What is music? sound, combinations of sounds that people find pleasing to their ears, so music is inherently subjective, what does this say about its popularity? and the relative popularity of different genres, how does music affect the brain, how does the study of music affect the brain? music is not only combinations of sounds, it has an analytical aspect, a mathematical precision at least in Western music, it can be studied as history or language, but not as math, math is never subjective, yet numbers can be a universal language, but not as much as music, music and love seem to be the only truly universal languages, why is that? and why do we love music? what is it about certain combinations of sounds that draws us in? love of music is truly individual, subjective, yet people try to have a consensus, what is good music, what is bad music, how can we judge? the analytical element is what we use to judge whether music is good or bad, but that neglects the sensory aspect, the positive emotional pull music can have on one person while another person is not affected at all and a third is affected negatively, this is ignored when we judge a music solely on its intellectual merit, its value as a work of art, but isn't all music art? and isn't it all equal in the mind of a baby? or is it? will we ever know? one movement is my favorite, yet of the other five people in the ensemble with me four of them say that same movement is their least favorite, how is that? because there are more of them who dislike it, is that movement of less musical merit, is it less a work of art than the other movements? when we sight read the piece, they put aside more time for the other movements than for this movement, they leave it to the end when we're the most tired, is this fair?
