In a post in the FSX forum I said that good art is whatever good artists say is good art, and that good music is whatever good musicians say is good music.

alexm responded by saying ...

No way, no how! I mean this in a friendly way... but you've crossed way over a line with me with that statement! Music and art are so incredibly subjective, I don't see any way to defend that, although I will respect that many will attest to its veracity. Even good musicians/artists will disagree on what is "good." Music happens to be my area of expertise, btw.

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alexm,

I was paraphrasing what I really meant in order to make my point to Herk. What I really mean is ...

Art is whatever good artists say is art. Music is whatever good musicians say is music.

Now ... I disagree that the terms "good art" and "good music" are 100% subjective. They are largely subjective but far from 100% subjective.

Before moving on to the subject of music, I will say that I'm not an artist in the normal sense because I lack the mechanical skills. I can't even draw stick figures. Even if I had the technical skills, I don't have the mind's eye ability to hold a vision in front of me as a layer superimposed over reality so I could paint the vision.

But I know good art when I see it, just as I know good music when I hear it.

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I'm a former musician and a former producer of cover music for computer bands. If you scrounge around in my blog here you'll find relevant threads. However, I can only talk about oldies.

This is because I basically stopped listening about 1985 or so when the record companies began hyping the likes of Rick Astley, and when early hip-hop and rap, both of which I love, began their descent into the degenerate filth of gangsta music.

My professional experience taught me that there is a difference between "good" and

"like", and between "bad" and "dislike". So as I wrote elsewhere in my blog, there is plenty of bad music that I love (like "Shotgun"), and plenty of good music that I hate (like "Every Breath").

Yet in the end all music is, at some level, good. It all has some kind of redeeming quality. If it didn't, it would be cacaphony and not music. So even though I detest "Walkin' On Sunshine", which is dreadful music, there is a level at which it's not dreadful. It's the arrangement that was dreadful, and the recording was badly produced on top of it all. I could do a slow light jazz arrangement of this song that would be okay. Not great, but okay, and certainly much better than what hit the airwaves.

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Anyway, I'll turn the floor over to you now, and then we'll talk, yes?