Does bad music exist?

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I was recently having a bit of a debate with my flatmate.

Does bad music exist or not?
I can't see that it does.
Maybe it's just me, as it's my nature to be insipid and flex to other people's stances.........
I was wondering what other people may think.

My argument was that everyone has tastes and preferences-
In the 'intellectual' world, music is appreciated which holds meaning, is influential, is mature, is sung or performed well, etc etc.
This would class anything which does not conform to these premises as 'bad' music.

I maintained that these are just a set of values, and that anything which conforms to them is merely matching a set of criteria which we deem as 'good.'
He said that he could see my point, and that there are certainly different sets of criteria which different people value, but this set of criteria was what made music 'good'.

Obviously I argued back that this was just his opinion, and even if it was more widespread, or a social trend in musical appreciation, this doesn't make it objective.
My bottom line was that a piece of music, or a piece of sound cannot be seen as better or worse than another piece of sound, and his list of criteria is just extending the issue.
Sets of preferences cannot be judged over one another.

But then I know how I am, and this is just another example of the vagueness in my personality, which seems to creep into most areas of my life. I don't believe in objectiveness in general, in taste, in morals, in any form of absolute.....
Which is why I am interested to see what people think.
I hate Andrew Lloyd-Webber.
It would make my day if I could objectively prove how crap he is.

pq xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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what does 'bad' mean?

we can only evaluate things on the basis of comparisons, and we set subjective standards for those. if everything was relative, there would be no good or bad anything, there would be no right and wrong, and there would be no moral and immoral. i wouldn't want to live in a world like that.

so yes, i think bad music does exist, and it is subjective.
(i know i can certainly produce some godawful music if i tried)

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I guess bad music is music that is performed badly. Like me on a piano. I can't play the piano so my music would be bad. Very Happy

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If you ever heard me sing, you would never question that. Believe me bad music does exist.

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I have a definitional problem with terming music bad, on two fronts

a) It's a completely personal distinction and cannot be reliably transferred from person to person - or even from the same person in different contexts and times.

b) Bad is the wrong word. I much prefer 'Music I don't like' 'Music that annoys and nauseates me', and 'derivative trash'.

And the silly thing is sometimes I like listening to 'bad' music. Honey by Bobby Goldsboro is appallingly gormless sacharrin sweet confection. Makes laugh every time I hear it - fantastic.