According to Oxford Languages, music is vocal or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony and expression. More often than not, music strives to refrain from “rigid” styles and becomes more free and loose because most musicians would agree that just playing the correct notes does not make great music. And even if a person was to rate the music, it is virtually impossible to be completely impartial to every single piece.

In our current society, music has evolved to the point where everything is a competition. There are countless prizes for orchestras, bands, solo pianists and any other instrument imaginable. This leads to kids playing these instruments with the hope of becoming the best. The problem is that there are an increasing number of students who put their musical worth in these judges.

The problem is that music is relative. Every kid, teenager and adult will have their own preferred style of music, each type of music specializing in their own style. I find it disturbing how judges can essentially choose the music they enjoy the most or the music that suits their style and label it as “best.” Music is constantly changing and grading a musician by a musical score sheet used will never be correct because of the large variety and constantly evolving nature of music.

I would bet that music from this year would never gain traction in thirty years because of the contrast in songs from two different time periods. Obviously, there are ways to concretely compare musicians through their technique and form, but even these methods have flaws. For one, every single musical instrument does not come with a set of rules on how to play the instrument. There are ways to maximize the sound quality, but in my opinion, music is about the sound it produces, not the sight it beholds. 

Overall, the issue is that people feel the need to turn everything into a competition. Music isn’t meant to be compared to other music, but to be enjoyed by all people. The expression of music is relative to everyone and, in most cases, judges won’t be able to accurately tell what is “beautiful” or “ugly” at the highest levels. It should be enjoyed by everyone, and if a song is popular or beautiful, it will be because a large population of people enjoy the music, not because a single judge said that the music was good. Competitional music focuses on a single or very few opinions, the exact opposite of how music should be judged.