So I've been trying to reach for music that is outside of the styles that I typically listen to, partly because the music I've been getting lately has this annoying sleepy inhibiting vibe to it that I'm not enjoying at all. In my explorations for new and exciting sounds I see people who follow certain styles arguing that their particular style of choice is objectively better than other music then mentioning several reasons. These arguments commonly contain more complaints about other genres then they do praises for the desireable qualities of the person's prefered style. Arguments placing one style as superior to others also commonly employ subjective opinions, even though the arguers assert that their style is fundamentaly better regardless of personal opinion. Also, I see a lot of arguments that are based on records that are getting the most playtime, or based on critiques of popular acts, which apply these thoughts to an entire genre, even though they are just things that happen to be in active circulation at the moment. I prefer to judge genres of music based on what they are idealy as opposed to something that such and such big name dj is doing that people aren't favoring.

Do you think that some styles of music are 100%-regardless-of-opinion better than other styles? Are the people that are truely educated on EDM all listening to any specific style for some reason? Is there any specific genre of music that if one listens to, equates to that person being a cluless muppet with absolute bad taste?

Personally, I dont beleive any one style of music to be superior to any other, except for preferences which are based on opinion, I don't beleive I could rank them in any sort of order of goodness.

I have been listeining to a LOT of different kinds of music lately trying to find something that moves me and I am having trouble finding something good, I have assembled a semi-objective list of qualities which I am looking for in music but am having trouble finding:
Originality
Uniqueness
Full Frequency spectrum(no stuff that is all bass, or all tweeting)
Varied note lengths(no percussion only tracks with tiny blips)
Experimentation(I'm sick of hearing the same tired noises and effects all the time)
Evolution(or else the genre becomes stagnant and grows boring)
Freshness(I am sick of getting into things just as they are dying, I wan t something that is awesome and fun NOW, not something that was better some number of years ago and has since grown into crap, im tired of joining these musical followings at the tail end of their momentum)
Respect(as in not seen as a big joke by everyone who knows that I listen to it)
Energy(as in a whole floor full of ppl can go crazy to it instead of just standing around nodding their heads)
Emotion(random arrays of noises with no direction, theme, or feeling are not enjoyable, and just seem like a track thrown together to sell some records)
And finally, I want something that I can dance to without it requiring me to be some sort of critic, afficionado, or dj, I am just a normal parson looking for some fun

I'm still exploring looking for something fun and have heard some pretty nice sounds, but they weren't really what I was looking for. Music is weird like that sometimes, I will think I have everything figured out about what my tastes are, then I find something that doesnt match my preferences at all, yet is still fun to listen to. I still don't think there is a superior genre, but some of the stuff ive been hearing makes me wonder why it has any kind of following.


So what do you all think about this, is there a genre that stands above the others, if so what is it and why is it better?
(please dont anybody think im taking a stab at you in this posts, im not trying to flame or hate on anybody, im not even refering to any specific person, just observations I have made, I am trying to learn something about what makes music good)

Hmm, long piece of text there.

But i think that for most people there is no genre which would be 100% what they want all the time. I myself have always been addicted to (melodic) trance, you could call that my main genre perhaps, but i do also like a lot of stuff in other genre's, pretty much everything except rap, r&b and hiphop actually.

Anyway it's really also a matter of what you're used to listen to, and, especially what you come across during your days. Noone can tell what you like above everything else, only you can once you come across that particular piece of music...

Anyway, that's what i think about this just now

___________________
Yeah, or not?

Currently addicted to;
C-Quence - Endorphine
Luminary - Amsterdam (Smith & Pledger Remix)
Arizona vs. Suzy Solar - Samurai
John O'Callaghan & Bryan Kearney - Exactly

That's a mighty tall order, son.

You are not going to find one genre that fills all of those requirements. You might not find one song that fills them all. You're on the same quest that everyone else is on. No one has an easy answer for you, and if they do, they're probably lying.

quote:

Originally posted by TwoPlow That's a mighty tall order, son. You are not going to find one genre that fills all of those requirements. You might not find one song that fills them all. You're on the same quest that everyone else is on. No one has an easy answer for you.

