Thumper, I again don't want to sound mean or condescending, but your "overwhelmed by all of you who can do something I can't" is showing.

If you were to study music at an advanced level (meaning a college degree program), you would spend some time on a concept called "Levels Of Listening." That is a fancy college term for "The more you know about this, the more you'd understand what to listen for, and the bar that is the list of things that make you say 'wow' would get higher and higher. You would know WHY that chord change was ear catching. You know that a chord change was unique and 'off piste', as in something not native to the key the song is in." Very little impresses me any more, and the older folks here who have been at this for over a half century would likely be in the same category to some degree. Especially now when a large number of people are trying to convince themselves they are musicians by having various AI programs doing all the work. Songs are stories set to music. Tell your story. Don't ask ChatGPT to tell it for you.

4 people can go to a performance of any type and hear 4 different performances. Depending on each person's level of listening, one might hear phrasing, noticing that a simple theme seems to repeat. One might take note of the dynamics, how the music's effect on the listener's emotion can be manipulated by volume changes. Another might take note of how the chord progression goes from major to minor in a way that is not anticipated. Another might note the playing skills of one player with no regard for the total synergy of the band, like "That lead guitar player was really the most skilled of all of them." None of those things are "wrong", but they do reflect the amount that people know what to listen for. They are often the same people who buy really bad albums by old hanger-on bands because they are sheep who know nothing other than "I've been following them for 40 years". (See: Dead, Grateful)

You mentioned 2 specific people in your example, both for vocals performance. Both very good singers. So, enter some farmer from a small town in Idaho that isn't even on a map. Call him "Spuds". (Get it?) If Spuds knows nothing about music, beyond "I like this", what is he basing that Grammy vote on? Just to say "I liked it" isn't enough to be awarding things. Spuds might be very easily impressed, so what does that vote mean? Back when I still considered American Idol to be any sort of relevant, the last year I watched had a bunch of singers that consistently sang flat, but somewhere in the song hit that one high note with extreme power and significance to twang the emotion in people (Because as you are also taught in college, music done well affects human emotion.) and those flat singers were voted for enough to stay on another week. To use a sports analogy, a QB could throw 4 interceptions, complete no passes longer than 4 yards, and fumble twice in a game, but what will people who don't know football remember? Yep, that ONE 59 yard touchdown pass. Those same people are impressed by drummers based on the size of their drumkit rather than if they can keep time.

You also listed categories. How do you define what is rock vs country vs whatever? Best VIDEO production? You know this is music software, right?

As far as "the BIAB non-user"... why are they even here? How do they even know about this place?

As I said before, the handful of people in the clique would win anyway.

This place has gotten FAR away from a musician/songwriter forum like it was when I joined 13 years ago. It's really become more focused on conversation about finding ANY way to make music that doesn't require any real, actual work be put into, you know, making music. As in playing an instrument, writing lyrics and working hard at it every day. Metaphorically, as my girl Chrissie Hynde said, "My city was gone."