I was sent a link to an interesting article the other day by a friend. It was basically an argument that many people listen to, or more specifically judge music, incorrectly.
So how does that work then? I might not have been fully engaged with music my whole life, but it’s obviously always been there, just like it has in yours. You were undoubtedly listening to music on some level before you could even speak or walk. My Mother is very proud of reminding me that I went to a Joan Baez concert…whilst she was pregnant.
So after a lifetime of practice, how do you become a better music listener?
Of course this is all subjective, but the first thing you have to understand about music is that there’s no right or wrong. There’s not even good or bad exactly, there’s only intention. Does the song achieve what it was designed to do?
Imagine you’re listening to a song for the first time. Setting style aside, does the song achieve what it appears to be designed for? If it’s a dance song, does it make you want to dance? If it’s a rock song, does it make you want to break out your air guitar, or try and learn the riff? If it’s an advert about cheese, does it make you want to buy cheese? Regardless of if you ‘like’ it, if the song achieves what it set out to do, it has merit.
Music is many things to many people. I’m reminded of a great line written by Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys in the song ‘A Certain Romance’, ‘There’s only music, so that there’s new ringtones’. A line that digs at how undervalued the music has become, almost existing only as a commodity to some, rather than an artform. Music can be the cornerstone of your existence, speak to your heart or soul, make you dance your socks off, tell you when the van has run out of ice cream, (not really, kids), or annoy you whilst you’re on hold to the Doctor.
If it’s fit for purpose, it’s ‘good’. As musicians, (as I know many of you reading this are, whatever your level) you’re in a better position than most to consider the next level of the exercise, namely, what can be learnt from the music you’re listening to, even if you don’t ‘like’ it.
It’s tough to be objective sometimes. Like finding an unexpected ingredient in a foreign dish you weren’t prepared for. The sheep’s eyeballs in that soup might be perfectly prepared by the world’s greatest chef, but are you ready for an unbiased opinion?
Break It All Down....
Think about instrumentation. Can you identify all the parts and are they being effectively used? Think about song structure. You might personally prefer a verse/chorus approach, does this song follow that, or is there something unexpected? Does it conform to your expectation? Are the lyrics familiar, possibly generic, or are there word combinations you haven’t heard before? Is there a clear message, or is there a hidden meaning?
Seeing as I’ve mentioned it, try listening to ‘A Certain Romance’...... try and apply your new found listening skills to it.
There’s an article here about the song if you fancy it…
So, personally, I like this song. I appreciate I’m predisposed towards guitar bands, but it’s got a lot of qualities I like. It’s a bit unpredictable, the first forty seconds or so don’t really represent the song as a whole, and in fact there’s almost three distinct musical sections before you get to any lyrics.
Those lyrics are pretty unusual and distinctive, there’s repetition, but not a huge amount, and I think they paint a pretty clear picture of the band’s environment whilst growing up in Sheffield. I think the magazine article I referenced used the phrase ‘time capsule’, which seems appropriate.
That’s my opinion though. You might not like the song. You can’t dance to it. It’s difficult to sing, it’s five and a half minutes long, is that too long? If the intention had been for the song to be an all singing and dancing radio single, it’s a massive fail. It was written however, to be the epic closing track of an album full of similarly oriented Indy rock songs about girls, drinking, music, council estates, bullies and weirdos. Regardless of the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ it’s fit for purpose, so it can be appreciated regardless, as a success for what it is intended to be.
Any and all of these concepts might mean a song floats your boat or sinks your battleship, like I said it’s all subjective. There is no way of truly, universally evaluating an art form. There are only imposed scales, like commercial success or social media follows, they don’t represent the validity or true value of any piece of art. Whether it’s good, or whether it’s bad.
Okay then, next test - answers on a postcard ;-) is this next song good or bad???
Catch you next time.
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