I was thinking the same aswell actually..

___________________
Yeah, or not?

Currently addicted to;
C-Quence - Endorphine
Luminary - Amsterdam (Smith & Pledger Remix)
Arizona vs. Suzy Solar - Samurai
John O'Callaghan & Bryan Kearney - Exactly

quote:

Originally posted by Zombie0915 Do you think that some styles of music are 100%-regardless-of-opinion better than other styles?

Simply put, no.

___________________
Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

But if it doesn't exist, then why do people hate on music so badly when it doesn't demonstrate these qualities?

Surely there must be something better out there that the people who argue are listening to, or else they would have no reason to do the things that they are doing.

Last edited by Zombie0915 on Nov-14-2004 at 02:08

right now im listening to Yahel - Voyage and some track by jan johnston. imo, the best trance has come from 99-2001 era.

quote:

Originally posted by Zombie0915 But if it doesn't exist, then why do people hate on music so badly when it doesn't demonstrate these qualities? Surely there must be something better out there that the people who argue are listening to, or else they would have to reason to do the things that they are doing.

See, there's this thing called taste. No matter what you do, there's always someone who's not gonna like it.

___________________
Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

I couldn't care less about who likes any music that I enjoy.


What I was really looking for was for people to affirm my belief that all we are bitching about is ultimately just our own opinions, what u said will work, but I was hoping to hear other people's thoughts on what makes a certain style of music superior to another.

quote:

Originally posted by Zombie0915 I couldn't care less about who likes any music that I enjoy.

But that's evidently what it all comes down to. Since you cannot define goodness or badness (no matter what they tell you, you can't, since it'd just be an opinion) it all comes down to an opinion.

___________________
Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

Sometimes it's like trying to explain the color red to a blind person. Or you tell people a music is bad because it replaced something which was much better, but they tell you they find the latter boring, stale, minimal, or repetitive when in fact it has several polyphonic layers and up to four movements in a track. Of course you think those things. That's called ignorance.

___________________
Robots, machines, mechanical beings
Automatic and synthetic, we have the means
To take control of this planet and the human race
With our electronic rhythms and the Armageddon Bass

Last edited by Radagast on Nov-14-2004 at 03:16

So then, what is the better form of music? More importantly, what was it about that music that made it better? Did the music that got replaced by bad music meet my critereia better than this new form? Is ALL of the music worse, or just the popular stuff that gets the majority of the playtime? Did the good music really get completely replaced, or does it still exist somewhere, but without the larger following that it once had?


In my recent explorations I have found many things that could be described as boring, repetitive, or minimal that I enjoyed. My most recent explorations have brought me to:
Balance Record Pool presents on protonradio, the most recent show was suprisingly good
Eden Transmission - I'm So High
Ben Sims & Chris Finke - Split show(the september one was the recording that I heard, it was suprisingly fun)

All of those would sound very minimal when compared to a dutch trancer full of reverbs and superbuzzes, but I liked them alot because they were more than just the usual bass+clanging that I used to assume they were. These particular shows(and that one old trance song I happened upon) utilized the whole frequency spectrum, where other producers within those genres sometimes seemed afraid to use anything other than bass and hihats. I think alot of these genres really do have potential to sound great, but for some of them it is hard to seperate the fun songs from the ones that don't fit people's tastes. If we use trance as an example, it seems to have ammased a great following by finding things that people enjoy about other musics and assimilating it, but in doing so it lost some of the elements that the style was originaly based on. It seems as if styles outside of trance dont try as hard to gain a following, they sort of leave the listener to dig through everything to find certain songs that they prefer.

Even when I think about the stuff that has been happening to trance tho, it still sounds like its all just personal opinion, which results in things getting "voted out" when too many people take to liking one sound. Now I find myself missing the diversity that sets seemed to have more of in the past. I guess the only way we can really keep things interesting is to avoid giving all our support to only a couple of sounds. It seems like in the end, poeple with one certain preferences need people who disagree with them, or else things just get boring.