intooder
Senior Member
I used to spend time locked between two very expensive loudspeakers listening to every nuance of music. I have long since abandoned that fruitless and expensive pasttime.
The average listener does seem to heavily favor dancible music. Does it have a good beat? They don't seem to read into anything, except they get wrapped around lyrics. Sometimes they get too wrapped up in lyrical interpretation.
When I hear a tune I evaluate it on many levels. First and foremost:what did the drums contribute? How do they sound? Did he overplay? What is the drummer doing to support or elevate the music?
Once I get past that, I go into the structure, lyrics and so on. I have a tendency to categorize and score efforts.
The bottom line with any of it is how the music makes me feel. The gut reaction that says "What am I getting out of this?"
Great point on lyrics. I feel so many layers can be conveyed through music where lyrics don't stand a chance - I'm guessing it's the subtlety of good music that causes this. In my mind, music is always king.
My typical reaction listening to any band is more why a musician played a part to a given musical context (especially a drummer's choice for a particular fill or groove for a song since I'm more conversant with drums). Along the same lines, I tend to find myself wondering how I would play to song differently and other possible permutations.