How would define "bad music"?

[Tim Skaggs]

I don’t think there is “bad” music. There’s music I like & music I don’t like, but how I consider music doesn’t make it good or bad. There is poorly performed music, but that doesn’t make the music bad, just the performance.

I can define “good” music easier. It’s just music I like, but being liked by me doesn’t make the music good or bad to anyone else.

 

[factory presets]

Radio does not equal Performance.

Yeah but it equals exactly what people will listen to.

 

[gln1955]

Radio does not equal Performance.

So then who's listening to a live performance 500 times?

 

[Pauly 4001]

Apologies to Sparky.


Complete - Hoogie-Boogie Land (youtube.com)

Somebody should apologise to someone after that.
I tried but gave up halfway through. Was anyone hurt?

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Duke Ellington once said there were really only two kinds of music; good and bad. I do agree with that statement although musical appreciation and musical tastes are highly subjective and vairy tremendously.
Of course, I do know which music I like and which music I adore. Oftentimes my favorite genres (without getting into particulars) are overlooked, under appreciated, not understood by folks who listen on the "surface only".
Then again music which is insanely popular, I am sometimes not drawn to. (over the top, intellectually lacking, formulaic etc.) My reasons for catagorizing music as simply "bad" are very personal.
What is "bad" music to you?

Wham!

 

[definenredefine]

Any music I like is good, anything else is bad.

Or, far more accurately, any music I don't like is good, and any music I like is bad. Any music that I've been involved in producing is terrible and to be avoided.

 

[DaveParker39]

The bar is literally on the floor. Pretty much anything will be considered good by someone.
I mean just read the comment section, I'm sure most of you have seen this video. There are people who think this is good music. I don't have the authority to say "no actually that's bad music" as much as it might strike me as such to my core.

Bad music annoys.

I think the idea of "bad music annoys" is as close to a definition for me as I can get. Bad music is typically annoying.

 

[MegaSwing]

‘Bad’ music is devoid of passion.

 

[factory presets]

Following up, as long as we're still talking about allowable personal opinions (we are, right?), my favorite recordings are, indeed, live recordings. I am not a fan of overdubs or editing. Multitracking didn't add poignancy; it was the first step in removing human frailty and imperfection from music. The opposite of poignancy in my view. And yes, I am involved in the business and art on both sides of the mic.

Opinions are good. Some opinions are the result of extensive research. Others are based on easy assumptions. Either way that is what you think, and most people, including me, spend more time defending their opinion than re-evaluating it. Who am I to shag with someone else's comfort zone. I'll share my opinion, and how I got there, and leave it at that.

Multi-tracking adds poignancy to the recorded music debate. Not the music. Live music, realistically, is based around recorded music. Which is where people first get to hear and judge music. So the debate about electronic production is an extension of the long settled argument as to whether records are real music.

When hip hop was young and samplers were expensive I played in punk bands that would play samples on our instruments with guitar pick scratching and drums to mimic turntable break beats. Is that real music? Yes or no, it does give you some perspective on non traditional instruments.

 

[MuseChaser]

So you don't like anything recorded since, what, the 1920s?

I'll chalk that up to ignorance. There are lots of live recordings done today... Although perhaps not in genres with which you may be familiar.

Edit: I realize that sounded harsh, but it wasn't meant to. Ignorance just means a lack of knowledge in a specific area, not a lack of intelligence. There are VAST areas in which I am ignorant. Music is not one of them.

 

[pcake]

i think poorly played music can be anywhere from bad to awful.

otherwise i don't believe in bad music - i don't have to like music to recognize good things about a tune - it can be well-written, well-played, with great timing even if i don't like the song or the genre.

 

[MuseChaser]

Opinions are good. Some opinions are the result of extensive research. Others are based on easy assumptions. Either way that is what you think, and most people, including me, spend more time defending their opinion than re-evaluating it. Who am I to shag with someone else's comfort zone. I'll share my opinion, and how I got there, and leave it at that.

Multi-tracking adds poignancy to the recorded music debate. Not the music. Live music, realistically, is based around recorded music. Which is where people first get to hear and judge music. So the debate about electronic production is an extension of the long settled argument as to whether records are real music.

When hip hop was young and samplers were expensive I played in punk bands that would play samples on our instruments with guitar pick scratching and drums to mimic turntable break beats. Is that real music? Yes or no, it does give you some perspective on non traditional instruments.

Fair enough. In terms of "extensive research," my opinions are based upon being raised by professional musicians and educators, and almost 50 years of being a full-time professional musician, educator, clinician, and part-time recording engineer. I hope that qualifies.

 

[Bassique]

Is there something wrong with lustmord?
I mean, it's not for everyone but I wouldn't call it bad/not music.

Ok, maybe its not fair to call it bad music. And that kind of dark ambient music has its place too, for example in videos games.

 

[Williethump]

Rap and most country.

 

[jamro217]

Let's have some fun with this, shall we? Since the tunes themselves have only been a source of woe, it's high time we put them to good use.

After longing for some SEASONS IN THE SUN (Terry Jacks), I realized that I CAN'T GET NO SATISFACTION (the Rolling Stones). IT'S A HEARTBREAK (Bonnie Tyler). DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY (Bobby McFerrin) I keep telling myself because LOVE IS STRANGE (Mickey and Sylvia. < The same Mickey Baker who wrote the jazz guitar theory books). HEY MICKEY (Toni Basil), you were right. I'll keep chasing the ELUSIVE BUTTERFLY (Bob Lind) and hope that one day soon my CALENDER GIRL (Neil Sedaka) will come along, maybe on FRIDAY ( Rebecca Black) and LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER (Captain and Tennille). Who knows? We may even have A BOY NAMED SUE (Johnny Cash). Sorry to be so longwinded. I momentarily forgot that this forum is ALL ABOUT THAT BASS (Meghan Trainor). Hope this helps.

 

[factory presets]

Boy I'll tell ya. There might not be bad music. But there are bad jokes.

Just kidding.

 

[factory presets]

So then who's listening to a live performance 500 times?

Roadies

 

[Alexander Silva]

For me a me bad music would be:

Badly played due to lack of skill
Badly arranged or composed

This would not necessarily mean that a simple genre for example punk as a whole would be bad, just punk played badly would be bad music

Then there is another category that would be

"Not even music"

Here I would include anything that does not include all three of the basic components of music: rhythm harmony melody
Or has a too rudimentary exercise of the above to qualify

A lot of the trap stuff falls under this for me, since in a lot applications harmony even melody is non existentant

 

[factory presets]

Fair enough. In terms of "extensive research," my opinions are based upon being raised by professional musicians and educators, and almost 50 years of being a full-time professional musician, educator, clinician, and part-time recording engineer. I hope that qualifies.

Well there you go. 50years pro, you probably got no punk rock stories to tell. Your time zone suggests your reggae might not be all that (coz I make assumptions too). We already established you are not all up in hip hop and electronica. And statistically speaking you almost certainly know very little about gamelan or throat music. None of which means you wouldn't have a whole lot you could teach me.

My point being that your experience, vast as it may be, seems to have left you with little understanding of large swathes of modern music. (And possibly Asian folk music as well.) Which is why some here would reduce your reasons for disliking it to it simply being outside your comfort zone.

 

[Hot Rats]

Years ago, my friend and I got this album by a band called Hellhammer and it was bad. I mean terrible, lousy stuff. But after a while, we started to dig it, for novelty's sake. It started having a coherent pattern and made sense. So, what happened? Did we just start liking crappy music or was it never crappy and we just didn't like it at first? Lots of music is like that. Who really knows.