First there was art now, what is music??

Music is my life. My life is my music. I go through my days in chord progressions and measure happiness in major and minor.

I dig where this thread is going!

I think that music is the only art medium that can affect several senses at the same time, and FURTHERMORE it has the ability to affect our emotions and bring back old memories like nothing else.

Music is an artistic display of the condensation of pain, love, anger, confusion, happiness - everything - in a combination of rhythmic jams and words. I love it. There is no limit to what you can do with a guitar and a piece of paper (maybe get a pen, too).

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain ;)

Often times, "music", much like "art" is whatever the marketing people can manipulate people into thinking.

When someone can record nothing but silence and be labeled a musical genius, rake in huge amounts of cash, have major orchestras play the silent piece and be able to sue anyone else that has a silent piece, than you know that there is a large con job behind music/art.

Of course the above is rare. Music is much harder than art as in you generally have to have something that people find enjoyable to listen to. To really succeed, you have to have talent.

Art allows you to literally throw random paint on a canvas (thrown by anything from a 2-year human to a pig to a machine) and have it labeled a masterpiece with the right marketing. Heck you can literal throw out trash and be labeled a genius.

Rarely will you be able to just throw random noises together and have it be declared a masterpiece.

I see that as being a harsh definition.

There's music in the pounding of the surf on the sand, in my lovers heart pounding next to mine, in the crickets and frogs searching for mates, in the owl on the tree, in the coyotes voicing to the moon. Music is more than a human composition, it is any sound which beats in nature and evokes a reaction to the audience--be that a solitary soul or a packed dance floor.

Music is more than what can be sold to the masses.

If you are referring to 4'33" by John Cage, which it sounds like you are, then I'm afraid you are mistaken.

This was not written as a piece to con the masses and make large sums of money. Rather, it was done as a demonstration of the question which this thread is based on: "What is music?"

In the piece, which is simply four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, the audience is forced to contemplate this question. Must music be performers playing a pre-determined set of notes? Or is it something else?

I have heard this piece performed live, and it is an interesting and powerful experience. The music becomes the sounds in the audience, the sound of programs rustling, the chairs scraping the floor, the nervous laughs of audience members. Basically, the noises that surround us in daily life become the music. I think that this is a very powerful statement.

That being said, not everyone may see things this way. I attended conservatory for two years and was exposed to a vast amount of music in that time period. I can tell you from my experience that not all music is meant to be enjoyed, not all music appeals to the masses. Some music doesn't appeal to anyone at all. Some music is very difficult to listen to, but can still be appreciated for its artistic value.

Anyway, I don't know where I was going with that, I guess I was just sharing my thoughts.

Two things on my list of masterpieces as far as music goes right now though are the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsesnk District by Dmitri Shostakovich, and Abbey Road by the Beatles.

Who is declaring, and why is their decision so important?

Music is human emotion in raw form. If the piece in question comes out off-the-wall, entirely devoid of conventional standards of music making processes, yet is still complete, it IS genious and it IS a masterpiece, regardless of angry old unimpressed koots and their stigmatic approach to musical classification.

This is something I feel very strongly about. I also don't like it when people who have never engaged in a musical creation project themselves start throwing out words like masterpiece and genious to describe music that they are personally fond of, when they really don't know what goes into actually making the music. For example, most 'classical' music is nothing but scales and repition, moved about several instruments, including a lot of work from the likes of Bach and Mozart. It is all in the eye, or ear, of the beholder. It is how it affects the individual and not the entire crowd. It is not generalized cultural references that makes it unique, it is a connection between the artist and the sole listener's emotions. That includes the postive AND the negative emotions.

Music is art for the ear. It brings up emotions and memories. When I look at a canvas painting, I am filled with what ever emotion that painting gives me. It is the same when I listen to music.

Music stirs the soul.

I love music. I can not play it. I can not write it. But I appreciate it when I hear it. Some music moves me. Some music causes me to tap to my foot. I feel it.

"Music is the cosmic dance"-Maude(from the movie Harold and Maude)

Music is subjective.

Music isn't in the sound, but in the way it makes you feel.

If sitting quietly and listening to an audience stirs something in you, it is music (to you). If not, it is simply an intermission (I will meet you at the snack bar).

Music is everything to me. I love music, and I know a lot of different songs, and I listen to almost every type of music. Music is my life.

Maybe you and music should get a room.

Music is tinkles and BOM BOMS and diddly diddly and parpaprp and woowooowahhah.

Music is different to everyone and usually something different to one person at different times. I can't drive, go online or work without music. Doesn't have to be something I love just something.

Being a professional musician, and thinking bout this stuff every of my life for the pas 7 years or something like that, I can only come to the conclusion that music is a language. When I play my bass, it's getting closer to speaking words with my mouth every day. Some music is a conversation (most improvised music is like this, the band is having a dialog), some is like reading from a great book. Some music is like poetry, or like a long book with lots of details. Some is just mindless babbling, or just catch phrases. Some is honest and original, some is just repeating somebody elses's opinion. When playing, you can cry, fall in love, or make jokes. It's like a secret language everybody understands (unless your from a culture that's foreign to the style of music, then it's like a foreign language).