Music Snobs: What makes or breaks a song in your eyes?

[Randall]

What music cliches do you like/dislike? Kindly give examples of things you like/hate.

[Randall]

Hate: Songs that are essentially repetition of the chorus:



Love: songs that don't bring all instruments at once, make you wait for a boner inducing payoff:

[Deckard]

I hate any dance music that's engineered around the drop. It's manipulative and boring.

[Sappho]

Break: Vocalists who can't sing. Especially men who sound like little girls.



Make: vocalists who can sing.





Bonus points for awesome instrumental skills (seriously, shouldn't that be a prerequisite for being a musician?).

[stuck]

I'm mostly a sucker for a good mix, however that happens. There's a lot of 80s stuff on Scaruffi/Christgau's lists that I can't enjoy because of how bandpassed it is even though it's mixed really "clean".

this comes to mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1V...q&spfreload=10

And it pisses me off because the 70s were such a great mixing era, mostly. it's almost like people didn't learn how to mix the 80s until the 00s.

I even prefer all the current stupid affectations of too much noise and fake plate verbs. This sounds great to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FrE...4&spfreload=10

I pretty much listen to this exclusively for the mix, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzMr...g&spfreload=10

CUPS WIT THA ICE AND WE DO THIS EVERY NIGHT

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-OR...g&spfreload=10

bonercore. they made her voice sound so fucking good. that mix is perfection- the way the reverb on her voice backmasks the sub+ guitar that sneaks in on the second half of the chorus, wow.

[Madrigal]

I love everything from tango to Britney Spears, so I basically have no taste.

I hate music that's for adults but sounds like it was made for 6 year-olds. Like you can sort of imagine how the tune is actually a kids' song, but some genius thought they should add a twist and make it for all audiences. Almost anything by the Beatles would fit that category. Also Frank Sinatra. Probably the same reason I hate "She" with a passion. It sounds like it might be in a Disney song but not quite because it's even too lame for that. I want to punch him in the face when he starts saying "Sheeeeeeeee" arrrghhh!



I hate anything that sounds like a taxi driver took a mic and started singing about life and love. I can't think of any singers in English so I'll skip that for now. I hate singer-songwriters that don't make their music internally coherent because they think the lyrics are so brilliant they don't have to bother. I hate the kind of reggaeton where guys with high-pitched voices sing exclusively about women leaving them. If you're going to sing about that shit all the time at least get a deep voice.

I fucking love corny shit with no self-awareness of the fact.

[Sappho]

I love everything from tango to Britney Spears, so I basically have no taste.

I hate (...) [a]lmost anything by the Beatles (..). Also Frank Sinatra.

q.e.d.

Even though that particular Elvis Costello number sucks indeed.

[Limey]

I've actually thought my own dad's choices in this topic to be interesting (in a Spock-like vernacular) because they seem quote polarized. He seems to be highly offended by a note being held onto for too long.
His least favorite song is probably "Lovely day" by Bill Withers - this song actually strongly annoys him.
His favorite song is most likely Vincent by Don McLean.

As for me, a quick example of "Break" tracks include too much repetition or annoying jingle type "jigs" that get stuck in your head: Black Betty, Cotton eye Joe, the theme to Eastenders (UK TV soap), whole lotta love by Led Zeppelin, Dry your eyes by the streets (please do not rap with a Brummie accent, just don't)

"Make" tracks for me, largely include strong melodies, trance-like synth and chord changes that will take me back to a time and place: Sweet sensation (even though it has a lot of repetition and potentially annoying samples, it launches me into space travel about 2 minutes in) - West end girls by the Pet shop boys (Just one of those time and a place tracks - 1986, starting high school) - Baker street (another time/place)

edit: just to add, I'm not a subscriber to "Love" and "Hate" dichotomies, so I lifted Sapphos make and break

[ACow]

I'm struggling to come up with a word that accurately describes my music tastes. I would describe my likes as narrative and/or pattern based. I like to listen to the music that matches my mood. I also believe I like music as an artistic/emotional medium. Lets see how emo i can get...i love music that is like a meditation on a theme. These two are some of my favourites:





But patterns/narratives makes it sound far too simple, as though I'm purely a fan of ABABAB patterns, or ABABCBC like "call me maybe" (which is catchy, and i admit i enjoy it but we shouldn't pretend its anything more than it is) posted by someone up there. Honestly though, I think i understand a lot of the dislike for the beatles. I'm not saying I dislike all of their music, but I admit that a lot of it comes off a bit childishly simple to me, and i also appreciate some people might say that about my own tastes. In fact a lot of modern pop music is, frankly, rather distasteful to me in its 2 dimensional simplicity. And that is not to say I don't like simplicity. Hans Zimmer's piece from inception is, intellectually about as simple as you can get, but I like it:

[ACow]

I appreciate lyricism for those pieces with lyrics, after all, music is a medium that lets you combine the aural qualities of both melody and harmony, and the same qualities of tone, timing, and writing: