"good" music

[johncomic]

My car MP3 player has just finished treating me to Head Music by Suede, and I've found it a thought-provoking experience. My first thought was (as is usual when I listen to Suede) that the rhythm section of Mat Osman and Simon Gilbert were a terrific team, good and solid, they never got the acclaim they deserved.

But I went on, listening closer than usual, and found myself thinking... from what I gather, Head Music is generally considered one of Suede's lesser efforts. Possibly there's someone out there who considers it their fave album -- more possibly, there's someone out there who considers it their fave Suede album -- but for the most part it's dismissed in favour of their earlier epics. But when I listen carefully, and I try to imagine what it would take for me to compose and arrange and perform these songs.... If I had made this album, or even if I was only one musician out of the several on it, I would feel like I had done really well. I would feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment and I would be damb proud.

Therefore, I say: Head Music is quite good. Taken on its own merits.

I think that much, maybe most, recorded music out there is quite good. And I'd say that most musicians who end up in bands are quite good. In that, if you could do as well, you'd be very satisfied with your work. I think we have a tendency to call a band “good” when what we mean is that they are “uncommonly good”... and we call a band “no good” when an honest listen would reveal that they are “commonly good”. And we lose sight of the fact that something that is “only” “commonly good”, regardless of the fact that it's common, it still is good!

If I think that an album is good because I made it and I feel like I did a really good job, and someone else thinks it's no good because it's “nothing special” or “run of the mill”, who's “right”?

I realize this opens several cans of worms... the subjectivity inherent in deciding that music is “uncommonly good”... the idea of whether we “should” evaluate the quality of art absolutely in and of itself or relatively in relation to all other art... and who has time to listen to all “merely” good music when there's so much “better” music we still need to hear... but I think that, in music, in comics, in probably all venues of creativity, there is more good quality work being done than we usually recognize. And maybe we are too quick to condemn something for not being arrestingly exceptional or The Best. I dunno...