What Makes a Song Good?

What makes a song enlightening or uplifting? What makes music "good or appropriate"? Especially between a division between secular and spiritual music? For worship?

These are questions I've muddled over and over in my head for a lifetime. 

Music has always had a hold on me. It's always been a help to me. Truly I think I often undersell how much I use music for emotional processing, intellectual development, contemplation, connection, and yes worship. 

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I remember sitting in a youth meeting. The conversation was about music. It was an attempt to define what was good, better, and best in music. And was bad music. It wasn't an artistic or technical critique. It was a moral one. 

The discussion started about lyrical content. I think that was a natural progression. Curse words are bad. Sensual or sexual lyrics are bad. That the was the top of the docket for conversation. I get the reasoning behind it. Don't agree with it as much as I did as a teenager. But I get the reasons. I personally have a differing view I'll talk more about later. But things got interesting. What was talked about next. 

It was about key. The idea that minor keys inspired more negative emotions than major keys. I kid you not. Happy music is better than "sad music". 

Then it was about purpose was it for worship or not. There was a slant that secular music was inferior to sacred music. Just inherently.. 

The discussion left me wanting. I felt conflicted from the beginning of it and walked away struggling. 

I thought about the music in church services. The sacrament meetings and firesides I attended. The idea that an organ and a congregation or piano and soloist is the ultimate in musical expression always baffled me. For years there was limits on not only song content but acceptable instrumentation.

The discussion seemed to double down on that. 

A lot of leadership shared how nothing brought them closer to the spirit than hearing the congregation sing on Sunday, or listening to the tabernacle choir. And I felt on the outside. So often. 

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There is an idea (theory) that the best art is that which is most palatable or appreciated by the widest audience. I think we apply it to music in churches quite often. The problem is for many of us on the outside we feel like we just can't connect. 

For me I've never felt spiritually uplifted or moved by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I just haven't. Choral music for me has always been academic. I spent most of my youth and some of my collegiate years in choirs. I have fond memories of some. Not of others. But it was a high stakes environment. It was work. Like the rest of school.

And the moments that did hit. Those flickers in choral settings. They weren’t from the kind of music I could have heard in sacrament. Gospel music, Latin masses, traditional folk songs, jazz. That made me wonder if something was wrong with me. 

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As a child music was usually fun and happy. And as I grew, and listened to advice from those I trusted. The idea that “good” music was uplifting became important. At the meeting I spoke about above and later there was this emphasis that joyful music was inherently more uplifting. Better on the good better best paradigm. That even in classical music, happy sounding music was somehow better than “moody” music. 

That never sat well in this human. 

So many of the peppier songs I knew about at that time were about sex. About partying. And were devoid of depth. 

Darker songs spoke to deeper subjects. Moody classical released more catharsis. Jazz and math rock in minor keys pulled me in for contemplation and quieted my mind most. 

That hasn’t changed. At all.

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I want music that inspires action or change within me. I want music that speaks to me. And we all know that like all art, connection is subjective. Accomplishment of artistic purpose is not universal. I mean my love of alternative and Emo music with an special focus on the wonder of pop punk doesn’t resonate with everyone.

Why would worship be any different.

For some simple four part harmony (with mostly unison) of piano or accompanied hymns, bring them closest. For others it’s a choir either stoic or raucous. Or a worship band.

I’m somewhere in the middle. Small ensembles of varying varieties. Earnest. That’s what speaks to me most. With wrought lyrics. Either traditional or modern. 

I’ve rarely felt truly connected in large congregational settings of any sort through music. But in quieter moments, small settings. It’s hit harder.

Singing and contemplating and playing songs and hymns. Alone and in small groups. Where it’s the raw feelings and emotions of the heart. A true prayer in song. Sometimes there’s lyrics. Sometimes there’s none. Sometimes the lyrics are sacred. Sometimes they’re not. But it’s what resonates. To me.

Songs can be prayers and meditations. Those thoughts, emotions, impressions, and scramblings that spoken words cannot fully express. The emotions that written words hint at. The get given a voice and medium that enhances them. For me; gives them their full appreciation. 

A playlist, an album, my own voice or fingers on an instrument. An attempt to transcribe a moment on staff paper. Those hit for me.

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The more I think about it: the more I realize: there’s no perfect music. Best music. It’s all your music. Either as the audience or artist. The thing that resonates is what matters. And I need that. You need that. We all do.