What makes music sound good?

[Reign of Praine]

As humans, we all have certain rules that we can apply to music and analyze what sounds good and what doesn't sound good. I was wondering who's to say what makes music sound "good", because if you borrow chords from other modes and scales, in an "unconventional" way people might not think it sounds good. What are wrong notes? Do wrong notes even exist?

What I'm trying to ask is, can't anything work in music? If not, what doesn't work? What is it that makes music pleasing to the ear?

[jade_bodhi]

Originally Posted by Reign of Praine

What is it that makes music pleasing to the ear?

The groove.

You ask such a universal question that will likely be answered with idiosyncratic responses. But it seems to me the groove is the universal appeal.

[jessmanca]

rhythmic melodic or harmonic motion that you the listener can relate to or appreciate as art.

Oh you wanted a more profound and telling answer? Sorry I'm not qualified to give one

Make music that pleases you. Chances are there are plenty of like-minded individuals out there, people who like the same kinds of music you do. If you make something completely new, there are still plenty of music scholars out there looking for just that.

[Ken Valentino]

Do you want to listen to it? If the answer is yes, then for you it may be music.

As far as wrong notes. That implies that sounds even have to be notes before they are called music. For some people I'm sure that's the case.

As far as pleasing to the ear, I know what I like. I'm just amazed other people sometimes like it too.

If it helps, I believe that wrong notes do not exist. Many a thing can be learned from working with troblesome notes and finding how to get them to work. Just don't get a big head and think any note will sound good any way, any time. Notes are just one part of the recipe anyways.

[JonR]

In music (as in any art) what is "wrong" is what we don't want or expect to hear.
That varies from genre to genre. But expectation and familiarity are still fundamental. Whatever kind of music we choose to listen to, we might like to be surprised (by a fresh interpretation) but we don't want to be shocked (by something inappropriate).

Eg, if we go to a chamber music concert, we don't want to hear a distorted Les Paul at 110 dB. That would be "wrong".
OTOH, if we go to a death metal gig, and 4 dudes come on with violins (and NO AMPS!! ), we're not going to be too happy either.

And at either kind of gig, we expect the performers to play the music correctly. We don't expect much improvisation. For a string quartet, we expect interpretation and expression from the performers, but we don't expect them to change the notes - if they played a G# where an F# was written, that would be "wrong" even if it still worked harmonically.
At a rock gig, we also don't expect too much improvisation. Even in the guitar solo, we might like to hear the same solo they played on the CD.

At a jazz gig, it's a little different. A jazz audience would be annoyed if a soloist DIDN'T improvise. If they played the same solos as last time, that would be "wrong" - however good they were.

But in all cases, expectation is paramount. The musicians have to play - by and large - what the audience expects. Of course, a little freshness of interpretation is fine, even in the least improvised music. But even in improvised music, the kind of improvisation matters. (Even in jazz, there are sub-genres, where a right thing in one style would be wrong in another.)

Even in the most avant-garde free jazz gig, where the performers can make any kind of noise they like, expectation plays a part. Eg, to would be "wrong" to play anything formal, like a Dixieland tune... (except it could work as a gag...)

So to play "good music" means to understand and apply the "common practices" of whatever genre you're aiming at, and to have the skill to deliver the notes correctly. (In that sense, a "wrong note" is one you didn't mean to play - although if you were lucky it might turn out right. This can happen in jazz, and good jazz players are adept at turning mistakes into neat phrases.)

But lastly, remember Duke Ellington's famous quote:
"There's only two kinds of music: good, and bad. I like both kinds."

[lucysmusicbox]

tHE GROOVE AND THE BASS ALSO THE LOOP.

[Blutwulf]

Cultural indocrination determines what you like or not. Even the foreign-cultural arts you like have analogues within your own culture, and when you're exposed to them, some you like and some you don't. Deviance from your cultural norm is deemed "bad art" if it is too far removed, and "good art" if it satisfactorily emulates one or synthesizes two or more elements with which you're already indocrinated.

It takes years and years to appreciably divorce your tastes from the ones hammered into you as a youth. I know we all like to "be different," but the reality is that those who are different generally adhere to the standardized and accepted tenets of nonconformity.

[Blutwulf]

Oh, I didn't really answer the question.

For most of the Western world, Jessamanca's first line covers the bases. Commonly, those rhythmic and melodic lines have norms, such as regularity and adherence to a key center. A brutally short summation of American musical tastes is: "If you can't dance easy to it, it better be pretty enough to whistle."

[rockthebox]

There is that certain soul to it, that hits you and you can't help but like it.