Why does some music work and other music doesn't?

[Donnadogsoth]

We live in a time when standards of beauty, truth, and goodness have been erased, leaving only arbitrary multiplicities.  My question is, why does some music appear to "work" and other music doesn't?  Why, in a standardsless age, do we not like everything?  What "hidden standards" are there that make one song a hit and other a flop?

[jpahmad]

This quote is a good place to start:

 

"The dominant theories of elite art and criticism in the twentieth century grew out of a militant denial of human nature.  One legacy ugly, baffling, and insulting art.  The other is pretentious and unintelligible scholarship."

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                               -Steven Pinker, THE BLANK SLATE, p. 416

[shirgall]

Here's a start at the indefinable something that appeals to the listener.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_(music)

[dayna j.]

I'm a little confused by the question.  What do you mean by standard and/or standardless?  How do you know that this is a "standardless" age, and would would it mean if it were not? 

 

When has there ever been a universal aesthetic standard for art, and doesn't the fact that art and music fall under the category of aesthetic preferences--which are inherently subjective--preclude universality?

[regevdl]

This is an interesting question and I have often wondered myself.  I am sorry I don't have any theories to help you as to 'why' and forgive me for adding another element to your question to be answered or explained but even some popular artists who succeed in the U.S. have different songs that succeed in other countries.  Like Michael Jackson is undeniably huge all over the world...or was in his prime.  Yet the songs that were his most success in the U.S. were not necessarily that huge in other countries.  Some of his lesser known songs were widely known worldwide.  And not just in each particular countyry but almost collectively around the world EXCEPT the U.S. if that makes sense.  

 

Or songs/artists that aren't huge or popular by conventional or main stream standards are often widely loved abroad.  I'm find myself embarrassed when I am overseas and people are singing American English songs that I may have never heard of or don't know the lyrics to and they know them all by heart.  Maybe this is my individual defciency.  lol

[NotDarkYet]

The very fact that a song can "work" is testament to the fact that beauty exists, and is undeniable.

[Donnadogsoth]

I'm a little confused by the question.  What do you mean by standard and/or standardless?  How do you know that this is a "standardless" age, and would would it mean if it were not? 

 

When has there ever been a universal aesthetic standard for art, and doesn't the fact that art and music fall under the category of aesthetic preferences--which are inherently subjective--preclude universality?

 

All my life I've heard that "everything is relative" and "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" et cetera.  In previous ages there was at least an attempt at holding beauty to a universal standard, even if individuals disagreed about individual works.  Now we have appeared to have thrown in the towel and said, "Oh, to hell with beauty, just do your own thing."

[Donnadogsoth]

A thought:  all published music, all successful music, conveys confidence.  Whatever genre of music a musician plays, he or she is always trying to portray confidence in the song, the instrumentals, the lyrics.  Often this confidence associates itself with wisdom:  "I know something important about love/loss/life so listen up."