Oh! Gravity

Musings on Music

12 May 2005

A recent article from the Sydney Morning Herald has got me thinking about the real meaning and substance of music. Not so much what it's purpose is, but what makes good music.

The problem is, good music is entirely subjective. Firstly, there are various different frameworks for music around the world (eg. someone who has always listened to traditional Indian music is operating within a different framework to someone who has grown up with 17th Century European classical music. Some elements are the same, but the overall approaches are quite removed from each other).

But more than that, two people operating within the same framework disagree on what is good. I like techno, you like country - and we generally won't like each others styles.

So the question of what makes music good is perhaps too subjective or too abstract to really answer.

The article addresses a slightly different question - not what makes good music, but what is it that makes music 'universally' appealing. This question seems to be more practical - how do I, as a musician, create music that will appeal to many people with different tastes??

Placing aside thoughts about why music reaches the masses (ie. the stranglehold of record companies and radio stations upon public consumption), it is argued that music with substance rather than flashiness wins the day. It is Bon Jovi vs. U2, Led Zeppelin vs. Kiss, Coldplay vs. Three Doors Down. Music with some subtlety, with something boiling under the bonnet, with genuine emotion rather than something fake or shallow wins the day. (At this point I tried to say something along the lines of "Now this doesn't mean that Bon Jovi, Kiss, etc. are lesser musicians..." but I realised that I think they are lesser musicians).

I have been listening to alot of Coldplay this week, and they have something truly amazing going on. But none of the songs are terribly uplifting - sometimes I listen to music when I'm excited and just want to have fun, and coldplay are slightly sombre in their overall tone. So I think I find myself stuck somewhere between the yanks and poms. I really can't stand music where the hair is more important than the genuineness of the musical expression. But I also can't stand overindulgant arty expression that is terribly emotive but too abstract for me to relate to.

I guess you could call me.... Australian*. Here's to a unique Australian perspective!!


*Martyn would like to advise that he does not claim to represent the average Australian, rather that Australian culture is generally a hybrid of British and American influences, combined with unique Australian cultural artefacts. That is all.

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