Is it possible to objectively judge music?
 

That is, the quality of the music. Is there any way to ascertain that Revolver is better than Blonde On Blonde (or not)?


I tend to think not. Apart from popularity (sales, polls, etc) and influence, I don't think there's any inherent "quality" to music. Even though you'd have to be crazy to prefer Cut The Crap to The Clash, there's no way to prove you "wrong" should you hold that particular opinion.

No, and the reason is everyone has thier own hero's

yes, but not until you're mentally mature

Hard to tell ... I mean everyone is at least a little partial to a particular genre, and it's hard to sit and listen to the quality of something you hate. It's possible though ... You'd have to take a step back and just listen to every instrument and then the song as a whole. It'd be possible, but It'd be hard.

Yes you can but you have to define the criteria you're using when judging an artist objectively. It's quite clear the band Yes are better musicians than the Sex Pistols but people may be looking at power, raw energy, attitude, rebelliousness and a host of other sets of criteria when judging these two bands against each other.

it's impossible to objectively judge anything.

you wreak of deconstructionism.

All you would need to do is set up criteria first one what would be up for judgment and how those scales would look. Its why academic papers generally start off with definitions of things, so as to allow the reader to know what your basing judgments on. So long as the criteria that serves as the basis for the judgment is standardized, there ought to be no problem with being able to judge things objectively.

ive wondered about this 2

i generally turn on the 'now playing' option on windows media player and i have the 'music colors' -- 'colors in motion' visualization selected

ive wondered if i could tell if i would like a song just by the way the patterns of that visualization flowed

i was admittedly high at the time

i agree with Blackbird -- i cant do screammo or noise so my judgement of that type of music would be quite shallow as its damn near impossible to listen to something while trying not to hear any of it

and anticipation -- not because im into deconstructionism but because its awful hard to get everyone on the same page even as far as what the basic definitions are since everything is up for interpretation

the short answer = Nah

Actually I think it is very possible. The factor that plays into this the most, in my opinion of course, is whether you actually like multiple genres of music. If you do that means your pallet is more mature, IMO, and you can find the good/bad in many more diff types of music.

Like I myself listen to everything from Johnny Cash to DMX, and everything inbetween. I'd say I can gauge the rock, country, rap, and r&b from my era very well.

From my short time on this board it seems that people dont branch out too much and judge music that they havent even heard. Which is just ignorant, but hey if it makes you feel bigger than you are go for it. Meanwhile I'm rocking out to everything under the sun.

I don't buy this Objective stuff at least when it comes to music anyway.

It's all personal opinion however you dress it up. It's just that some peoples personal opinion has more influence than others. I don't pretend to speak for anybody else when I forward an opinion and to do anything else but that to me smacks of arrogance & egotism.

I mean what is Objectively anyway?

I don't think anyone has ever looked at an album like Blonde on Blonde or Revolver or Pet Sounds in an objective way.

They're albums that struck a chord with people at the right time in the right place both musically & socially ,and are fondly remembered for doing so , that's why they are regarded so highly. They're not regarded highly because someone looked at them and decided they were the finest example of music ever made and then decreeing it to everybody.