so recently I got a message on Instagram from a fan named Jess and she was basically wondering what my process is for listening to, analyzing, and then critiquing music. This kind of thing always comes as a bit of a shock to me because I can't emphasize this enough, I

am truly just some guy that decided to start sharing his opinions online. I have wondered the same exact thing for people like Fantano, but I don't know, it just blows my mind that anybody would care about these specifics for me. I gave Jess

a quick little summary, but it got me thinking more and more about the ways that I consume this art form and that's what we'll be discussing today. This will be a very casual conversation discussing random topics that come to mind within this concept and more than ever before I

need to reiterate this is just how I do things. I'm not trying to force anything on anyone, but these are the mantras and perspectives that I find helpful and feel comfortable with when it comes to listening to music. Everything is different for everybody all of the time.

forever and I'm curious to hear your own methods in the comments below. [Applause] [Music] First and foremost, my gut reaction to a song or album is always going to start with how it makes me feel rather than worrying too much about theory. There are

certainly times where music theory is bound to be used as evidence or front and center for a dialogue about trends or whatever and obviously it's always there regardless of if we're talking about it or not, but here if you watch music related videos on YouTube, I'm sure you know Rick Beato.

He's a very popular creator, and I'm not hating on him when I say this, but he seems to look at things in the complete opposite way that I choose to. Any review that I've seen from him, any reaction to something he's hearing for the first

time, every video explaining why a particular song is good, why new music sucks, and so on and so on. It's this, "So it starts in F major, so it's 2 5 1, which is a minor third down, then I hear a major third down to F, then a

major second up to G, D flat, E flat, F, A flat, B flat. It's just a perfect fourth interval, all those upper extensions and nines, the the sus fours, the sharp elevens, and like honestly, for me, we do not care. Sure, music theory can be very

interesting and worth talking about, but I think constantly hearing songs through this lens comes off as a very robotic way to experience art. If there's a weird time signature on a top 40 track or you want to hyper fixate on the harmonies in a Post Malone song, then sure, be my guest

and go off, but personally, I'd rather talk about emotion and intent with a little bit of context and get back to the exact chord progressions and whatnot later on. Discussing emotion is a perfect segue to one of my absolute favorite phrases that I bring up in some of my videos when an

album, song, movie, or whatever else is described with, "It knows what it is" or "It's good at what it is." The point being made is that this thing is not doing anything revolutionary and unique, but it's working with the same old stuff in such a fantastic way that its quality

outweighs any need for originality. Carly Rae Jepsen's *Emotion* is a dance-pop album released in 2015. You have heard thousands of songs that sound pretty similar to what's on here, but the record still succeeds anyway. When you're able

to find the absolute essence of whatever subgenre and mood you're digging into, this can be just as exciting as hearing something completely unique. Different doesn't always mean good, and familiar doesn't always mean bad. [Music] With that being said, I think the more

you venture out into the musical landscape, the hungrier you'll be for anything going against whatever the norm is at that moment. There is one extremely popular artist that I tend to kind of bash on the channel, and it's just because I'm bored by what they've put

out over the last five years or so. Drake is fine if you try to isolate these albums. I don't think any of them are too bad, but this musician could be doing so much more. He's shown that he can go back and forth between R&B, rap, hip hop,

bangers, and then a wonderful fusion of the two, but then complacency, doing the same old thing without being good at what it is, and I personally lose interest. And it's perfect timing for this because I saw 100 gecs in concert a few nights ago and they were

refreshing and extraordinary. Definitely some of the most fun I've ever had at a show. In a world where Drake is sleepwalking his way to the top of the charts and Grammy nominations, then I hear an album that sounds like this. [Music]

this is what's going to make me enthusiastic and have a better chance of moving me in some way 100 gecs are playful, funny, rebellious, sarcastic, there's some level of irony there and I could go on and on, these are the adjectives and

