The thing is, whether it's music or buildings or poetry or people, is "beauty" one aspect of the whole, or is a summation of the whole? There are many pieces of music I love, but "beauty" isn't first in line. — Bitter Crank

Interesting, I think that people generally use the term "beautiful" to describe something that they happen to like, but that they wouldn't stand behind that statement if they where asked if they really believed that the object (or whatever) had beauty.

Moreover, I would say that beauty is a quality that some things, or situations, performances etc., have that we can recognize through a feeling within us. Immanuel Kant's concept of beauty is an interesting idea that I like. However, I don't agree with him when he says that everyone equally able to see beauty in the same objects. I rather believe that the experience of beauty is the same, but that a certain thing that some people find beautiful won't have the capacity to arouse that same feeling in everyone. I would argue that cultural differences, personal taste and so on will stand in the way in a much more profound way than Kant said it does.

Also, I think that beauty comes in levels and things are not beautiful or not, they are more or less beautiful depending on how strong feeling they provoke in us.