I had a big disagreement on what makes music good with my ex the other day. she listens to idm-ish dance music, and stuff where the beat is really weak... my skin was crawling riding in her car while she was playing 2 step with perhaps the lightest beat ever... badly compressed, no thud, nuthin. anyway, we were discussing what we thought made music good. in my opinion, the rhythm has to be tight and it has to convey a sense of motion - if the drums are locked, well for me the rest is just window dressing. the most brilliant piece of music, for me, is something that takes a few elements and blends them together so perfectly that even if the actual musical figures are dirt simple, it just sounds GOOD, like a well oiled machine. I mostly listen to funk and soul when I'm listening to pre-machine music, and I brought that up as an example... The Payback to take one notable track I figured she'd know. the thing repeats itself over and over for 7 and a half minutes or something, only occasionally doing anything different - but the groove is so good it could go on forever and I'd be happy. anyway, that doesn't do anything for her. for her, there need to be a ton of different elements, a bunch of programming, some neat synthesizer trick, etc. if it's been done before it's boring. I really don't think so. a group like Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, they're doing something that's been done to death - but they nail it exactly, and it's great. is there anything inherently wrong with that because it's not innovative? if something sounds good and is innovative as well, I always dig that - but it needs to sound good first, innovative second, IMO. music that is purely innovative is sometimes quite interesting, but it's often more suited to analyzing and deconstructing than enjoying on a visceral level, I find. often, groups that try too hard to be innovative sacrifice the quality of the musical experience for the listener, other than those who appreciate music on a purely intellectual level. the really great innovation comes naturally as an extension of your ideas. if one stumbles upon something cool, I think "woah! that sounds neat, let's do that!" is better than "we're going to impress everyone with how clever we are"