- A hook in the drums. For example, I seriously can't stop air drumming to this
, it just grabs me.
- A bass guitarist that stands out on his own. Good examples are the bassists from Isis and Muse.
- Build-ups and climaxes that give me goosebumps (see first tracks from Neurosis's latest two albums). Apparently now cliche thanks to Explosions in the Sky, but fuck them.
- Uncommon Time (especially 7/4) and frequently changing time signatures, or a lack of any coherent rhythm
- A strong vocal melody
- Tritones
- Good drumming
- Music that is extreme - extremely complex, or extremely simple, or extremely loud, or extremely quiet
I'll add more if I think of them
- Distorted rapping
- Screaming buried under the instrumentation
- Electronic passages in rock/metal songs
- Kinda danceable groove
- Choruses that contain both rapping and singing
- Gorgeous soundscapes
- Piano or midi intros/outros
- Stringed instruments in trip/hip-hop songs
- Actual guitar solos, not the quickly ascending/descending notes found in metalcore or the slightly different repeating riff found in post-grunge
- Electronica-inspired drumming
It would be a challenge to try to fit all of this into a song, but I don't think it's impossible if it was at least six minutes long.
edited 21st Feb '11 3:26:54 PM by KitsuneInferno
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.- Sudden, unexpected a capella sections
- Saxophone solos
- Flute trills, especially when replicated on a synth (this one's a bit of a guilty pleasure)
- Guitar arpeggios
- Slap bass
- Phased drums
- Backmasked guitar solos
- Female singers who scream
- Beach Boys-style backing vocals
- 3/4 waltz time
- Banjos, lap steel, and other country instrumentation in rock songs
- Ballads sentimental with lots of guitar feedback and distortion
I'm sure there are a bunch more I don't remember. Also, I wonder what a song that included all of these elements would sound like.
edited 21st Feb '11 3:11:30 PM by merton
Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.As far as vocals go:
- Warm baritone voices, especially during softer songs
- Hollow baritones also work well for me, particularly for heavier or groovier music - there's a sort of badass gothic aspect to them
- Powerful, high, even operatic lead vocals (even better with wide vibrato)
- Cherubic Choirs, Ominous Latin Chanting and the like
Instrumentally:
- Contrasts - brutality vs beauty, dissonance vs melody, loud vs soft, just conflict and variation within a song generally
- Long songs with diverse content and climactic endings
- Bigass chorusy parts with wide chords
- Symphonic elements of any kind attacked to another musical genre, be it metal, hip-hop or electronica - I am a lover of theatrical, grandiose sensibilities in music
- Minimalistic instrumental setups - a voice and a guitar, a single piano, etc.
- On the flipside, massive setups such as heavily layered synths and full orchestras
- Melodic piano playing in general
- A guitar solo with a good balance between excited flourishes and genuine expression
- Atmosphere of the tranquil, soothing kind
None of these are prerequisites, of course, just the apparent recurring motifs in my music taste.
Notice that the collective work of Dream Theater has included every single one of these elements at some point or another
(Every single one of this thread's posts sounds like an awesome recipe for a massively long, varied song to me, maybe that ties into point no.2 on my instrumentation list)
edited 21st Feb '11 4:29:10 PM by AsTheAnointed
- Figured bass harpsichord playing.
- When the saxophone soloist throws in an alitssimo note (becase it's something I've never been able to do).
- Funk influenced guitar riffs with a really clean tone.
- "Snappy" drumming (I'm thinking of a kind of Stewart Copeland style).
Less Conventional (?):
- Horn sections that lead the song as much they punctuate it.
- Horn sections consisting of two saxophones and a trombone (my favourite combination, which provides a really big sound - Dexys Midnight Runners had it on their first album).
- Glissandi on a trumpet.
- Flutter tongueing on a flute.
- Harmonically complex, bebop style horn playing.
- Rapping over a ska rhythm.
- Violins/strings. I'm huge suckers for those. Solo strings are quite haunting in particular.
- one-woman wails can really add some powerful emotion to some songs too.
- A mix of electronic sounds and distortion guitars can make some good adrenaline-pumping music
- Key of F# minor or C# minor. Former one sounds so... inspiring, while the latter one sounds downright evil.
- Ominous Latin Chanting + Orchestral Bombing with heavy percussion usually = eargasm for me.
edited 21st Feb '11 4:50:09 PM by MrPoly
- Strong melodies.
- Awesome basslines.
- Mashups.
- Tags at the ends of songs.
- Singers that don't use too much vibrato.
- Great lyrics (don't hear this one too often)
- Skillfull production.
