Eight Qualities of Good Music: An Analysis - Reprinted from Facebook

I find about eight qualities in good music, regardless of their genre. It helps explain my disparate tastes to know that I have analytical categories for what makes good music. (Welcome to the world of an INTP.) As a general matter, if I haven’t been able to break down the components of the song in the time it takes me to listen to it, it’s got me hooked. Here are eight things that matter.

Note: I make no warranty as to the visual content of these YouTube links; some of them are fan made and awful to look at, some are suggestive, etc. I’m referring to the songs only. Put them up and go check your e-mail or something.

1) Chord sequences. In most songwriting, everything works off chords, and the more innovative the sequence, the more innovative everything else has to be. You can’t take a lazy way out on making something sound good when you’ve started off on a unique template.

“Blood on the Rooftops” by Genesis (performed here by Steve Hackett’s band) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO_CX3ytvd4
Ignore that the dude he has can’t sing; I wouldn’t like this song if that guy sang all the time (Phil Collins did the vox in the original). Listen to the verses: there’s NO song in the universe that sounds like that. And it all feeds off the chords.

2) Song structure. Surprise me with where the song goes, but organically. Sure, you can splice jams together (Yes is guilty of this a lot), but does one part naturally go with the other? At the same time, though, the direction ought to be novel and unexpected. Underworld were absolute masters of this concept, with Orbital managing to a decent job of it as well. For trance artists, Way Out West do extraordinarily well at putting late-breaking developments in their songs. Asymmetrical (not odd – to me, they’re normal) time signatures go here too, and I’m particularly a sucker for asymmetrical electronica. Hard to explain perhaps w/o a song, so…

“Song of Life” by Leftfield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F58AjZY892E
It goes along just fine as its own thing…and then at 3:29, the piece starts morphing into something else entirely. Two song halves that are decent by themselves, by being linked in surprising ways, go over the top to greatness.

3) Mood. And this isn’t just whether it’s cinematic or not – there are a number of movie soundtracks that sound soundtracky but set no mood because the parts themselves aren’t evocative. But if music is a language, then songs ought to say something definite. In a lot of ways, mood is the articulation of precise musical language. This can range from the cinematically evocative to an artist that sets a unique mood, one that makes sense only within the rules of the artist (again, Underworld and Orbital ruled this category). Mood and song structure are why I like Genesis and Porcupine Tree but not Yes or The Flower Kings; Yes songs often say no more than “we’re really, really good on our instruments,” while Porcupine Tree’s are an artistic statement, a fragile and beautiful delicacy. Aphex Twin was so good at mood that his Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II is a success musically even though almost nothing’s there.

“Blackout” by Hybrid (feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElGUGqnOXM
Especially as the closer of an album that was incredibly tech-oriented/heavily dependent on electricity, a song that’s primarily orchestra, percussion, and vocals is an incredible mood setter. As Kirsty sings “no electricity” repeatedly, it feels like she may be the only person or even living being around. Absorbing in every way, which is to say it nails mood.

4) Layers. Although layers is normally just a method of changing mood and structure in unexpected ways, it deserves its own mention. If mood is articulation, then layers are an expanded vocabulary. Poetry is favored over prose in several settings in large part because of the vocabulary and structure difference, and well-orchestrated layers do about the same thing in turning prosaic music into poetry, if that makes any sense at all. This is also somewhat the same as just good production, although that can have its own importance. Countermelodies and the like fall here too, and they’re vital to most good songs.

“Dirty Epic” by Underworld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hikzB892adc
This one’s also about mood and structure, sure, but the use of layers is perhaps the most brilliant part of it. Drum loops add and drop from the texture at unusual times (esp. notice 1:13-1:14 v. 1:15-1:16 – even the drop of the kick beat for one measure can matter! Also check out some of the hi-hats disappearing around 2:16-2:24 and the denouement around 2:45 after a measure of full drums from 2:41-2:44), giving the whole piece an unsettled feel that matches the stream-of-consciousness lyrics perfectly. The mood is created by the layering on this one, and it’s genius.

