Source
r/Monstercat•
Regularity_

Music Taste Is Subjective

Try to remember this before you attempt to objectively argue whether a song or style is "good" or "bad".

Sure, you can find a song to be generic, sloppily made, or any number of things. Those are still opinions, and, while they might explain why you don't like a song, they don't make a song good or bad.

I just feel that way too many arguments come up on YouTube, on this subreddit, and in any number of places about whether a song is good or not, so I think everyone could use a reminder that there's no point arguing about whether a song is good or bad.

Posted Jun 22, 2016, 5:26 PM UTC

4327
shibesandsubgenresHaywyre•

generic, sloppy, and poorly produced are not opinions. these are qualitative degrees and certainly not black and white but they are objective measures of a track. a track can be generic or sloppy and still be enjoyable. whether a song is good or bad may be subjective but the traits that make it so are not subjective at all.

19
MGSCGWRLD•

One person could feel a song is generic while he other, who may not have heard as many songs, could feel it isn't generic at all. It's still an opinion, and subjective, while it is closer to real truth than good or bad

5
shibesandsubgenresHaywyre•

it's a fact. one's willingness to accept it as a fact is dependent on how much one has been exposed to more styles and sounds within music. it can certainly be relative (song A is more generic than song B) but it is an objective descriptor.

edit: can someone please explain why this was downvoted? I can't stand when people do drive-by downvoting when all I'm trying to do is explain my stance on something

edit 2: someone pointed out that I used the word "opinion" in my first edit to describe my statement which I did make out to be a truth. this has been rectified and replaced with the word "stance" which I believe to be my intended meaning at the time

0†
RaadicGrabbitz•

This man is correct, stop downvoting him.

-2†
TheoMoneyGRundfunk•

Unfortunately, that's what this subreddit does. If you don't praise Monstercat, you don't deserve to be here. ^^^^/s

2
MRShockwaveMusicMuzzy•

whether a song is good or bad may be subjective but the traits that make it so are not subjective at all.

Yeah but in the end it doesn't really matter. We're subjective creatures, we only listen to what our senses tell us. If millions of people love a cheesy, easy to produce track on NCS, then what does the production quality matter? Objective quality can add or retract to subjective quality everyone percieves, but in the end it's still an independent measurement and honestly the only one that matters, at least when it comes to artistic crafts.

3
shibesandsubgenresHaywyre•

I think you missed what I was getting at so I'll try again.

how much we value to objective traits of genericity, sloppiness, production quality, etc. definitely plays a role in what your subjective opinion about whether a track is good, bad, whatever. of course this is the only one that matters, and I don't think anyone would argue that, but the objective traits people value most are the ones that lead people to form their subjective opinions about the track

1
MRShockwaveMusicMuzzy•

And different people value different traits. We're on the same page, the only problem is when people try to impose their opinion as superior based on those traits. I don't mean you but I've seen a lot of people shitting on people who are loving a track because of x trait. Producer snobs are the worst lol

2
VaporUHCVolant•

That's what I'm sayin. I don't like more than half of all Monstercat songs, but I know how much time and effort goes into a song, so I wouldn't dare say a song is bad.

12
TheLordOfSmugRedeemed Meowbuck Reward On Twitch•

Music is just objectively bad overall /s

11
HelixSapphireDroptek•

lol ya specially that kiddie label monstercat /s

16
Gwizz402Laszlo•

yeah full of those unprofessional producers, what's that guys name? Tristan? /s

6
Play-MationVolant•

sounds like a cringy teen letting out angst amirite /s

4
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-1
TeknoSquirrelRezonate•

I feel like this chain is gonna get harsher as it goes on.

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

8
Regularity_OPGrabbitz•

;)

4
MRShockwaveMusicMuzzy•

Gotta love the 'yeah no shit' threads.

3
Nintendocore_Ephixa•

Don't want to be rude, but isn't "generic" not subjective?

2
Regularity_OPGrabbitz•

You're right, although I guess it's possible for someone to feel that a song is more generic than someone else does.

The main thing with songs being "generic", though, is that someone may be bothered by it, while someone else may not mind it.

4
Nintendocore_Ephixa•

someone may be bothered by it, while someone else may not mind it.

That is indeed true, now that you said it, so yeah it can be quite subjective

4
PreservedBeatsVolant•

Yeah. I could say that never looking back is a horrible song, but adore weaponize. It comes to taste when liking a song.

2
littlebigsullyWRLD•

tbh I thought Never Looking Back was amazing (the first part of the drop was a bit messy, but the rest of it was amazing), but with Weaponize, it lost me at the drop. So yeah, we have different opinions about the same songs, but it's still our different tastes in music.

1
MunscroftMitchell Claxton•

Generic isn't really subjective, and neither is Production Quality (if you actually know what you're talking about).

2
MRShockwaveMusicMuzzy•

Yeah but there's a lot more to a song than just how well it's produced. People try to use it as an objective measurement of a song's quality when in reality all they're doing is explaining why they didn't like a song, which loops back to more subjective feedback.

2
MunscroftMitchell Claxton•

I'm not saying you should form your opinion purely around whether a song was produced well. Whether you liked the song or not, the quality is not subjective. There are song that I really like that were made by amateur artists and don't have the same quality of more experienced artists

1
DannyLaursenTristam•

Whether or not production quality (If you capitalised this because it's a term which doesn't actually have anything to do with the quality of the production, let me know) matters depends what you're looking for. For me, music is about artistic expression. The quality of the production means absolutely nothing to me if it's an honest piece with good lyrics.

1
MunscroftMitchell Claxton•

I mean quality of production not the complexity of it or whatever

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
MRShockwaveMusicMuzzy•

sensible chuckle

6