vibes that come through within their tracks, entire projects, music videos, etc. Context matters, music does not exist in a vacuum, and even if you want to argue that your first reaction and opinions of an artist that you've never listened to are completely pure and not based on

prior knowledge of them, there will always be some kind of bias. Once we accept that we're constantly comparing art that's new to us to what we've already consumed before it, it helps show that context and intent does matter and those things lead to determining authenticity. Ed Sheeran and Chance the

rapper's most recent projects feel less genuine because we know what they're capable of and what they've portrayed themselves as through their music in the past. But that's not me saying that changing your sound is automatically a bad thing. Taylor Swift going from

Fearless to Folklore was a natural progression. You can listen to one Weezer album and it will feel completely different than another. Kanye's entire discography is one big example of this. You just have to judge for yourself and make your own opinion based on whether

or not the music in that context works for you. I love the line off of *The Life of Pablo*, "Now if I this model and she just bleached her apple and I get bleach on my t-shirt I'm a feel like an apple", but it's because *The Life of Pablo* is

This raw, self-indulgent, messy critique of fame and celebrity... Now imagine if you went back 12 years to the college dropout you were listening to this very sincere, conscious look at Kanye's upbringing, and that line was on 'Family Business'. It would be terrible when I...

first heard King Crimson, I think when I was in high school. I really enjoyed it, but things became much more impressive after I learned that this album was made in the 60s with this level of timeless innovation. You could tell me that it was from the future and I'd believe you. I

saw Lil Dicky's 'Save That Money' going viral when it came out, and my initial reaction was that it was a relatively funny, well-executed novelty song. Then I learned that he wants to be taken seriously as a rapper. I heard more of

his music and my opinion of him became pretty negative. I'm firing a lot of different examples at you right now, but I hope that my point came through. I'm more than happy to give every new release a chance, but having opinions on music is not black and white. There are

albums that I did not care for when I first heard them that I love now. There are musicians that I used to be obsessed with that I don't listen to at all anymore. How much you like and appreciate something can depend on a million different factors, and then those

thoughts can change over time with you growing as a person. Remember that thing I said about everything changing for everyone all the time forever? Keep that in mind when somebody shares their opinion. Before I share my most important point, I want to give a more literal, slightly

boring answer to how I listen to music in case anybody's been waiting for that this whole time and I've been babbling and being pretentious equipment wise I have Beyerdynamic DT990s that I love rocket speakers on either side of my desk that are absolutely insane and then

I can't remember the specifics but I got a cheap subwoofer in my car that's better than nothing if I'm ever checking something out for the first time I try to listen using one of those methods because it's much closer to how the

artist actually intended for everybody to hear their music I went a long time as a music lover without having any kind of nice headphones or speakers and I promise you the difference is night and day it's been genuinely life-changing since I upgraded years ago studio grade

stuff is not as expensive as you might think and I highly recommend looking into better gear if you haven't already unless it's a first reaction sort of thing I've listened to any album or song that I'm doing a video on a minimum of like three or four times obviously

projects that I love I've gone back to hundreds of times but if it's a rising artist video or something I make sure to do a few re-listens one just enjoying it at least one time with the lyrics in front of me but as always it depends

and I've talked about this before in my video about Fantano and criticism in general but my most crucial point when it comes to any of this is that you should be able to say why you like or dislike certain music if you're being an

active music listener and you know listening to the music as opposed to somebody just throwing on a Spotify playlist in the background or something tell me your specific reactions to the song this can obviously go back to theory but assuming the average person doesn't have a strong background in that

department try to start by asking yourself questions like this do you like the lyrics what about the lyrics have you heard certain cliches before do they work in this context did the words make you feel a strong emotion did they hurt you did it make you happy what about the

instrumental how does it sound like it was recorded is there depth to it does it sound a little too basic or is it clearly the product of a lot of hard work what do you think about the structure of the song is it boring repetitive or is it special in some way

not that I'm seriously asking myself these questions when I'm listening to something I don't want this to feel like you're doing a book report but I think you know what I mean the more you can discuss things in detail the more you'll

get out of music in general the more you'll demand a high-quality product and so on this whole video might have been unnecessary to many of you but if there's one person out there that's going to open their mind and focus on music a little bit more

that's all I ask thank you for watching that video it's something a little bit different a little bit more casual conversational if you want to support the channel feel free to like comment and subscribe you can follow me on social media at renshaw.hs you can buy

My merch, support my Patreon, and thank you again. I'll see you soon.

