This project, much to the chagrin of music purists, is my attempt at trying to quantify music. The basic premise follows that I've noticed distinct patterns among particular characteristics, themes, emotions, qualities, and textures that comprise all the music I love, all neatly rolled up into convenient little packages I've taken the liberty of calling Aesthetics. Their main purpose is to enhance the reader's understanding on where I'm coming from in my reviews. It's a very personal tool that likely doesn't have much practical application outside of this blog. However, if you draw inspiration from it, or it's an idea that you feel can be adapted or further evolved, I'd love to hear feedback.

This project has been in the making for over three years. It's pretty absurd the number of hours I've put into it, but it's a relief to finally arrive at some semblance of the synesthetic ideas and images that have been ruminating in my head for years. I think the most interesting aspect of it all is when I reflect on the music I've been into over the years, spanning all the way back to my childhood, the core of these Aesthetics has barely changed. If I've been wired this way my whole life, I wonder then if there's a genetic component that influences our taste in music. There's obviously a huge cultural bent, but I've always been interested in how our brains relate to music. But that's a whole other tangent...

Some points to consider:

1. Melody means everything. It's the foundation for how much I usually end up liking a song, and it's an intangible that no number of Aesthetics can account for.
2. When I listen to music, I never listen for lyrics. It's all about the sound.
3. There's much overlap between several Aesthetics, but I've done my best to hone in on the particulars. Also, there's several subcategories to each I could have included, but it would have made things much too convoluted.
4. Although comprehensive, the list is probably far from complete and will likely go through several expansions, revisions, and adaptations.
5. I will often refer to a song's set of Aesthetics as its "Mosaic."