Is there no Such Thing as Bad Music?

[[Kira Must Die]]

Yes, there's no such thing as bad music, because no matter how much you hate something, odds are someone listens to it and likes it.

This goes to pretty much everything. That's why I don't listen to reviews, but it's entertaining to listen to what people think about most stuff.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I usually say:

No, its all a matter of opinion. Of course if NOBODY likes a certain piece of music them yes that is bad.

But in the case of BrokenCYDE, I couldn't give a shit if anybody likes them, it's beyond bad.

 

[boholikeu]

I don't think there's any such thing as 'bad' music, at least not among the stuff that's sold in stores. Genuinely bad music would have problems like missed notes, poor mixing quality, vocals where the singer's voice cracks every line or two, etc.

It's a big pet peeve of mine when people say "Band XYZ sucks", which reads as an accusation that Band XYZ are poor performing artists, when what they mean to say is "I don't like Band XYZ". It's all based on personal taste.

What about people that are technically good at performing music, but can't write an original song to save their life? I think that's what people mean when they say band XYZ sucks. Of course they aren't bad at actually performing the music because then as you said they wouldn't be able to make a record. Just because they play a song well doesn't mean it's good, though. It could be totally derivative of another band, or have insipid, meaningless lyrics.

 

[PlasticPorter]

yes there is, its called Coldplay

 

[DanDeFool]

I don't think there's any such thing as 'bad' music, at least not among the stuff that's sold in stores. Genuinely bad music would have problems like missed notes, poor mixing quality, vocals where the singer's voice cracks every line or two, etc.

It's a big pet peeve of mine when people say "Band XYZ sucks", which reads as an accusation that Band XYZ are poor performing artists, when what they mean to say is "I don't like Band XYZ". It's all based on personal taste.

What about people that are technically good at performing music, but can't write an original song to save their life? I think that's what people mean when they say band XYZ sucks. Of course they aren't bad at actually performing the music because then as you said they wouldn't be able to make a record. Just because they play a song well doesn't mean it's good, though. It could be totally derivative of another band, or have insipid, meaningless lyrics.

Hm... That's an interesting point. The songwriting quality definitely plays a role.

However, as a counterexample, think about how many people liked Britney Spears when she was in her prime. How about N*SYNC, or the Backstreet Boys? A lot of their songs, arguably, had VERY stupid lyrics and were extremely derivative. Still, their music was very popular at one point.

Granted, their popularity may have been more due to the band members being good eye-candy rather than due to the merits of the music, but when/if you say they were 'lousy bands' it's still because you, personally, did not like them.

 

[boholikeu]

What about people that are technically good at performing music, but can't write an original song to save their life? I think that's what people mean when they say band XYZ sucks. Of course they aren't bad at actually performing the music because then as you said they wouldn't be able to make a record. Just because they play a song well doesn't mean it's good, though. It could be totally derivative of another band, or have insipid, meaningless lyrics.

Hm... That's an interesting point. The songwriting quality definitely plays a role.

However, as a counterexample, think about how many people liked Britney Spears when she was in her prime. How about N*SYNC, or the Backstreet Boys? A lot of their songs, arguably, had VERY stupid lyrics and were extremely derivative. Still, their music was very popular at one point.

Granted, their popularity may have been more due to the band members being good eye-candy rather than due to the merits of the music, but when/if you say they were 'lousy bands' it's still because you, personally, did not like them.

Actually, there are a few Britney Spears and N*SYNC songs that are fairly good musically, even if they don't appeal to my own taste.

I still don't think popularity a good measure of if a song is good or not though. Let's assume a given pop song is popular, but it is totally derivative and poorly written. I believe you can somewhat objectively say it sucks so long as you can point to another band that does roughly the same thing only better.