Is that song good?
Art is subjective. Tastes are cultural as well as personal and - with 8 billion people on the planet - there’s not a single song that everyone can definitely say they like. So much of musical discourse concerns whether someone likes this song or that song. We connect with other folks who like the same songs we do and sometimes bond over songs we mutually hate. But, is the idea of likability a good barometer for whether a song is “good.”
As songwriters, I believe that we need to step away from the subjectivity of liking a song when we evaluate whether a song is good. Instead, I believe that we need to understand a song in a different manner. Firstly, we need to evaluate what the goal of the artist is. Then we need to determine if the artist is successful in realizing their vision through song. If they are, then we can say that a song is “good.” If they are not then we can say that the song is “bad.”
Let’s consider an example. There is an artist that you like who is attempting to make an album that mixes the aesthetics of Y2K pop, hyper pop vocal production, and autobiographical songwriting. When we listen through the album, we can listen for these elements and see if they are being synthesized into a record the makes sense. Do the Y2K melodies mesh with the personal subject material? Are the chord progressions invoking nostalgia for the sounds of 2004? Does the vocal production sound similar to something you might hear in an AG Cook or Charli XCX song? Does that vocal production enhance or detract from the personal nature of the song’s content.
We can ask these questions and questions like this to think more deeply the music we’re listening to. As writers and artists, we hope that listeners will the time to ask these questions about our own work. So, why not give the work we listen to the same thought. After thinking deeply about the artists vision and listening through the material, we can evaluate whether the work in question is “good” based on whether its successfully completing its goal.
I think this is a better way to listen to music. This type of analytical listening gives us a better understanding and appreciation of the art which we listen to. This moves us beyond a simple idea of liking a song to understanding artistic intent and whether or not a piece of work is successfully executing its vision.
