So why does Taylor Swift or better yet Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato (both EXCELLENT singers) get dismissed as "vapid pop tarts" and Leonard Cohen or better yet Patti Smith get lauded as legends?
Look, we can argue this all day and neither one of us is totally right (and it's not provable even if we are). I believe that talent isn't enough. I think you need that edge, and for all people it's different. Waters gets his inspiration writing about dark subjects that touch him, often negatively (you'll never convince me that Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, or The Final Cut were borne of JUST talent and have nothing to owe to his emotional state at the time of writing). It's not a coincidence that even the band members will say that the emotional complexity around the band and the competitive, jealous nature of the parties was a big part of why Rumours is arguably the best Fleetwood Mac album ever, and arguably one of the best albums by any band ever.
But I believe too that talent isn't enough.. Otherwise I wouldn't be saying that I think is the most important factor; I would simply say is the only one, but that's obviously not how it is.. As you say, no one can be totally right about this, because is purely subjective.. But just to clarify my posture, I'm not saying emotion is not important, but is far from being a "big part" of the whole process.. All those PF's albums weren't of course made of just talent, but they weren't certainly made of just inspiration or emotion, and they're not even the main elements, because then again, inspiration and emotion we all have them, but talent to make music only some.. I'm sure that band sayings were not to be taken literally, they were just being honest and telling their audience what was the real motivation behind that album..
I don't follow that. And by the way, you DON'T need arms and fingers to make music (Jason Becker). You don't need emotion, either; I doubt the guy writing jingles for commercials, or music under the voiceovers on reality TV are driven by anything purely emotional. I'm only saying that for SOME PEOPLE, the difference between "good" music and "great" music is sometimes those emotions that we from the outside view as "bad" or "harmful", like "competitiveness".
Ok, you got me there with Becker..
But about the need for emotion, I wasn't talking about commercials, but real music.. About art, not TV ads.. And about your last sentence, I absolutely agree with it.. What I was saying in that last paragraph is that, by definition, all kind of art has emotions involved in it, at different degrees obviously.. Sometimes the overload of expressed feelings into a work can make it worst (or less good than it is) and sometimes can make it better, a thing that depends too on the judge of every person..