How to Listen to Music (...like, really)

Alfo Media

음악 비평에 대한 개인적인 접근 방식

크리에이터는 음악을 듣고 비평하는 과정을 공유하며 개인적인 접근 방식을 강조합니다.

이들은 자신의 방식에 대한 관심에 놀라움을 표하며 기성 비평가들의 관점과 대조적인 모습을 보였습니다.

토론은 규범적인 규칙이 아닌 개인적인 방법에 초점을 맞춘 캐주얼한 방식으로 진행됩니다.

제작자는 자신의 접근 방식이 개인적인 것이며 보편적으로 적용할 수 있는 것이 아님을 거듭 강조합니다.

즉각적인 이론적 분석보다 직감적 반응과 감정적 반응이 우선시됩니다.

크리에이터는 자신의 접근 방식과 릭 비토의 접근 방식을 대조하며 기술적인 디테일보다 감성을 우선시하는 차이점을 강조합니다.

음악 이론의 가치를 인정하면서도 순전히 기술적인 접근 방식은 로봇적이고 매력적이지 않다고 생각합니다.

이들은 감정과 의도에 대해 논의하는 것을 선호하며 자세한 기술적 분석은 나중을 위해 남겨둡니다.

'그것이 무엇인지 알고 있다'는 개념을 도입하여 급진적인 독창성보다 효과적인 실행의 가치를 강조합니다.

칼리 래 젭슨의 *이모션*은 익숙한 요소를 사용했음에도 성공한 앨범의 예로 사용됩니다.

크리에이터는 드레이크를 예로 들어 새로움에 대한 욕구와 익숙함이 어떻게 지루함으로 이어질 수 있는지에 대해 이야기합니다.

100겍은 드레이크와 대조를 이루며 참신하고 혁신적인 접근 방식을 강조합니다.

음악을 평가할 때 맥락의 중요성과 편견의 불가피성에 대해 논의합니다.

에드 시런과 챈스 더 래퍼의 최근 작품이 과거의 기대감으로 인해 진정성이 떨어지는 음악의 예로 사용됩니다.

크리에이터는 음악 스타일을 바꾸는 것이 본질적으로 나쁜 것은 아니라고 강조하며, 성공적으로 사운드를 발전시킨 아티스트의 사례를 소개합니다.

킹 크림슨과 릴 디키는 시간이 지남에 따라 맥락과 의도가 의견에 어떤 영향을 미치는지 설명하는 데 사용됩니다.

제작자는 음악에 대한 의견은 유동적이며 시간이 지남에 따라 바뀔 수 있다고 강조합니다.

음악 감상에 영향을 미치는 다양한 요소와 개인 취향의 진화하는 특성을 강조합니다.

크리에이터가 자신의 청취 설정과 장비에 대해 간략하게 설명합니다.

음악을 좋아하거나 싫어하는 이유를 명확하게 표현하는 것의 중요성이 강조되고 있습니다.

제작자는 가사, 악기, 구조에 초점을 맞춰 능동적인 청취와 비판적 분석을 유도하는 질문을 제안합니다.

음악 감상을 향상시키고 더 높은 품질을 요구하기 위해 자세한 토론을 장려합니다.

제작자는 이 영상을 통해 음악에 더욱 집중할 수 있기를 바란다며 영상을 마무리합니다.