What do you Value in Music?

[Kain]

With anything metal related, it really comes down to how much atmosphere or energy (or both) that particular band offers, depending on the style of metal.

Lyrics aren't nearly as important to me as the strength of the songwriting.

To put it in perspective: I can listen to roughly 43 minutes of this, because it never once gets truly boring for me:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mBt0sOjXDc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mBt0sOjXDc</a>

[armandtanzarian]

Its the atmosphere for me, a song is like a painting, it tells a story or a moment in time, a photograph with many layers. I create music myself, and being mostly instrumental, I use riffs and tones like an impressionist painter uses a brush; individual notes or instruments mean very little, but taken as a collective whole, the song paints a whole picture.

That impressionist, sparse brushwork also allows room for the listener to impose their own feelings on it. Post-rock, which is the music I use, affords that spacious feel for enough of my original emotion to craft the song, but each individual person hears something slightly different. And it is this emotional collaboration that feeds the music I make and the music I listen to.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efmphl8le70" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efmphl8le70</a>

[Hades]

If it clicks with me, I'll listen to it. My tastes have broadened so much over the last 6 years or so that I have no way to pinpoint exactly what I like anymore, even though I do have some areas that are much more represented than others.

[Lt. Fred]

There's almost no good classical music written outside the period 1806-1950 (Shostakovich makes up most of it). For that reason, it is relatively rarely played compared to classical period, baroque period and modern period 'music'. The music world's inability to recognise the difference between good stuff and shit stuff is a real tragedy, and a pain in the arse when you're the idiot who has to sing it.

Pop music can be really great, actually. Even metal can be fun, as a purely athletic achievement. In my opinion, Freddie Mercury was the Liszt of our period. Some Queen is very close to being legitimate art.

Edit to add: Dubstep is hilarious.

[Auggziliary]

I love listening to different instruments. Sometimes I listen to the music from the old Spyro games(the first 2 games) just because of the instruments. Plus there's nostalgia in it for me.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxIxcYMykrw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxIxcYMykrw</a>

I also like rap. I just love how chill it is without being slow.

[That Guy]

Y'know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I appreciate straightforward, honest music the most.  This is probably why I like punk/hardcore/pop punk (as in the DIY kind...mostly *shifty eyes*) so much and why I listen to black and thrash metal more than the other gazillion metal subgenres.

[Feral Dog]

I like some of everything, but have a strong preference for stringed instruments or electronic music. I also like very emotional music (but only if it's done well- a lot of the time it comes across as Narm). ex: I don't like most of Katy Perry's stuff, but I do like her E.T. song. I also prefer classic country to the newer musicians- they didn't sing "I love God because he gave me this family, in America" version 97245 or "Attempt to sound like pop" version 7367.

My current top four musicians, disincluding those who are based on some fandom or other:
Voltaire
Globus
Laki Mera
Lonely Island

I still have a soft place in my heart for Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and all those other cheesy late 90's/early 00's singers, despite not really liking anything similar that's come out recently (what can I say? they came out when I was in elementary and middle school. Happy nostalgic memories all around).

[Lt. Fred]

I really, really like Phil Ochs. I've just discovered him. He's like Bob Dylan except he can sing and his lyrics make sense.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tDxVRw6yec" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tDxVRw6yec</a>

[ThunderWulf]

There a lot of things I look for in music:

-Atmosphere/mood
-Good chords/scales/riffs/etc.
-Consistent singer
-Energy
-Cohesiveness (how well all the elements of a song blend together)
-How memorable it is

I know there are more, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head right now.