objective preference in music
Different people like different things about music and in music. Some like meaningful lyrics, others excitement, others melody, while many or most like a certain balance between every feature. This has little to do with what I wish to write about today. Instead, I wish to write about the relationship between music and associated environmental factors, specifically, music in tv shows and how my opinions of each are related.
Back in the day, I realized that my liking for Friends was heavily influenced by my liking for its theme song. As the show continued and my interest waned, so did my enthusiasm for the song until, at present, I can hardly stand the show, and while I still like the song, my feelings are based mostly on nostalgia and appreciation of its simple melody than really feeling the song.
These days, I don't watch much American tv. I do watch anime. The top three ways I encounter new music is to hear it during an anime episode, on a anime original soundtrack album, or on the radio.
I listen to the radio when driving. This is the only time I listen to the radio. Thus, the environmental factors are all approximately the same for all radio songs. The more I listen to a song, the more I like it, unless I dislike it immediately or discover something about the song I dislike upon repeated listenings. Car radio is not the best environment for analysis, so unless I acquire a song, my feelings toward it are rather shallow. Still, I consider my feelings toward music on the radio to be effectively objective and uninfluenced by external factors.
My reception to music which I first hear during an anime episode is heavily dependent on how I feel about the anime. Or maybe it's the other way around. A great song can elevate a mediocre series to good and a great series can elevate a mediocre song to good. Naturally a great whatever can elevate an okay the-other. The effect only has a limited effect, though. A bad song is a bad song, and a bad series is a bad series, and a sufficiently mediocre whatever can only be raised to watchable even for a great series (Kino no Tabi's OP comes to mind). I feel my opinion of these songs are the least objective as they depend so heavily on my opinion of that specific anime.
When it comes to OST music (which I didn't first hear in a series), my impression is much less dependent on the series it came from. This is perhaps one reason why I like fewer pure OST songs than say, OP/EDs. To my taste, understanding the lyrics greatly increases my possible enjoyment, and while songs sung during an episode will frequently be translated, songs from the soundtrack disc are unlikely to come with a translation. However, while the influence of the series is lessened, there is an added influence from the property. An example is how my opinion of the Ga-Rei manga influences my appreciation of Faylan's If (Isayama Yomi melody) from the Ga-Rei image song album, but my opinion of Chihara Minori's Paradise Lost is mostly just influenced by Ga-Rei Zero (the anime, though of course, my feelings toward the anime are influenced by my feelings toward the manga).
Of course, it doesn't really matter why I like one song or another as far as listening to them myself is concerned. The reason I try to determine some objective quality is so I can properly discuss them with or even recommend songs to others. A subjective sort of objective, but something useful for social interaction.
Back in the day, I realized that my liking for Friends was heavily influenced by my liking for its theme song. As the show continued and my interest waned, so did my enthusiasm for the song until, at present, I can hardly stand the show, and while I still like the song, my feelings are based mostly on nostalgia and appreciation of its simple melody than really feeling the song.
These days, I don't watch much American tv. I do watch anime. The top three ways I encounter new music is to hear it during an anime episode, on a anime original soundtrack album, or on the radio.
I listen to the radio when driving. This is the only time I listen to the radio. Thus, the environmental factors are all approximately the same for all radio songs. The more I listen to a song, the more I like it, unless I dislike it immediately or discover something about the song I dislike upon repeated listenings. Car radio is not the best environment for analysis, so unless I acquire a song, my feelings toward it are rather shallow. Still, I consider my feelings toward music on the radio to be effectively objective and uninfluenced by external factors.
My reception to music which I first hear during an anime episode is heavily dependent on how I feel about the anime. Or maybe it's the other way around. A great song can elevate a mediocre series to good and a great series can elevate a mediocre song to good. Naturally a great whatever can elevate an okay the-other. The effect only has a limited effect, though. A bad song is a bad song, and a bad series is a bad series, and a sufficiently mediocre whatever can only be raised to watchable even for a great series (Kino no Tabi's OP comes to mind). I feel my opinion of these songs are the least objective as they depend so heavily on my opinion of that specific anime.
When it comes to OST music (which I didn't first hear in a series), my impression is much less dependent on the series it came from. This is perhaps one reason why I like fewer pure OST songs than say, OP/EDs. To my taste, understanding the lyrics greatly increases my possible enjoyment, and while songs sung during an episode will frequently be translated, songs from the soundtrack disc are unlikely to come with a translation. However, while the influence of the series is lessened, there is an added influence from the property. An example is how my opinion of the Ga-Rei manga influences my appreciation of Faylan's If (Isayama Yomi melody) from the Ga-Rei image song album, but my opinion of Chihara Minori's Paradise Lost is mostly just influenced by Ga-Rei Zero (the anime, though of course, my feelings toward the anime are influenced by my feelings toward the manga).
Of course, it doesn't really matter why I like one song or another as far as listening to them myself is concerned. The reason I try to determine some objective quality is so I can properly discuss them with or even recommend songs to others. A subjective sort of objective, but something useful for social interaction.