Top Ten Ingredients for a Good Song

The Top Ten
1 Good Vocals

Who wants a whiny, brain-melting voice that makes your ears bleed in a song? I certainly don't! Good (or amazing) vocals is one of the things that makes up a good band/artist.

Nothing will turn me off a song more than the singer's voice. If, however, I like the sound of their voice, it can make up for flaws in instrumentation and lyrics.

I'm with PetSounds - I've pressed the stop button many times because vox hurt my ears.

2 Good Lyrics

Catchy, meaningful, clean, and original lyrics are a great feature of a song.

Especially if Paul Simon writes them.

3 Good Music

What's good music? For me it's metal. Does everybody think that metal is good music? - NO.

The problem of the items on this list is that most of them are subjective - 'good' music, vocals, lyrics and so on, are not defined. So basically we learn almost nothing in particular about the ingredients for a good song. Fortunately some people added some relevant items.

Music that finds its way into your heart or reminds you of a nice memory is a good component for any song.

4 Catchy

I hate songs that stick in my head for hours and days. It's totally annoying.
A song that will never get out of my head is a good song? No thanks, it's gonna be terrible.

A song that will never get out of your head!

5 No Explicit Lyrics

I don't get the hate of explicit lyrics. There's a reason why censorship exist! Artist can say whatever they want in a song.

Think about the younger kids! Songs with expletives in are bad influences for a child's vocabulary.

I know right? I had to put up with so many inappropriate lyrics as a kid. They tortured my youth!

6 Good Use of Instruments

Creativity, people! Creativity is always a good thing to have, especially when making music.

7 Originality
8 Meaningful Lyrics

A song with meaningful lyrics are great inspirations for people of all ages.

9 Lack of Autotune

Trust me, Autotune ruined music.

10 A Story Told in the Song

A song with lyrics like that can take you to a magical place and into the story.

The Contenders
11 A Good Rhythm

Nod that head in time to the music!

12 Innovation

I hate music artists whose songs all sound the same. It just reflects on a lack of creativity and it is not at all inspiring.

13 Putting Some Effort Into It

I understand what's the point here but this doesn't guarantee anything.
If the musician is genius, a song can be written for 1 hour and performed after several hours.

Example - How Deep Purple wrote their hit Highway Star?

"This song was born on a tour bus going to Portsmouth in 1971 when a reporter asked the band how they wrote songs. To demonstrate, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore grabbed an acoustic guitar and began playing a riff consisting of a single "G" repeated over and over, while vocalist Ian Gillan improvised lyrics over the top. The song was refined and was performed that same night." (Wiki)

14 Good Song Quality
15 Music that Makes You Want to Dance

A combination of some of the other items on this list!

No, this would mean that only dance music is good.

16 No Overproduction

Don't put too many instruments in the song.

17 Good Beat
18 Positive Message
19 Seriousness
20 No Over-Reliance on Tragic Events

90% of charity singles are not so much about the tunes themselves but what they symbolise. In other words people buy or download a charity single for the cause it represents rather than the quality of the song itself.

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