, but he’s so bloody difficult. Speaking of difficult, Gaspard de la nuit by Ravel is probably my favorite piece for the piano.


You probably wouldn’t like Schoenberg then.



I don’t really care for the guitar that much. I typically don’t enjoy listening to it without vocals.

First, define "music", then... no. Not all "music" is "equal".

Obviously grindcore is superior to all other styles.

David Byrne of Talking Heads defended his own poor singing with the observation that "The better a person sings the harder it is to believe what they are saying."

I tend to think there's something to that. There's definitely a sweet spot for me somewhere between passion and prowess.

I find this in music too. I tend to prefer a bands first few records. It seems the better they get at the craft of music, the less enjoyable the music is to me. I like a bit of rawness, a bit of discordance - a sense that the music comes from necessity rather than practiced ability.

Any music that features a theremin solo is the best.

I would say Portrait of an American Family is a pretty solid record.

But does it also feature the pan flute and bagpipes?

Yes and no, respectively iirc.

But Korn use bagpipes.

I know, and I like it. I’ve always liked the bagpipes.

I like the way you put it. I find that with Thom Yorke, objectively not a brilliant singer but subjectively great in the context of the music and his creativity. I think technically perfect singing could be seen as characterless, but in some cases thats whats called for!

I agree a lot of bands peak early and live in the shadow of their youth. As you know more often than not the record label pressure them into conforming with what they know will sell and it becomes a bit dull because the exuberance and individuality is squeezed out of them. The new fans say its evolution the old say its selling out.
I think that can be objectively criticised when choices are made for monetary rather than artistic reasons.

I think some music in any genre can be bad. However, It's mostly subjective. I used to hate rap music but one of my buddies got me into $uicideboy$ and now I listen to them quite a lot. Music is definitely subjective, but can always be bad at times.

I'm going to actually post a piece of electronic music to put a flag on something.

You can get a lot for a little, so much out of manipulating the space and motion in a track. This one below, if you've got a good set of headphones or ear buds, it's an experience. I don't know about you but... this feels like a 'map' of something solid to me.