"It just sounds nice!"

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Do you always have to have rationalisations/reasons for why a music sounds good? This is mostly directed at people who write about music, but also I suppose it applies to everyone who talks about it (ie ILm) - I sometimes find myself, when writing on Shazam!, just trying to make up some reason to justify a music's goodness. Isn't it enough sometimes to explain that it sounds good and why. Obviously it's harder to explain (in finding of the words, rather than the insights terms?) "drum kick here sounds good because..." than it is to say "Strokes record = perfect marriage of rock and pop without the baggage of the canon, which is amazing, considering it is so obviously 'lineage'".

But sometimes, just sometimes... y'know? I feel that perhaps there is some sort of distrust (?) of this approach in ILm, or maybe its the other way around (ie the 'just sounds nice'ers dissaprove of the thoughtboys - "don't intellectualise my rock and roll"). Do you write about music which you like because y'know, like, it sounds great?

I dunno. Maybe this is a red herring. Just sometimes, y'know...

― David H(owie) (David H(owie)), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

This is why I can't write about music, if I like something I like it and that's all I really can say on the matter.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't aspire to be a professional music writer, or even much of an unprofessional one, but I find it very hard to write about the qualities I enjoy in music. If you are merely descriptive, it doesn't really capture the experience of the music, if you know what I mean. (And why ever should you?) And how do you describe a particular color or texture or tone in a way that successfully conveys the sound to your reader? I think it's very difficult.

There are some people around these parts who seem to feel you ought to be able somehow describe what you are enjoying in music, perhaps even "make a case for it," but I don't see much possibility of doing this.

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Do you always have to have rationalisations/reasons for why a music sounds good?

You do when you're getting paid to write about it! Otherwise, no. The thing is, the reasons/rationalizations come into it when you want to communicate w/ others. If you're just keeping it to yourself, no need to ask why, unless introspection is a rewarding end in itself.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I always had this argument with my biggest music friend ever. I would say that pretty soon you can't analyze any further why something is good, but he seemed to feel you could say quite a bit. At some point you hit a brick wall. "But why does it sound good to have flag-pole clanging samples in the background while the guitarist performs seemingly endless permutations on a theme?"

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:23 (twenty-three years ago)

The problem with "it just sounds nice" tends to be that it means "it just sounds nice to me," which is a great and legitimate and perfectly useful bit of information but doesn't particularly lead anywhere. The whole process of talking or writing about music basically has to come down to this:

A: It sounds nice to me.
B: It doesn't sound nice to me.
A: Why do we disagree?
B: Well, if you tell me why or how you like it, and I tell you why or how I don't like it, maybe we can figure that out.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark, I think you're letting us off the hook. Would you really never rationalize why you like something if you weren't writing about it? I know that I don't enjoy fleshing out a thesis to myself, but rationalization comes in all the time when I'm listening and writing music -- maybe not so much as an inner discussion of why I like something, but definitely as an analytical, "what are they doing" kind of thing, which I think does influence part of my ultimate evaluation of the music.

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, nabitsuh. Also, thought overheard in my shower: as soon as I answer "It just sounds nice" (to Why do you like a music?) then you are already making the case, perhaps. Ie, reasons for liking it: it just sounds nice, it sounds horrible, it sounds like a synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits, etc. You have started to make its case, now just fill yr base with a foam superstructure.

― David H(owie) (David H(owie)), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 18:11 (twenty-three years ago)

it sounds like a synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits
I wanna hear this record! It sounds great.

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo (cindigo), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 18:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I think if you're writing about music, even on ILM, there is an obligation to say more than "it just sounds nice" (I mean, why bother writing in a chat room or a magazine whose purpose is to thrash out the finer points of every aspect of music, if all you've got to say is 'I like this' or 'I don't like that'). If you feel other people SHOULD know what you think, you have to at least try to come up with a few REASONS why you like something. Having said this, it can be very difficult to explain why something is pleasing to your ears (and often I feel like I'm just coming up with reasons because I feel I'm obliged to, rather than really getting to the heart of what it is I love). I don't aspire to being a music writer either, but even when I write here, I feel that explanations are demanded, and I think that's perfectly fair. We're here to talk about music, after all.

Conversation is a different matter. If I'm just talking to someone, and they tell me they like a record, I don't think they're obliged to come up with any reason other than 'It sounds nice'. Why should they have to prove it?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 21:12 (twenty-three years ago)

The point I'm making is that isn't it just as valid a reason as the Strokes one? Yes, it is. Why isn't it as useful? 'Cos it has less arguable hooks (ie none) - but I'd be more interested in reading an article on why something sounds nice and why this makes you enjoy it etc right now than an article that says the Strokes thing.

― david h (david h), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 21:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not really interested in starting arguments when i write/talk/generally bang on about music: my goal is, and always has been for as long as I remember, to make whoever is/might be listening/reading go away wondering what that tune/band sounds like.

When i hear something (I think is) amazing, I just want to share it with everyone I've ever met, immediately; that includes people who purport to hate the kind of music i'm talking about, and people who don't like music at all...grrr.

There's nothing I can do about this impulse, sadly/happily - it's the way I was built. Surely I'm not alone? Anybody..?

― Charlie (Charlie), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 21:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree. I think the aim, when writing about music, is to make people who haven't heard the album/song/artist want to listen to it. I doubt whether I succeed, but I'd love it if my enthusiasm for something caught on. Winning people who have heard the music over is basically impossible (words can't cange my mind, anyway), but converting the uninitiated is definitely worthwhile.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 23:26 (twenty-three years ago)

I think about music all the time when I listen to it anyway, it's part of my assimilation and enjoyment of it. Thinking is required, usually, to dig deeper into an album or song and get more out of it. The trick is not getting caught up in my thoughts and words, and liking music more for what I think of it than what it is.

I think all Radiohead fans have thought about Radiohead too much.

― Brian Mowrey (Brian Mowrey), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 00:28 (twenty-three years ago)

I see what you mean, 'Nique -- it's safe to say that the reasons for liking something are always there, it's just a matter of whether you want to work to uncover them or not. Getting at the core of any experience is so much fun.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 00:39 (twenty-three years ago)

when i hear music it usually doesn't get translated into words in my mind, so it is hard for me to discuss it.

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 01:34 (twenty-three years ago)

You dont have to have a justification for liking something though it helps if you want to talk about it. My Top 10 each week is made up mostly of records I'll never write about, I just like them.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 09:43 (twenty-three years ago)

seventeen years pass...

nice drum kick here

― j., Tuesday, 10 March 2020 21:18 (six years ago)

https://media.giphy.com/media/huyVJYSKcArLiu8J5g/giphy.gif

― Psychedics with Rosie Swash (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 March 2020 21:18 (six years ago)

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