What's the most important aspect of music for you?

[laurifer]

Well I haven't really had a good music discussion with anyone lately and I'm really curious about everyone's music tastes, so I figured I'd ask: please rank the most important aspects of music to you and explain why it's a deciding factor when looking for new music. You don't have to list all of the aspects...maybe just like your top 3 or so. I'm not out to debate which is better, but why you think it's important. I'm a curious person

This is my list (it's pretty short):

1. Vocals - Okay if you've been around me for a while you will know that I am PICKY when it comes to the vocalist. To be, their voice makes or breaks a song. The melody, beat, lyrics, or whatever can be spectacular but if I don't like the voice, then I don't listen to it. I'm not very fond of whiny vocalists or the "scene" music (whatever you'd like to call it). I pick a lot of music this way and it's worked for me.

Melody - I am a sucker for melody. It doesn't matter what genre it is as long as it has a nicely structured melody (with an equally nice harmony to compliment it). I find a lot of complexity in music I listen to, but it's sometimes overlooked by others (mainly cos of the vocalist lol), but I have played musical instruments so I know how hard it is to make it sound nice

Stuff I left out: I don't bother with lyrics, cos I think that if the music's good enough, then the lyrics don't matter. I mean, who cares if they're singing about necrophilia if it's a rocking awesome song, or if it's in a different language? Genre is somewhat important, but not to the point where I'm like "oh they're from [insert country here] their music sucks". I've been down that road before and it has shut me out from finding about some pretty spectacular bands. I love diversity, though

[EveofAbyss]

I am on a very similar path as you, Laurifer. For me, Vocals are number one. They are the deciding factor in me listening to and enjoying a band or not. This is due to (what a surprise!) the fact that I'm a vocalist. Vocals are what I focus on, but I think this goes for anyone who plays an instrument. What they play is what they focus on, so yeah, mine is vocals.

After that is Lyrics, because I listen to a lot of black metal, and black metal can get terribly tedious if everything I listen to is a description of the cold, ancient pagan wastes of elder worlds and sacrificing children to bloody, stone-chiseled deities. (Not that that is what I am listening to, but just an example). I write my lyrics and poetry with a certain degree of skill, imagery and guile, and it can only be assumed that the music I listen to will have lyrics of a similar quality or proclivity. I like lyrics to be well-written, poetic, or fun. In the case of metal, lyrics are not always going to be immediately discernible, so I enjoy reading the lyrics along with the music, and if I find that the lyrics are boring or tedious, I will lose interest in both lyrics and song. That's just how I roll.

And yeah, after that falls atmosphere, performance, structure, all that good stuff. But none of it is as important to me as the aforementioned two.

[risotto]

As I often listen to vocal-less music such as Classical or trance, my opinions will be based on that.

Melody is always first. If the melody is dull and monotonous, even the most beautiful of voices can't make up for lackluster repetition. I look for intricacies in the different sounds and how it supports the song when combined. Its those little beats in the background that provide a foundation for the whole piece.  The core parts have to be strong too and work well with the rest of the background. It just sorta falls apart if the melody and counter melodies don't mend together.

This may be odd, but sound quality is crucial. Nothing kills it like a skipped beat or static in any part of music I'm listening to. It just completely ruins the overall enjoyment of any song I'm listening to.

Vocals are sort of like an add-on to music to me, but already said above if the voice doesn't sound good it brings down everything. 

[reppy]

For me, it just has to come together and "work". I'm not going to pick out one particular sound and say "I like this" or "I like that". If you can blend the sounds in a way that makes my brain go "eee!" then I'm all for it.

Even just trying to pick out a single thing is very hard for me. In some songs it's the lyrics or the voice; in some it's the drums; in others it's the guitar.

Probably one of my favorite songs ever that does an incredible job of mixing all different styles of music is Ayreon's "Loser". It even gets all metal at the end with some crazy vocals by Devin Townsend! \m/

[Washougal_Otaku]

It has to sound like it's more than just noise.

ie - I don't like most rap because a lot of it is computer generated garbage that doesn't use any real instruments.  Even the precussion doesn't sound like a precussion instrument sometimes.

I also need good lyrics.  If I disagree with the message of the song, I don't listen to it, no matter how much the music makes me wanna groove.  To add to the lyrics, I don't like having everey other word being profanity.  Some here & there is okay, (again, depending on how it's used), but too much & it's no longer art.

The voice is key.  If both of those previous two rules are held, but the singer sucks, then I don't like it.  *cough* Carrie Underwood *cough cough*

[superjaz]

this is a tough one, with gackt music i love the mix of violin it has, i love the way he uses his own voice as a seprate instument at times and the contrast it has like slow to fast or fast to a quick drop of classical style music,
lyrics dont matter much, but it they are the closet to poetry that i like, i do like to know what i am lisenting to here is where i ge my gackt translations, its neat to read that is uses kanji to make up his own meaning of words, making his song hard to translate at time,
http://www.senshigakuen.com/translations/lyrics/gackt/
some are so sad and others are really emotional happy or angery

[laurifer]

@ risotto - that's true vocals don't matter as much as melody esp. the electronic stuff doesn't have a vocalist XD

@ reppy - that's also true; different songs have their own quirks :3