Purpose
Purpose of Notes, Objects, Artifacts
Every note (as well as all other objects/artifacts such as holds or mines) that you place into the chart has its purpose. Once connotation is understood, we are now able to think about the notes in different and even more generalized ways, which allows us to analyze the purpose of the note in order to more clearly understand the major ideas within a chart and how they are executed.
There are three major classifications of purpose for any given note (or any other object or artifact), that are loosely defined in order to organize the different ways one can analyze note usage:
Literal
The literal purpose of a note is to directly correlate it with a note in the song so that their attacks match. The song plays a note, so the player plays a note. The direct lining up of notes is one of the most fundamental purposes, despite its straightforward simplicity.
Functional
Functional purpose focuses on the role of the note in terms of its feel, whether it is the feel of the physical pattern or a visual aspect. Examples of this include miniholds. All tap notes are indistinguishable with one another, so when layering certain sounds, miniholds serve to highlight particular sounds by distinguishing them from the other notes around them visually. The attack of the notes themselves already signify a literal purpose, but the miniholds tell you the specific sound it goes to, reducing the level of ambiguity. Another example is the use of jack theory, where jacks are sometimes not applicable in terms of following anything in particular in the music, at least not necessarily with consistency with other similar sounds, but for the express purpose of creating the feeling and texture desired in those particular patterns.
Contextual
Contextual purpose highlights the fact the notes and patterns don't exist in a vacuum, that the chart is the sum total of all of the patterns in it put together. The reason pitch relevance is so effective is because of how each note is placed relative to the ones preceding it, and thus will affect the notes following it. Of course, pitch relevance is a very localized kind of contextual purpose. Well-defined and properly executed form and motifs in patterns throughout the song can create contextual purpose for placing particular notes across the entire chart. A repetition of sections in the music reflected by repetition in chart sections would be contextual purpose applied to not just localized notes but entire sections of a chart.
Purpose of Chart
After understanding the purpose of the notes being placed, we can begin to extract larger and more general ideas, up to the point of analyzing the goal of a chart as a whole. As mentioned before, people have varying reasons for why they play, which, combined with personal taste, result in differing opinions. We attempt to more closely outline the different goals of a chart and what qualities a player exhibits that would tend to align with those goals. Keep in mind that these goals are not all or nothing; different opinions and different charts can fall anywhere in the middle, in the gradient between both extremes, as well as combinations of all of these different goals.
Musicality
Musicality refers to how well the chart reflects the attributes and "essence" of the song. What exactly does that mean? Here are some examples: One of the reasons a drum pattern can feel groovy could be due to syncopation, so in order to capture the groovy feeling, the patterns should also feel syncopated. An example of something not being musical would be putting dense fast rhythms to a slow song, even if the rhythms do exist in the music. Another example of not being musical would be cramming so many polyrhythms into a chart that it feels like a nebulous mess of notes and it's not clear which notes are following which sound. If a song begins to increase in intensity as the climax approaches, the notes should also increase either in tension or density to match it. Players who see rhythm gaming as a celebration of music tend to be the ones who can appreciate charts that achieve this goal. These tend to be players who are more open to playing different difficulties and genres because they view rhythm games as a means to explore music.
This particular song is not a common genre choice that people would choose for a rhythm game. There isn't a large range of instruments, flourishes, or rhythmic variation. The chart has some minor difficulty spikes. The chart is easier than what a veteran community would typically choose to play. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful song, and the chart's purpose is not to create exciting patterns, but rather to coax the player into paying attention to and appreciating the music, making full use of dramatic structure, strong motifs, and unconventional layering of dynamics and articulation to carry the musical ideas.
Challenge
There are players who play because they want a competitive mechanical challenge, to prove their skills are better than those of their peers, or simply to push their own limits. For these players, they will want charts of a particular difficulty, and they want interesting patterns that allow them to work on developing certain skillsets. They tend to prioritize more difficulty consistency because it gives them a better consistent experience to practice on. The flow and design of the patterns themselves are more highly regarded than their connections with music. A style called "dump" charting is an avant-garde interpretation of this goal in practice. It is a style where the top players can find meaningful challenges while enjoying the music of their choice because the individual notes do not have to adhere to any particular sound that exists in the music or any particular objective rule beyond simply crafting a satisfying technical challenge.
This chart's difficulty is quite extreme. Although it does in fact match the music, both musically and in transcription accuracy, it is primarily a challenge for most players, and those who choose to play generally play it because they desire a challenge. It also happens to utilize many innovative tricks and techniques, but its appeal is felt by those seeking difficult charts. Not only is the note density high, the bursts are intense, the rhythm is quite irregular, and endurance is required to make it through the whole thing.
Innovation
For some players, they want to see something new and fresh, to play something that they have not played before in some capacity. To them, novel ideas is what allows something to continue being interesting. Achieving this means can be through many different ways, ranging from song choice, to pattern selection, to gimmicks. Usually, players who prioritize this goal will enjoy the more inventive techniques that a notecharter can employ to make them fit with the music to some degree. This tends to be because there is a wide range of techniques to explore, and less so other elements, so recurrent players continue playing because of what they can interpret as new and interesting. The difference between musicality and innovation is that innovation refers to the application of these techniques, whereas musicality refers to how well the execution of those techniques allows the patterns to reflect the song. Just because a fancy technique is used, does not imply that it is musical. Just because a technique is musical, does not imply it is fancy.
Narrative
Songs and charts both have a certain "story-telling" element to them. A song has structure and form, such as an intro, rising and falling tension, and a climax. Typically, this is reflected in the chart as well. For some players, it is the form that they are drawn to, because they appreciate a more complete experience within a larger context. They tend to prefer longer songs/charts because they don't mind the length and longer songs tend to have a stronger, more developed narrative. For example, if a player that prioritizes this goal plays three individual songs, they may prefer it if there was a set order in which those songs were meant to be played together, if such an order improves the experience of the three songs as a whole. For these players, they may find the traditional verse-refrain form of pop songs to be uninteresting, and will prefer something such as a well-constructed rhapsody. These players feel a sense of "wow" factor, a grand feeling upon downloading a large pack, or playing a well-done song of significant length, or a smaller themed pack.
This chart consists of 5 different movements, each one offering a completely different experience and together having a kind of rhapsodic form with dramatic structure. Played in its entirety, it provides the player with an immersive musical experience that utilizes a wide range of varied techniques that maintains the player's interest.
Conclusion
Paying attention to all of the different ways we can utilize notes allows us to be more informed about how other artists construct their charts and appreciate the details. In addition, it helps us reflect on and evaluate our own work, allowing us to better assess how well we are actually executing our ideas, and better understanding our target audience. Perhaps it even helps us understand the appeal of charts that we don't personally enjoy, and give us the ability to cater to an audience or employ techniques outside of our normal comfort zone.