I was thinking, different things about music appeal to different people, and I started analysing what it is that I like about the music I listen to. As it turns out, there are quite a few significant parallels to be drawn between many of my favourite songs.

So my question is this: If you could have a song written to your chosen specifications, written completely to please you, what would it contain? What would those specifications be?

For me it would have to be an alternative rock/metal song. The lyrics would have to be well written and meaningful, without reference to "love", etc., and the vocals would have to have something unique about them. This could be an unusual vocal set up, or accent inflection; it is quite difficult to describe what I'd want here. There should be multiple part vocal harmony though, for sure. Guitars should be distorted, and there should be a melodic guitar solo that doesn't go fast for no good reason but instead fits perfectly with the chord progression, and it should include much use of a wah pedal. The chord sequences should also be quite original and if possible would evoke some emotion. The drums would not just be a tool to keep metronomic time, but instead would be as important as the guitar and vocal parts, providing interesting and skilful core rhythms to the piece that can be reflected in other parts. The bass should be big.

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Interesting topic.

My perfect song would probably be a 20 minute long space/prog rock epic. Along the lines of Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond with a bit of ELP's Tarkus thrown in and with a modern twist. A lot of layered spacey keyboards, some guitar wankery, maybe some nice vocal harmonies peppered throughout. Slow to medium tempo. The song would be divided up into movements.

So yeah, not very original but it's what I love.

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I'm the kind of guy that likes to listen to whatever song fits my mood. Sometimes just listen to one specific song for that day, or I listen to entire albums by different artists. One particular song I like to listen to often is Crying Lightning by Arctic Monkeys. A song I like to listen to when I'm in a happy mood is Someday by The Strokes. Whenever I'm sad I listen to A Message by Coldplay or even some of their entire albums to lighten my mood in the end. I listen to Tom Wait's earlier work such as New Coat of Paint. It just depends on what I feel like listening to, I don't really have a specific song that I identify as my perfect song. Then again Blue Moon by Frank Sinatra is my all time favorite so I guess you can say that can fit the category. [/font]

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