5) Genre-bending. Many an artist becomes confined by its genre, unable to reach out and incorporate something different into their aesthetic. This is one reason pop bands don’t usually last long; there’s nothing they can work into the formula. Obviously, this isn’t always true; Blondie and Queen were able to get just about anything into their sound, and they are all the more enduring for it. Knowledge of genre is important as a way to play with it. This is particularly important with tempo; several disparate genres reside at the same tempo, and a lot of innovative music can happen when you mix-and-match at that tempo. Generally speaking, Tortoise’s stew of genres takes this into account best of anyone I’ve ever heard, though the Flaming Lips aren’t bad at it. This one gets two songs:

“Sleepy Maggie” by Ashley MacIsaac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoApELfgWcg
The album from whence this came was all about genre-bending, taking traditional Celtic fiddle tunes (plus Gaelic vocals in this case) and ‘90sifying them, with this being the easy standout example. It takes deep knowledge of each genre you’re blending together to be able to do it effectively; you can’t just graft house onto Celtic or Celtic onto house without sounding hokey (see, for example, the Rednex version of “Cotton Eye Joe” that’s popular because it blends genres, even though it does so horrifically and makes both genres sound worse in the process).

“The Gift” by Way Out West
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkuduk0JMM
Nick Warren has admitted that this song essentially was birthed as what happens when you slow down drum’n’bass/jungle rhythms. But that slowing down gives opportunity for a completely different arrangement around those rhythms, with ethereal stretched-out pads, seemingly infinite echo, and a calm vocal sample to create a half-chilled, half-beat-heavy atmosphere that stands out even 12 years later.

6) Innovation. This may seem like a noncategory given what’s stated above, but it’s an important point all its own. The first few to figure out (and yes, to me songwriting is in large part a matter of figuring out how pieces can fit together in new ways) how to make something work get extra credit. Susumu Yokota made consecutive albums of electronica all in 3/4 time. This, my friends, is HARD.

“If I Could Tell You” by Blu Mar Ten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fenSc2Aj_Zg
Finally learning how to combine their chill and drum’n’bass sides is resulting in some heady stuff from Blu Mar Ten, this being foremost among them. This came out a few months ago and is just brilliant.

7) Rhythm. A good understanding of how to move a song along is important. Yes, a four-on-the-floor can stick just about anywhere, but good rhythm adds vibrancy and can be the backdrop for an entire mood, particularly hypnotic pieces, for which I’m a sucker. Detail is important here too, as is rhythmic interplay between drums and instruments.

“La Ritournelle” by Sebastian Tellier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu1fTcGdS8A
This song would go nowhere without that super-funky beat carrying it.

“Squance” by Plaid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u_83y75ZG0
Several likable elements here (the synth hook is to die for) but the way the rhythm treats the song as 2/4 rather than 4/4 is a crucial element, along with the seemingly random rhythmic interludes (check 1:55-1:59). The rhythm allows everything else to bounce seemingly randomly off it.

“Growls Garden” by Clark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMS3gqc7eRs
The synths contribute so much rhythmic interplay to an already strange 808 drum pattern that it’s sick. Biggest track of 2009 for sure.

8) Production. Skills here are about layers and mood, sure, but being able to spruce up your content with nuance is critical. The best current rock band on this one (and I’m choosing rock here in part because I’ve been putting a lot of electronica on this list so far) is very easily the Doves.

“Catch the Sun” by the Doves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqlIFLb6jU0
This song’s made entirely off its production, as they fit a TON of distortion in the background, and my favorite part, the twin leads in the chorus that go perfectly together (one’s a warm, mid-heavy bit, while the other’s trebly). You don’t notice how much they’re synergizing until the warm one leaves; contrast the chorus at 3:20-3:35 with any other chorus and you notice it (it doesn’t hurt that they also raised the volume for the trebly part in the chorus where it’s by itself). The track is massive in every way, and that massiveness is what carries the song to greatness. But it took some killer production skills to fit it all in.

“Tremelo Song” by the Charlatans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNdrXNFiSSA
Though this single mix adds too many parts around it to get the full effect, that piano dink in the center of the mix propels the song far more than you’d think it could. Check the verse around 0:37 – it’s drums, a bass part that’s not easily scrutinized, and the piano dink supporting the vocals. That’s it. Producer Flood makes it a focal point of the song even though it’s not much by itself, and that gives it a refreshing singularity.

These 8 elements explain the bulk of why I like what I like. A song may have pedestrian chords but have mood and production and layers, like “Dirty Epic,” and become a favorite. A song may have tame production but a great rhythm and mood, like “La Ritournelle,” and become a favorite. The more of these elements are present, the more I’m likely to be hooked.