What Makes a Bop
It’s online class once again, and your day goes by normally as you listen to a curated nonstop Spotify playlist while doing a project. The song plays, then the next, then the next. Your creative juices flow through from your head down to your hands as you type away.
The song changes once more, the instruments come on one by one, and suddenly, your flow stops abruptly.
For some reason your hands are no longer typing words on your keyboard; they are now pacing on your desk. 1–2–3–4 as your heart rate goes up and you’re filled with this euphoric and engaging feeling. Without hesitation, you get up and start to dance.
You are hooked on the music!
Download, save, “add to playlist”, Done!
This is a common example of how our love affair with newly discovered songs begins. We hear a track once, and again, and again, then all of a sudden we are playing them on repeat everywhere we go. These tracks then become part of the playlists for our late-night vibes, road trip hypes, and party bangers covering every conceivable corner of our unique human condition.
Now, what is it that makes music beautiful? Or perhaps a better question to start with is, what makes anything beautiful?
A commonality between all beautiful things would be their familiarity. Music that’s considered beautiful tends to not have “rough edges” or off-putting elements that disturb us. Some may even refer to this familiarity as “conventional”. Just like many things in the universe, music follows a pattern. As you may have observed, most commercial songs today follow the standard 4/4 beat that’s not just easy to listen to, but danceable at the same time. On top of all that, a “familiarity” aspect also lies in the listener’s association of the song to their own life memories.
All of this begs the question though; out of the millions of audio tracks out there in the world, what makes THIS specific one stand out to us more than the others? If musical beauty is all about “familiarity”, then wouldn’t it mean that all our tastes are generic and one-sided? How come we are able to appreciate music regardless of genre or even language?
One reason why we unconsciously decide to stop and enjoy a new piece of music is that it reaches beyond our sense of hearing and into the deeper regions of our emotions. It pushes our imaginations to create an experience that is much more stimulating and deeper than the actual music itself. Think about it. What kind of thoughts fills your head when you play your favorite song?
Images of your happy place?
Memories?
Hopes and dreams about the future?
These self-generated mental images are what adds to the “goosebump” feeling of euphoria when you discover a beautiful new track for the first time. More often than not, it occurs as a byproduct fueled by the different melodies and harmonies regardless of whether or not you interpret the artist’s true message. Consider dance music for instance; most house and techno music don’t even have a “message” or lyrics as they are often synth and percussion heavy. Regardless of this though, you can still enjoy the experience of dancing to them. The same is also true for more traditional types of music such as ballads, pop and rock where artists often put emphasis on the “vibe” rather than the danceability.
For artists, making a piece of music stand out from the rest often involves pushing the boundaries of listener “comfort” in a way that isn’t too off-putting. This is why we see composers and producers employ new innovations in the way they perform and mix their sounds. With this creativity still comes the cautiousness and concern for whether or not the general public is ready to receive the “new sound”. Sometimes artistic experimentation becomes a hit, but other times it becomes a flop, and it’s all a matter of how the listeners perceive it in their own unique way.
As many audio enthusiasts are still looking for a definitive answer as to what makes a piece of music a “bop”, words such as melody, harmonics, dynamics, and symphony are often thrown around to describe how well a song is “blended” together similar to how a drink is mixed in just the “right” way. The one agreed-upon notion, however, is that the emotional and experiential value of a song would always be dependent on the person listening, and at the end of the day, it’s all about what the listener attributes to the song.
Our listening tastes may be vastly different, but such variance is what creates the curiosity that fuels creativity and only makes us love music more.
