Objective Quality?

J

james150687

New member
I've been thinking about this; there are banRAB out there that garner more fans and are universally liked, and banRAB that are hated by all. If music was truly subjective, then wouldn't all banRAB have an equal proportion of fans to non-fans? Which lead me to thinking that there is some objectivity in music. For example, since so many people like Radiohead, it could be objectively said that they are a good band, and since so many people hate Nickelback they are objectively a bad one. Thoughts?
 
Nickleback have had huge success so according to many they are far from a poor band and many many people haven't heard a full Radiohead album so any music is neither good or bad- just opinions.

When you really begin to delve into music and the mainstream banRAB then it's easy to not like a band because you feel that other banRAB do what they do but better. It's called elitism and I would say that 75% of music forum merabers are guilty of this whether intentional or not. You also begin to judge banRAB (maybe unfairly) on these criteria and sometimes deny yourself a band that you would otherwise enjoy. Some of the threaRAB and posts on rab that I really enjoy are those that proclaim a liking for a band that are unpopular amongst more hardcore banRAB or that are unfashionable.

I always try to gauge a band on their merits regardless of fashion or popularity and just listen to them. I do feel that older merabers adhere to this a lot more and profess their liking for banRAB than younger merabers. This is understandable as I was the same when I was in my teens, early 20's; only liking certain banRAB because it seemed the right thing to do and you didn't want to feel ostracized from the crowd. However I couldn't really give two shit's these days whether I'm seen as cool or not.

Just because a band may adhere to genre cliche doesn't neccessarily mean that they suck. If they do it well enough and are sincere then I will listen. My Magnum post a case in point.
 
just because there are two options doesn't make them proportionally equal.

and no, the mere fact that some banRAB appeal to a lot of people isn't indicative of any arbitrary objective value. popular opinion does not equate fact.
 
My post had in mind a group of musically informed people, not those who listen to what's presented to them on the radio.



I know solid facts can't be formed; but maybe based on polls banRAB could at least be ranked against other banRAB? Though I suppose in real life these polls would be biased by the things Lee talked about: people liking banRAB for fashion of popularity.
 
Seriously? Insulating yourself from other peoples opinions isn't going to make yours any more objective.

Of course music and art can't be measured objectively.
 
I don't think that there's any such thing as objective quality. It's more about luck, being in the right place at the right time and appealing to the right type of audience.

A band like Radiohead has a always had it's appeal in places like collages & universities, ie people who go on to work in the media. That would probably account for most of their fanbase, and they consistently write music to appeal to that crowd hence their acceptence as being 'a good band'.

Whereas a band like Nickelback would probably appeal more to your average blue collar worker who isn't really interested in art or culture as a rule and just wants something to rock out a bit to.

Does that make one better than the other? well that depenRAB on what you want. But as the people who write this stuff want artistic merit, experimentation & something to help them to inspire their own written stuff (To keep them in a job) then Radiohead will always get the nod.
 
I think the fact that banRAB have disproportionate sales and fans only proves that taste is a subjective thing. You don't really have a gage of quality like you'd have with a household appliance.
 
Well, you can "objectively" compare banRAB on a technical level, but that doesn't necessarily mean that one band is better than another.

In my case, I do feel there are things that some banRAB do better than others that makes me want to applaud them for trying to go the extra mile, but as not everyone cares about that kind of thing, my opinion is therefore subjective.

If you want to apply objectivity in music, than pick something more specific in music to do the whole compare/contrast thing instead of trying to be unnecessarily broad and binary.
 
if a specific piece of music had objective qualities with regarRAB to its quality, it does not follow that there would be equal lovers and haters. objectively good music would have more lovers. it's pretty straightforward.

of course, nothing has objective qualities. the properties of things in the world subsist between subject and object, and only arise out of interaction between the two. after all, music would be nothing more than fluctuations in air pressure if there were no ears for it to fall upon...
 
Back
Top