Going beyond value judgment
Music is both an art and an entertainment. It is never, in itself, pompous. Yet we hear numerous value judgments related to music. One part of music is said highbrow and another lowbrow. That is how, from pop to electronic dance music, popular music may said to be music for the untrained listener and, more generally, for the masses, by a proportion of trained music listeners and musicians. In contrast, classical music, for example the opera, would be for the elite. These are frozen cultural stereotypes that forget for instance that, several hundreds of years ago, the opera was providing the top 50 like pop music does today.
But that is not all and in the field of popular music itself, segregation also exists: music written by Aphex Twin may be said to be a must, while songs by David Guetta may be disregarded. We do not endorse that kind of judgment, however we must notice that they are legion. Do they mean something in themselves? Musically speaking, they are formulated out of context. So, no, such verdicts have no musical value. Some evaluations may look relevant, but they are not. For example, songs performed by popular artists may be said to be bad, because they are written by composers who are not the singers. It does not make sense: all classical music is performed by musicians who, most of the time, are not the composers of the songs they perform.
Or music may be underrated because it is produced by a corporation: per se, it does not mean anything and music corporations, as all indie studios, may produce good products and bad ones. Also, listeners who enjoy pieces of music produced by big companies may enjoy titles written by independent artists who directly enter in contact with their audiences. That process is now possible due to the development of the internet. Of course, it is a reality that branding on the internet is very active and that music listeners must be attentive to that fact, however, popularity is not systematically synonymous with mediocrity.
Practicing critical music listening
When music listeners say that some sounds appeal more to their ears than other sounds, it is very different: musically trained or not, these listeners value their personal tastes while leaving others the right to prefer something else. They practice critical thinking in the framework of music listening. Not trying to enforce their personal taste, they avoid annoying conflicts with other listeners and they save time to listen to the music they like. After all, what is the most important? Isn’t it to enjoy music? Explaining why they love certain styles of music, listeners share their opinions and that is good: all discussion around music that has the aim of spreading music is very positive. They may also share what they think and feel when they are listening to music: done with respect, it is very nice.