How many times have you heard that phrase? It has almost become as overused as the popular three word phrase among lovers. But what really is music? How do you define it? There really isn't an easy answer to this question unfortunately. Music is a very personal experience. So I guess the cop-out answer is, if you think it's music then it is.
My personal opinion is that somethings that are considered music are actually musical experiments and not music. John Cage did a lot of this. His 4'33" and Imaginary Landscape No. 4, in my opinion are of this "musical experiment" nature more than actual music. Many people will disagree with me, but as I said, this is my opinion. 4'33" is not the production of sound, but a realization of the sound that exists already. Imaginary Landscape No. 4 is a chance piece that relies completely on a detailed set of instructions and twelve radios to create the piece. To me this isn't music. Music is a journey. It is the composers journey and we as listners are along for the ride. What makes music different from other art forms, is that while we are on the composers journey, it is personalized by our experiences.
One of my favorite types of 20th century music is minimalism. Many times you will have a few repeated lines that oscillate and play over and over. What makes it interesting is that as you listen you will pick out different parts of the music as you listen and you don't always pick out the same lines each time or the same lines as other people. The music is always the same, but the way we hear it is very personal and this is what makes music. I have participated in many genres of music so I can personally say that I have performed music that I didn't like, but that I still believed was music.
In my mind there is a clear line between music and not.
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