How do we know if music is any good or not? We look to the opinions of others. See the recent online discussion of whether the 2009 song “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is the worst of all time.

Check out the song for yourself.

Perhaps an online crowd can convince people that this song is no good. But there are other social ways of addressing this question. For example, Wikipedia has a page titled “List of music considered the worst.” I have sampled across the albums and songs and there is a wide range of music that could be considered the “worst.” Or a group of friends could debate this among themselves as they play and remember different pieces of music.

This reminds me of a 2006 study in Science titled “Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market.” Put people in listening rooms with a list of songs and their opinion of those songs partly depends on what others in the room think.

How do we know if music (or books or TV shows or art or the product of any culture industry) is any good? We decide this collectively through interactions and over time. What we consider the “worst” music could differ but we have opportunities to be shaped by the opinions of others – including large-scale actors – and to shape the opinions of people around us.