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re: Define a "good" song...

Posted by: ryhog 04:04 pm EST 01/15/14
In reply to: Define a "good" song... - Zelgo 02:28 pm EST 01/15/14

A good song (and I assume you mean in a theatrical context) is a song that produces in the audience (or at least most of the audience) the result desired by the show's creators. Anything other than that definition applies some subjective gloss of the person offering the definition.

There are certain things that we can assume the show's creators do NOT want (like for the audience to be bored by it), but beyond that, the purpose really has to focus on the two ends of the spectrum -- the creators' intention or purpose for the song, and whether the audience gets from it what the creators intended. The creators, as an example, can employ a song to convey character, and it may technically do that from their standpoint, but if the audience checks out of the song, it will not fulfill the intention. So if I had to reduce it to two words, they would be intention and fulfillment.

What we get here are a lot of posts that criticize songs because the person posting doesn't personally like the song from a stylistic standpoint. While everyone's individual take is legitimate, and sometimes interesting, it often obscures any objective meaning to the question of what makes a song good.


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re: Define a "good" song...

Posted by: keikekaze 09:15 pm EST 01/15/14
In reply to: re: Define a "good" song... - ryhog 04:04 pm EST 01/15/14

What we get here are a lot of posts that criticize songs because the person posting doesn't personally like the song from a stylistic standpoint. While everyone's individual take is legitimate, and sometimes interesting, it often obscures any objective meaning to the question of what makes a song good

There is no "objective meaning to the question what makes a song good." The question, like most questions not seeking a mathematical answer, is an opinion-seeking one, and there are no objective opinions. (Least of all the opinions of those who think their own opinions are objective.) There are well-informed opinions and not-so-well informed ones, but there are no "objective" ones.


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re: Define a "good" song...

Posted by: ryhog 11:00 pm EST 01/15/14
In reply to: re: Define a "good" song... - keikekaze 09:15 pm EST 01/15/14

Well, obviously, I agree with that, but the OP asked about defining "what exactly is 'good,'" which did not sound like a call for opinions. My response (as you quote) focused on what we CAN quantify, which is not whether a song is "good" or not (something we both agree is impossible to say objectively), but whether there is a correlation between intention and fulfillment.


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