Is there a general rule behind your tastes?

- The vocals need to sell it

Would you say that there are some general principles, criteria, patterns, behind what kind of music you will or will not like? Or is it just a subjective, esthetic, uncommunicable experience, that you only try to put into words afterwards, without your words being consistent from one judgement to the next one? Or does it depend on the genre (you'd like your prog to be thus, your folk to be thus, etc.)?

In case there are such principles, feel free to share them and discuss.

In my case, I'd say it's like this (the following mostly tackles prog):

1/ The song can be long or short, but there is more potential in long tracks, and as a matter of fact, half of my favorites are 10+ min long

2/ I rarely appreciate a prog song that follows a classic pattern, with verse, bridge, chorus... One of the things I enjoy with prog is its liberating from those shackles.

3/ I appreciate creativity, but I rarely appreciate songs that don't have some form of melodies, even very rhapsodic ones. - Actually, I particularly love when they get very rhapsodic, like Marillion's Ocean Cloud or Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn.

4/ I don't know that much still of prog, and if some music resembles some other style from earlier, like it's "just like PF" or something, I will barely notice if at all and I won't bother at all.

5/ I don't have a particularly ... "knowledged" ear, and as long as they don't impact my amateur esthetic experience, I will not disturbed by any "musical fauxpas"

6/ I particularly enjoy prolonged hold-and-release (I don't know what the exact musical concepts are), as in the live (with Scott Higham) version of Pendragon's Breaking the Spell for instance, as well as reprises of the (musical) theme in the end, as in for instance Airbag's Homecoming or Rick Miller's Don Quixote, it's like the homecoming in LOTR, there is a sense of homeness delivered by the song when it "returns to itself" at the end.

7/ Lyrics and theme are very important to me. I really dislike superficial lyrics, and I think that the lyrics, and the theme conveyed (not just the abstract music), are really crucial. Overall, I usually prefer bands and artists that venture more towards the fantasy, the fantastic, the imaginary, heroes, like Pendragon, Rick Miller do, even Mystery oftentimes, or Silhouette to some degree. Venturing towards the soul and the dark is fine as well (like what BelIeve, Porcupine Tree, or Riverside do, or even Moonrise in its own way), as long as it's not love songs (with a few exceptions, I generally don't like love songs at all).

8/ - And when a concept-album is really well made, it can hardly avoid being a 5-star to me.