Being a college student, I listen to music almost constantly. Whether I am doing homework, exercising, walking around campus, or just spending time with my friends, there is often music playing in the background. With listening to so much music, I began to think about it the other day. Why do I like the music I like? Why do different people prefer certain genres over others? At the core, my question was, "What makes music good?"
As I began to work out my answer, I realized how biased I was. I love a certain genre of music, and I obsess over my own favorite artists. But no two people have identical views on music. I decided that I think music is good when it has a strong melody and good instrumentals, but that is focused on the genre that I enjoy.
Realizing my own personal bias, however, I began to think about how within my circle of friends, there is a diverse range of music preferences. Throughout my friends, we range genre preference and even frequency of listening to music. So rather than writing an entire article looking at why I love my own music, I asked them my question.
I received a range of responses, some unique, but most focused around the same central themes. Ang E. wrote, "When the artist makes music that they want to make, they aren't trying too hard to appeal to a specific genre or demographic. When their lyrics mean something, not just words slapped together and happen to rhyme. The best is when a song is like a poem hiding behind a melody." Some others wrote, "I like it when songs match moods and you want to listen to them again to feel something," and, "If it makes you feel. Doesn't matter what kind of feeling, but how much it makes you feel."
While reading these responses, I felt like I was learning about my friends in the process. Thinking about the types of music they listen to, I realized that no matter what music a person chooses, we all listen for very similar reasons. With music, everyone wants to feel the emotions that were intended from it, whether these emotions are coming from the lyrics or the instrumentals, emotions, and feelings are a very common theme in why a person goes back to their music time after time. People want music that they can relate to, it is part of the human condition to listen to music and find meaning from it for themselves. Other common themes I found were a catchy hook to keep interest or a perfect blend of rhythm and melody.
We all listen to music, but most people do not put much thought into what they are listening to. In asking my question, I've learned that we all listen to music for the same reasons. The beauty of music transcends genres or musicians, we all listen to music for the feelings and emotions it gives us. Music forms a connection between every single person, whether we realize it or not. Back to my question of, "What makes music good?" There is no one answer. Music is "good" when it's what you want to hear. It is a very simple answer. Music is good when it fills that craving for sound and meaning, whatever that definition is for you.