- The B note. I dunno why, but it sounds so peaceful.
edited 21st Feb '11 5:52:00 PM by DonZabu
"Wax on, wax off..." "But Mr. Miyagi, I don't see how this is helping me do Karate..." "Pubic hair is weakness, Daniel-san!"Vocals
- Quiet, soft vocals
- Deeper female voices (when compared to mainstream pop; anything from, say, Natalie Merchant to Tracy Chapman)
- One-Woman Wail, when used well
- Harmonizing
- Backing vocals
- A capella
Instrumentals
- Violin strings!
- melancholic violin strings
- Piano with violin
- Sparsely used accordion
- Classical instrumentation and influences in rock/pop/folk. (I really love the baroque and subgenres)
- "Acoustic sonority". I'm not sure what this actually is, but Pandora says I like it.
- Ethnic-sounding instruments
- Guitar plucking
- Banjo :p
- Beautiful soundscapes
Influences
- Blues in rock and pop
- Folk in rock and pop
- Classical in anything
- Irish/"Celtic"
Lyrical Content
- Mythological and literary references
- Historical references
- Speaking from the point-of-view of a character (rather than from the singer's perspective)
- Lyrics that tell a story
- Melancholic and tragic
edited 21st Feb '11 6:54:33 PM by apassingthought
I'd go with:
- Random spanish guitar
- Atypical rhythmic structures- like Schism by Tool
- Angular, almost mathematical, guitar playing (probably the wrong word to describe it, but the kind of *thing you got on Foals first album)
- Ominous Latin Chanting
- Minimalistic tendancies
edited 21st Feb '11 6:10:09 PM by CottonWolf
In General:
- Fusions of different musical styles and ideas. Particularly Classical influences on Rock and Hip Hop.
- Bach!!!!
- Catchy riffs or motives
- Great instrumentation - much like Rimsky-Korsakov or Copland
- Using instruments in uncommon ways, such as Stravinsky's use of strings as a percussive force in the Rite of Spring
- Fugues
- Electronic sounds in rock. Like in "Somebody Told Me" by the Killers.
- A good pulse or underlying rhythm.
- Good construction - properly placed climaxes.
- Strong voice
- Preferably deeper (this includes women)
- String instruments!
- Guitar solos (but not too over the top)
- A descent bass
- Sequences - not used often enough these days.
- Neopolitan and diminished chords
- Secondary Dominants
- Hemiolas
- Ostinatos
- Retrograde
- Counterpoint
Yeesh, this could take a while.
Vocals:
- Strong vocal harmonies of 3 or more parts. The more close harmonies and suspensions, the better.
- Female vocalists with a 'natural' sounding voice (not killed by over-production), preferably husky and almost whispered.
- Male vocalists who sound vulnerable, fragile, world-weary and haunted. Preferably with falsettos aplenty.
- North-East UK accents (Yorkshire, Tyne & Weir, Northumberland). Closely followed by heavy Scottish accents. In both male and female vocalists.
Guitars:
- Clean electric guitar with heaps of reverb, lingering for as long as possible.
- Big, growling, bass heavy power chords, but only when played slowly and with a sense of foreboding purpose and steady drive (i.e. not CHUGGACHUGGAWUGGA).
- Pairs of harmonised high-fret notes played very fast, again with tons of reverb.
- Acoustic fingerpicking based around chord shapes, i.e. arpeggios, broken chords etc.
- Ludicrous shit with effects pedals that makes the guitar sound like it isn't a guitar. I'm especially fond of whatever effect it is you use to make the sound that's like a diamond on an anvil being smacked with a hammer (not the best description, I know, but I hear it in lots of places and it's awesome).
- DROOOOOONES.
Other instruments:
- Pizzicato strings
- Cellos
- Banjos
- Pianos, but only when used as a support instrument to embellish whatever else is going on in the piece. Not so keen on it as a solo instrument. If used with guitars, the guitars should play the chords and the piano should play something more melodic and full of suspensions.
- I'm a sucker for 'folksy' or 'rustic' woodwind instruments, i.e. flutes, pipes and occasionally oboes (yeah, oboes aren't really folksy or rustic, I know, but they still work with that kind of atmosphere).
- Pitched percussion (esp. glockenspiels, marimbas and tubular bells).
- Electronic chiming noises and shimmers.
Rhythm:
- Uncommon Time, and wildly shifting time signatures in general. 4/4 is boring.
- Hemiola
- Polyrhythms
Lyrics and themes:
- Fictional Concept Albums. I love concept albums that tell a new and original story, preferably one heavy with emotions and characters rather than just a load of crazy awesome things happening.
- Albums dealing with little known bits of history and mythology, or possibly approaching history and mythology from a previously unexplored angle.
