Most music is rubbish. Most humans are rubbish. But wait.

What is rubbish, exactly? In the shop earlier the background music was playing the old 90s hit by Wet Wet Wet. Don’t bother refreshing your memory - it’s a bland pop ballad that spent 14 weeks (iirc) at the top of the charts. Back when charts existed.
People loved that track and bought it in droves. Partly due to being featured in a similarly insipid and also wildly popular movie.
Why did people love something that has so little - if you want to put it this way - artistic merit?
Well, let’s start by saying that if they did love the song (and the movie) and you don’t, then that is your problem, not theirs. (Also my problem as I have no passion for either.)

So what’s going in here? Why do people love mundane, safe, dull music? For the same reason people love living bland, safe, dull lives. It’s comforting, more than that, it’s a luxury.
There are some downsides, such as increased risk of depression and anxiety. But especially for the boomer generation whose parents survived having bombs dropped on them (yes England was a war zone not so long ago and we’re talking about English Culture here) - the idea of boring comfort has a justifiable appeal.
So, you dear reader who likes to be challenged in your tastes, have an uncommon lust for the different, the edgy, the obscure.
The subtle dissonance of a seventh interval. The sudden punctuation of a 909 kick. The unfamiliarity of a wash of noise interference. Nothing safe. Nothing guaranteed. Nothing reassured.
Live coding is one example of this.

So that’s that then. What about rubbish humans? Well, that’s a story for another time…
For now we can say that humans are typically rubbish in one of two different ways: in aggregate; and in negligence. My thesis is that the latter derives from the former, however - as stated - that is a topic for another occasion and quite possibly another blog entirely.

another metric

So far we’ve explored evaluating music on this axis:

dross <———————-> edgy

Are there other ways to look at the sonic arts?
But first, we’ve seen in this blog post that hierarchies are to be avoided, abandoned in fact. Should we ’evaluating’ audio creativity at all?
Well, an artist might want to appraise their own work for the sake of development.

Recently I listened to a podcast interview with Fred P who talked about intention. He was saying that if you want to get ahead, come with the right intentions. That will gain you the most ’traction’.
So maybe we can evaluate our creative output on this axis:

good <——intentions——> bad

For example: if you’re just trying to make money (good luck with that!) then your music is going to struggle more to find an audience.
Whereas if you are creating out of joy and the desire to move people emotionally, give them an experience, then you will likely get much more attention.

Another way I look at this is - if you want to make great music, focus on the spirit you have in that moment. When performing or writing, do you feel excitement, an energy, a passion, some kind of feeling you are channeling? For me this is the most important factor in creativity. The technical skills, practice and equipment are all much lower in importance compared to this.
I think that’s why drug taking is often associated with ‘rock n roll’ and being in the studio. The altered state clears the way for feeling to be the focus, perhaps.
Not that you should ever bother taking drugs imo. They only really cause confusion, which can be pleasant, but mostly not. You could try meditation though, or dance, or getting inspired by nature, or going to events and soaking up other creative expressions.

additionally:

I forget what else I was going to say…

Anyway, a lot of things are rubbish. But if we can channel our spirit we might, just might do some really cool stuff and have a great time.

á bientôt

 updated on: 1 / 2 / 2025