And Then There Are the Larger Issues
I think I understand your point. I agree with it from the perspective you described. I’m commenting because there are some other perspectives you may not be aware of that really complicate this issue. One of them, philosophy, also agrees partly with you. Two others, however, both based on psychology, don’t disagree as much as they seriously “muddy” the waters.
What complicates this issue right away is being more precise about what society means by “music”. I think what you mean by “music” is the physical sensation you get when you listen to it. But in society, that is only one small part of music. Music also includes many other characteristics: lyrics, volume, tonal purity, rhythmic constancy, historical context, social context and many more. So making a judgment about music, in those cases, brings in other factors.
Starting with the philosophy viewpoint, the words “good” and “bad” are related to morals or structures.
On moral grounds, if music to you is a physical sensation, then morality is not brought into the picture. Common phrases in philosophy related to this are, “Of beauty, there is no judge” and “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”. But if the other characteristics are considered, then many of them do tread on moral grounds. I’m sure you can see that easily with lyrics and profanity.
Structural grounds means things like fitting in with historical time periods. So Mozart and Bach wrote by “formula” for their times. If an orchestra advertizes a Mozart festival and includes a composition that is not Mozart, as long as it fits the time period “style”, it can be good. If it claims to be similar to Mozart but doesn’t conform to the style, it’s bad. It’s like bringing a set of drums to a Blue Grass concert or playing a “lullaby” with bagpipes. Someone’s going to be upset.
From a psychology standpoint, things get even more complicated.
Personal security has always led humans to form strong group bonds. Security in modern times has been further stirred up by modern complexity. One of the identity symbols of groups has always been art, including music. To create the artistic identity, opinion leaders in the group tell the others what the group “should” like or “shouldn’t” like. They do this by labeling things good or bad. The labeling covers ALL the characteristics of music. So, if you hear someone at school calling a “song” bad, or hating a type of music, like country, odds are there are deeper reasons than the pure physical sensation they get from it. And since our middle brains learn what emotions to send to our conscious brains along with physical perceptions, people can be trained, by social pressure, to be emotionally moved by so many characteristics of music. If you see someone have a strong emotional response to music, look for these other reasons.
The second psychological issue is related directly to psychic injury or healing. Human society is very harsh on many people. Abuse during life can come in many ways. Peace and healing also come in many ways. If music is present during either of these cases, the brain will associate “feelings” with something related to the music. Later on, similar music or sound can truly cause similar feeling to reoccur (PTSD). For example, I would play light classical music (Dvorak’s New World Symphony) while I rocked my daughter to sleep before she was 3 years old. She’s grown now and says classical music calms her. It’s “good”. For me, loud music is “bad”! For a friend, who plays VERY LOUD hard rock, loud music is “good”.
So, keep an open mind if you’re trying to explain why people seem so inconsistent about this.
