How To Evaluate Music or Any Other Art Form

November 2015

To evaluate music, or any other art form, consider the following criteria:
1. Does the piece successfully achieve its goal? If its dance music does it make you want to dance? If it's a sad song does it convey the sadness? If it's an intellectual type of music is it thought provoking and stimulating?

2. Is the piece innovative, original, different or unique?

3. Does the piece display exceptional skill or intellectual ability? That skill could be in the complexity or elegance of the composition, the technical and musical ability in the playing, the quality of the sound design, the quality of the lyrics and/or the quality of the recording.

4. Does the piece and/or the performance have exceptional emotional power, personality, energy, charisma, intensity, musicality honesty? This is the quality that many great performers bring to the music that separates them from others who are equally skilled, it is their ability to bring their character, and level of intensity and commitment to the music.

Post-rock music genres require a whole new way of listening to music. Melody and harmonic structure are relatively unimportant. The musician's technical abilities and personality are almost irrelevant. The important quality is the artist's ability to develop interesting sonic textures by or combining and layering found, played and synthesized sounds, rhythms and music. However, it is not surprising that using time-tested compositional techniques to balance continuity with variety is still effective. Every genre of music demands a different set of criteria for judging quality and most people won't go to the trouble to try. I make a point of investigating new music and trying to get an understanding, but quite often my first reaction to something truly innovative is negative. Since 98% of everything is crap it takes a while to find the good stuff.

Now, I'll apply my criteria to an example song, James Brown's Super Bad. (Listen to to the song on YouTube) I chose this song because many people who tend to judge music strictly on the level of skill or the intellectual content will judge it as being 'bad" and/or inconsequential even though many others acknowledge it as a classic in its genre.

1. Does the piece successfully achieve its goal? Yes, it is a dance song that is extremely danceable. It succeeds in conveying the singer/writer's state of mind and physical exuberance.

2. Is the piece innovative, original, different or unique? Yes, the rhythm is unique and in a new style created by the artist. Also, the avant garde/free jazz alto sax solo (4:07)was very unusual for a dance song at that time and paved the way for the further exploration of the combination of jazz, free improv and funk rhythms by artists like Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, the Contortions and many others.

3. Does the piece display exceptional skill or intellectual ability? Yes, the rhythm are notably precise and tight, the changes and stops are flawless, the horn parts perfect, and the sax solo is hot.

4. Does the piece and/or the performance have exceptional emotional power, personality, energy, charisma, intensity, musicality honesty? Yes, James' vocal performance and the music are powerful, energetic and intense.

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