If you go to the comments section of any 80’s song on YouTube, you’ll see plenty of people debating on what is or isn’t music – that the previous generation’s music was the only real music, and what is on the radio today is not real music. But what can define music? Artists such as John Cage and Steve Reich explore this definition in such pieces as 4′ 33″ and Amplifiers, Speakers, and Performers.
In John Cage’s 4′ 33″, the pianist (or other performer) sits with their instrument before a crowd and is completely silent for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. This takes the performance away from the performer and instead leaves it with the audience – all the coughs and sniffles and shifting papers and fabric now become the “piece”, and it creates a unique experience every single performance. While this could be argued to not be music, it is still a performance and it holds and inspires meaning.
In Amplifiers, Speakers, and Performers, several microphones are suspended over and in front of speakers and set to swing before working speakers, creating feedback that eventually joins together and builds when all the pendulums come to a halt.
Now, could either of these technically be considered music? For what even defines music? Music could arguably be classified as organized sound, but even some music, such as heavy metal or dubstep could be discordant. As demonstrated by comedy group Axis of Awesome in their performance 4 Chords, most popular songs throughout the ages tend to follow the same four chords over and over – while using the same backbone, they still manage to make distinctly unique songs. All the same, saying that the music of one generation is more authentic than the others while they all tend to utilize the same musical structure muddies the argument. If anything, it suggests that music is music so long as it inspires people, regardless of technique or presentation. In the following video, performer Bobby McFerrin gets his audience to make notes in ascending and descending order as the backdrop to his “song” and with it creates music, using his body and a group of strangers.
Music can be made anywhere with anything in any way, and its elasticity ought to be celebrated instead of debated.
definitely not becca 