Train of thought

The music people enjoy is characterized by an effective balance between novelty & familiarity.

• If a piece of music is entirely familiar, it is not interesting. I’m bored and stop listening.
• If a piece of music is entirely novel and unfamiliar, I cannot recognize it as music, I cannot enjoy the play of expectation/fulfilment/surprise, because my brain doesn’t have a framework to make predictions about what it will do next or appreciate its creativity.
• If a piece of music perfectly balances existing, comfortable, predictable frameworks with surprising innovations and unpredictability, I will enjoy it.

Because all human beings have unique backgrounds, cultures, and perceptual filters, the balance point will vary from person to person.

Therefore whether or not this effective balance is achieved is entirely relative to the audience.

Making better music is about knowing your audience - what your audience knows, and what they don’t know.

Therefore progress & advancement in the field of music composition, whether it is in academia, industry, or criticism, should not be a pursuit of unheard-of sounds, processes, and forms. Progress in music composition should be characterized by finding better ways to strike this balance for a particular audience.