On Good Music

I don't know if I should do this or not, but the more I age, the more I accept the "good is relative" definition when it pertains to the arts. What you think is good art I might think is bad art, and vice verse. I don't possess the authority to tell people that the music they like is "good," much less "bad." What makes for good music? Goodness if I know. I can only answer according to my own tastes and interests.

My musical taste spans many genres. Growing up, I went through my Oldies phase and my Country phase where I would only listen to radio stations that played that music. I also grew up always listening to some form of classical music, whether intentionally listening to the radio or unintentionally overhearing my mother or sister practice the piano. I began playing French horn in sixth grade, which further expanded my listening of classical music (orchestral, wind band, chamber music, etc.). Studying classical music, its history and form, encourages even more appreciation and love. When I think of good music, I automatically think of my favorite symphonies (Saint-Saens Organ Symphony) or piano pieces (Liszt's transcription of Widmung). The expert crafting employed by classical composers amazes me and creates in me a reverence for that genre.

But I also listen to pretty much anything: today's hits, country, folk (which I especially love), world, etc. But does simply listening to music and enjoying it make it good music? I must confess that not all the music that I like to listen to is music that I necessarily think is good.Take a Katy Perry or LMFAO song--is it good? I dance to it, I sing it, I love its beat, but is it good? I want to answer "no."

There it is: I like bad music sometimes.What makes it bad? I can only answer such questions with abstraction. Good music must expand my soul in some way. It must draw my mind to a higher plane than the one on which it usually rests. It must remind me of my humanity and human creativity while showing me the grace of God. The grace need not be explicit; the music needn't be "religious." It must show me, like a beautiful sunrise or a newborn baby, that God is working in, among, through, and around us.