Music....what actually is it?

siraxeman

I mean what actually qualifies to be called music...? Sounds alone aren't music are they? Is a heart beat music? I'd say no...but it contains 1 component part of what makes music ie rhythm. Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving....oooer! Music as I understand it is "intelligent arrangement of pitch ie melody, rhythm and harmony" so all 3 are essential components of music.

Now music like many things is subjective to the listener. We all like different things in many subjects...and that's cool, what makes us all different. There is no wrong or right in this regard. But as I read over the Noel G on Jazz thread some funny videos got posted up and this got me thinking. Now Derek Bailey is one who came up (and to me) what the videos posted in there showed me is something that is DEFINATELY NOT music to me as I didn't detect melody...or harmony, just a lot an awful lot in fact of dissonance and jarring sounds that didn't really resolve. Someone posted the Yngwie Shreds video and it being a blatant joke actually sounded very similar.....like someone that's never played a guitar before trying to.There was some rhythm I suppose in there somewhere...at least for some moments. Now I'm not doing a lets bash anything/anyone thread here just asking what you consider music to be as it clearly seems to be different things to different people....

so "music" then...

starwarsnosebleed

I wouldnt say music has to have any melody, rythym or harmony at all.

...but then i enjoy stuff like Merzbow and Bastard noise.

Megii

Music can be pretty much any kind of sounds, put together with artistic intent. Whether you like a particular example of music or not is of course entirely up to you.

Hootsmon

can that Bailey cat actually play at all or is that it?

siraxeman

siraxeman

TTBZ

^sounds like one of them "...shreds" videos.

HAL9000

I agree with @starwarsnosebleed that pitch, rhythm, melody aren't necessary. I guess what matters (assuming you're not just, say, mindlessly humming something to yourself that you've already heard) is some kind of artistic intent. 

siraxeman

littlegreenman

siraxeman said:

I'll raise you one

siraxeman

I watched that after the vid I posted...and a few others Big Bottom @ Glasto 2009 etc :-)

wave100

music = structured noise.

sinbaadi

wave100 said:

music = structured noise.

Like talking?  Or a car alarm? 

PolarityMan

Well clearly harmony and melody are not necessary as drum circles create music without eaiter, and not jsut in the sense that "if a musician calls it music, then it must be music" I mean percussion music would be clearly identified by any member of the public as music. 

I do think rhythm is essential though but perhaps someone can find a counter example?

RandallFlagg

Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion

TheOtherDennis

A series of noises that differ from normal communication in a way that's designed to entertain or bring about some form of emotion. So for instance talking isn't music, but singing is, even though it's the voice using words in h same way as talking, but if a voice using words in a melodic way isn't necessarily music, then what's recitative in an opera?

Shit, this is harder than it looks, innit? I'll have another think and get back to you...

57Deluxe

Msg her - she'll get to the bottom of it for you...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0Ss7xJWQAIL1DU.jpg

siraxeman

RandallFlagg said:

Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion

Straight off the top of a Google search! ;-) I read it as well.

Grunfeld

I don't know what music is.  A couple of months back I was working with some yoofs who liked to listen to stuff which drove me fucking insane.  An example below.  They clearly loved it and enjoyed listening to it.  I found it... challenging. 

I can hear the patterns in it.  Maybe that's part of what something takes to be music.  Maybe we just like patterns.  Because music is pretty abstract.  I don't hear any pattern in the noise like that nob with the guitar makes.  But then I don't hear it in that messy Radio 3 stuff that sounds like a cat walking across a piano. 

I don't so much wonder what is music but why?  Why do we even bother?

Bygone_Tones

The way I see it there are two main factors.

1) Rhythm (or energy) - this comes from the pulse of the music and not necessarily from drums.
2) Emotion - created by the harmonies of notes working together.

Anyone who writes songs and is not aware they are appealing to human emotion or the human desire to dance (or headbang or whatever), is probably not going to be very successful.

This is why you choose the music you listen to based on what mood you are in at the time. On a deeper level you are really choosing the emotion you want to experience rather than the song or artist.

Some people are drawn more to one than the other and this is where personal taste starts to come in. Also with personal taste there is a 3rd factor, and that is 'edginess' or 'coolness'. People have their own idea of what edginess and coolness is and this is why taste in music varies so much.
 
my 2p.

Philly_Q

Derek Bailey seems to be becoming a new FretBoard favourite.

I don't think we should ignore Fred Frith.