SusoSight SusoSight

People have their own musical tastes and the enjoyment of music is no doubt an emotional response rather than something that can be easily quantified, but beyond that there are many factors that can influence someone's enjoyment of music. The formula for enjoying music is not as simple as how well the performer plays the song. This article attempts to document those factors.

Composition

• Major/Minor key
• Tempo
• Experience of composer
• Lyrical meaning (if there are lyrics)
• Genre agreement with listener (Such as when someone says "I hate rap music")

Performance

• Produced by human or computer (Does the listener know?)
• Experience of performer
• Age of performer
• Mood of performer
• Accuracy of performance
• Solo or ensemble

Acoustic instrument

• Quality of materials used
• Quality of construction
• Age of instrument
• History of instrument

Digital instrument

• Maximum Polyphony
• Sample rate
• Quality of instrument sample
• Quality of design

Recording Quality

• Analog or digital production chain
• Analog or digital playback
• Quality of cables used
• Recording storage format used
• Sample rate
• Bit rate
• Speaker quality

Personal Experiences

• Listener knows the performer
• Listener is related to the performer
• Listener has played the song before
• Listener wrote the music
• Mood of listener
• Cultural background of listener - A devout christian may not like all forms of rock n roll, a racist person may not like rap music. But this concept goes beyond this. I once took an ethnomusicology class in which the professor taught us that some cultures have different ideas about the purity of sound quality. For instance, in parts of Africa, their ears are more accustomed to instruments having a more noisy tone in them due to objects like metal bottle caps or similar on the instrument rattling when they are played.
• Education of listener
• Personal connection with specific song
• Relation to event (Such as during a ceremony or after a tragedy)
• Listener likes the lyrics