prog priority

Compositional skill
Everything else


I really don't care what goes on in a prog song. As long as it sounds good, I'm happy.

I'm not going to rank them but composition is first for me.  Either the music moves me or it doesn't.  The other stuff is all a distant second.  And I do have  a special fondness for the strange, for artists who find their own way to say things, and for those who reject the mainstream/commercial aspects of music.  

everyone has composition first and instrumentation less important. So, if you heard that someone wrote an entirely computer-based album - using no identifiable rock samples - using a songwriting technique highly influenced by classical, jazz and prog rock music, would you want to listen to it?

Very Important:
originality
peculiarity
far-out-ness (spaciness?)

Important:
performance skill
compositional skill

Less Important, but could be interesting when added:
heaviness
conceptuality (or lyrical weight)
I would also add three things in this category which were not mentioned, and on the same level:
dissonance, melody, unusual instruments

Not important at all:
song length
GUITAR  KEYBOARDS (same level for both; I don't care at all what instruments are being used)

I don't see how everybody can demand certain instruments.  I think thats apretty close minded view on music.  Obviously the wrong instruments can be picked, but if anything I'd like to hear more instruments I don't hear very often.

laplace wrote: everyone has composition first and instrumentation less important. So, if you heard that someone wrote an entirely computer-based album - using no identifiable rock samples - using a songwriting technique highly influenced by classical, jazz and prog rock music, would you want to listen to it?

Yeah dude! People have already done this! Ever heard of electronica?

Edited by DJPuffyLemon - March 02 2009 at 16:32

laplace wrote: everyone has composition first and instrumentation less important. So, if you heard that someone wrote an entirely computer-based album - using no identifiable rock samples - using a songwriting technique highly influenced by classical, jazz and prog rock music, would you want to listen to it?

Sure.

I've got pretty much the same priority as you.

1. (quite Important):

compositional skill
peculiarity
originality

2. (Not always important):

performance skill
far-out-ness (spaciness?)

3. (Embarrassing lyrics/concepts are a turnoff, but a lot I listen to is instrumental):

conceptuality (or lyrical weight)

4. (Unimportant, overlong and too short is equally bad)

song length

5. (Irrelevant)

GUITAR, KEYBOARDS, heaviness

SONGWRITING
compositional skill
performance skill
conceptuality (or lyrical weight)
far-out-ness (spaciness?)
peculiarity
originality
GUITAR
KEYBOARDS
heaviness
song length


I think you forgot to mention songwriting ... that's what's most important to me. Many people make no distinction between songwriting and compositional skill, but I do ... songwriting is about finding good melodies/tunes, composition is about turning them into well crafted songs (adding instruments, extending/elaborating sections, adding more instruments/orchestration etc.). Together with musicianship (what you call performance skill) that's my holy trinity of objectively judging music. Of course there's always the subjective component too ... sometimes an album has great songwriting, composition and musicianship but you simply don't like it.

The least important is song length ... I don't think that songs improve with duration, it always depends on the song. Some melodies call for elaboration or additional sections with counter-melodies, some don't. It also depends on the concept of the song or album.

EDIT: Moved guitar and keyboard further down ... I thought the entries meant musicianship in those departments and not just the mere presence of the instruments.


Edited by Mr ProgFreak - March 03 2009 at 06:16