- Catharsis, preferably of the tragic variety. I love a song that makes me heart-rendingly miserable.
- Lyrics that talk about events and emotions in a concrete and straight-forward manner, rather than just waffling about a nebulous concept clouded in metaphor. I don't mind metaphors, as long as they're used to describe something, not used as the basis for an entire song.
edited 21st Feb '11 6:33:51 PM by Saeglopur
Listen to Music with Tropers at The Troper Turntable!@apassingthought: I initially thought your post just said "vocals". That would be an awfully general of you.
Also, looking back at my criteria, I've determined that my ideal music would be some sort of collaboration between X-Ray Spex and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones.
Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.- Intelligent use of percussion.
- Good vocalization. If you can't sing, then an instrumental is fine too.
- Orchestral instruments are always a plus. Additional points if you can intelligently work a clarinet into
the
song
. (Chose that particular recording of Hymn to the Fallen because normally the strings carry the countermelody, but in some recordings the clarinets do it instead, and it's absolutely beautiful when it's done correctly.)
- If your lyrics aren't witty, meaningful, or at least effective at their purpose, then your instrumentals had better kick serious ass to cover for it. (Through the Fire and the Flames is an example of this done right: the lyrics may be Ham and Cheese, but the instrumentals are so blazingly effective that you don't really notice.)
- Counterpoint, unusual chord combinations, and motifs: they've been under development for roughly six, seven hundred years. They've stayed relevant because they're musically effective.
- Using synths? Fine, but beware synthesizeritis. A real-life trumpet/brass section can play with all kinds of subtle variations that synths can't do, so if you're synthesizing your brass, there had better been a good stylistic reason for it (*cough* Bad Romance *cough*). The same goes for strings and woodwinds, too.
- Well-written parade marches always attract my attention. The Dambusters and the Colonel Bogey March are particularly good examples. Special note goes to the marches from 1941
and from Chicken Run
, which are flippin' hilarious without a single word being sung. (Yes, I know the video from that second one is How To Train Your Dragon. The music itself is the only good recording of the Chicken Run main theme I could find on Youtube, which is very odd.)
edited 21st Feb '11 7:26:42 PM by SabresEdge
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.- Good use of guitar effects. Distortion, fuzz, delay, chorus, whatever.
- Fret noise (seriously...I like hearing it)
- Complex drum parts
- Catchy riffs
- Prominent use of bass. I dislike when the bass is always buried and never gets a moment to show off.
There may be more, but I can't remember.
no one will notice that I changed this- Detailed or texture-oriented production.
- The idea that Everything Is an Instrument.
- Bizarre effects and treatments.
- Eccentric vocal styles.
- Non-musical or artistic approaches to music.
- Things that disturb or confuse me.
- Obscure literary references in lyrics.
- The prudent application of noise.
- Oddball rhythms (minimal or complex).
- "Unmusical" free improvisation.
- Exploitation of space and dynamics.
- Originality of intent and conception.
- An unconventional approach to tonality.
- Vocal samples
- Slow, driving rhythms
- Conflicts between/fusions of "melodic" tunes and "noisy/unmusical" instrumentation
- Buildups or crescendos spanning an entire piece
- Fast, skilled rapping
- Turntables/scratching
- Undistorted electric guitars
edited 25th Feb '11 11:05:12 AM by Wicked223
You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!- Aggressive metal instrumentation with clean vocals over it
.
- Aggressive metal instrumentation with clean female vocals over it
.
- Aggressive metal instrumentation with clean female vocals over it
- Keyboard solos
(this one is kinda short unfortunately).
- Mat Bruso's voice
- Christian Alvestam's voice
- Ettore Rigotti's voice
- Paul Waggoner
is the only guitarist I ever knew who can do wankery and still sound fucking awesome.
- Epic metal without vocals to get on the way
.
- Melodic hooks with progressions no one ever thought of before
.
- Light and heavy guitars coupled up
.
- Palm-muted sections like this
.
- Bass guitar bleeding out of the main melody
- Songs that grow slowly
until they become a maelstrom of destruction
.
- Boring monotone vocals that somehow blend in perfectly
And others I can't recall right now.
No regret shall pass over the threshold!- Darren Criss. DAT VOICE.
- Accoustic guitars.
- Violins in pop songs. Hell yes.
edited 25th Feb '11 2:13:26 PM by HopelessRomance
We're going to spread this shit like Nutella.

Basically, that thing you get giddy over when it shows up in a song, bringing a smile to your face with its presence or improving your opinion of that performer. Maybe this preference is a requirement for you to enjoy a song?
I'll say more later.
edited 3rd Aug '11 1:24:06 PM by Alucard