Music Criticism (Innovation)

= Music Criticism (Innovation) =

In recent years, not only in music but in art in general, it has become possible for people without formal training to create works, unlike before.
As a result, the world is flooded with a vast number of works.
Among these works, there are some that are innovative and groundbreaking.

That raises a question I keep coming back to: where's the line between "innovative" and "just bad"?

For example, there may be novel instrumentation.
This can be seen as innovative, or it can be seen as a sign of a lack of formal training.
If that person did not have formal training, would that innovation automatically turn the work into a bad one?
While that possibility exists, it also depends heavily on the artist and the context, and could be seen as missing the point of looking at the work itself.

This gets even more complicated in an era where a single plugin and a handful of preset algorithms can generate something that sounds "novel" with almost no effort.
If anyone can produce unconventional sounds at the push of a button, what kind of innovation actually deserves praise?
What do you think? Please share your opinions freely!

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Lithl

I don’t think innovation has to go hand in hand with formal training.

I do think that any kind of training is beneficial.

What I find challenging at the moment is the very act of innovating.

And that’s not a bad thing. There’s enough material and musical languages out there to do millions of things.

Throughout the 20th century, I believe there have indeed been many movements and composers who have explored, innovated and pushed boundaries, many of whom have left behind their own musical languages.

Ives + Cowell, Schoenberg, Bartók, Messiaen, Cage, Ligeti, … right up to Pärt and Rautavaara. Minimalism…

But since the latter part of the 20th century, I don’t think there has been any significant innovation.

Perhaps in this day and age, innovation will have to come hand in hand with new technologies and sciences:

Symbiosis with artificial intelligence: perhaps the composer could train a musical language model using their own works to generate variations with which to engage in real-time dialogue.

The creation of mutable works (soundtracks, etc.) that never sound the same twice, adapting to factors relating to the listener.

Perhaps some kind of microtonal system might re-emerge in the future?

Why does Humanity use CARS ?...........................Why don't they use their LEGS ?