What do you like most about songs ?

[koalaboy]

After a few of the posts in the plagiarism thread, it got me wondering about how many people tend towards certain aspects of a song. I realise it may vary according to different styles, so take this more as an 'average' towards popular songs.

[yellowfever]

Erm, the music?! I can see a few silly comments on this thread

[YUGA]

emotion.

[nix808]

morishness!

[koalaboy]

I should probably post my own thoughts, which may clarify things.

Some folks were posting how they didn't like a group or a song, because the lyrics were pretentious or didn't make sense. To me, I never pay that much attention to the lyrics - I often know about one line - as it's the melody/harmony that resonates through me.

Some songs have more of a lyrical impact, for example "I will remember you" by Sarah McLachlan, "Angels" by Robbie Williams (Ray Heffernan), etc... but the vast majority of songs I 'like' are down to the sound and the lyrics could be almost anything.

I fully expect most people to say 'the music', but I'm curious if there are people who are more attentive to the lyrics, or perhaps the percussive beat (you know - the drummers out there) than the melodies.

EDIT: I've updated the first post to try and remove some of the ambiguity.

[hibidy]

I like both the percussive and song structure as a first "grab". By song structure I mean types of instruments, placement, mix of chords, etc.

Percussion seems to be my mainstay at the moment.

[jancivil]

a quality pop song is exceedingly rare, and would have to have more than one thing going for it to make me notice it as anything worth three minutes of my life.

I did really like Dweezil Zappa's arrangement of Baby Hit Me One More Time for his and his bro's band Z.
Decent song, but no one brought it to the fore with anything worth noticing before that, and, this is Exceedingly Rare.

People who don't care much about music need lyrics to even hear a tune. I think Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time is 'sold' by the lyric, but guess what, most days I'd rather hear the cover by Miles Davis

[Gamma-UT]

People who don't care much about music need lyrics to even hear a tune. I think Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time is 'sold' by the lyric

Which must be why 'pop' classical compilations (Steinway Legends, The Best Classical Album of the Millennium...Ever!, Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music etc) do so well.

I doubt if most people singing along tearfully at weddings and the like can remember more than the line "time after time". I think you're confusing a lack of relative pitch training or awareness with lack of innate ability to recognise a melody. There has been a fair amount of research into pitch awareness among musicians, skilled and casual listeners that shows differences in how people recognise intervals in melody, but a total lack of pitch awareness is pretty rare (and one of those things that gets documented by people like Oliver Sacks).

My gut feel is that skilled and casual listeners differ most in their perception of harmony much more than melody. But I can't think of research to back that up - even the stuff on melody is quite tricky to do to get reliable answers.

[wrench45us]

once upon a time I played a tenor banjo (I know we all have pasts we're not exactly proud of), which is primarily a chording rhythm instrument -- and 3 and 4 note chords are pretty easy on the tenor setup
as I learned the instrument I learned songs and as I learned songs some worked much better with just their chords than others. a well-crafted song you could get a sense of the melody following the chord progression (even though it may actually be the other way around)

all of which is to say because of this background I like a nice harmonic structure. I like a nice chord progression with a few surprises in a nice flow.

[Gamma-UT]

all of which is to say because of this background I like a nice harmonic structure. I like a nice chord progression with a few surprises in a nice flow.

Can't disagree with that. I'm a sucker for major-minor modulations.

[Vonbrucken]

I don't like songs, at all !

[dark_virus]

The Music (mostly percussive)

[robogone]

I like whatever that individual song conveys to me. I don't know that there's any one thing I like about songs in general.

[jancivil]

People who don't care much about music need lyrics to even hear a tune. I think Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time is 'sold' by the lyric

Which must be why 'pop' classical compilations (Steinway Legends, The Best Classical Album of the Millennium...Ever!, Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music etc) do so well.

I doubt if most people singing along tearfully at weddings and the like can remember more than the line "time after time". I think you're confusing a lack of relative pitch training or awareness with lack of innate ability to recognise a melody. There has been a fair amount of research into pitch awareness among musicians, skilled and casual listeners that shows differences in how people recognise intervals in melody, but a total lack of pitch awareness is pretty rare (and one of those things that gets documented by people like Oliver Sacks).

My gut feel is that skilled and casual listeners differ most in their perception of harmony much more than melody. But I can't think of research to back that up - even the stuff on melody is quite tricky to do to get reliable answers.

I don't know that follows from what I wrote, which is unfortunately colloquial sort of jazz speak.

What I meant - and didn't convey so well - is that non-musicians are not so much interested in the melody if a person isn't singing it.

What's the argument with the rolling eyes? I said Cyndi sells the tune with the lyric. I'm sure there are plenty people who are utterly non plussed with Miles's version, who adore Cyndi and bought all her records.

In terms of 'did well/sold' why don't we look at relative pop vs classical sales, which I'll bet you money supports what I'm saying here.

Beyond that, maybe it is that people who bought the classical arrangement, or the Z cover, can characterize people who care about music more than the people who stick with Britney et al's original?

[Download SOphist]

all of which is to say because of this background I like a nice harmonic structure. I like a nice chord progression with a few surprises in a nice flow.

Can't disagree with that. I'm a sucker for major-minor modulations.

i also like me some Schubert