This weeks forum was about defining music. Trying to define music is incredibly hard. It really depends on the individual, but still, even then it's hard to decide what you think. Music can be any sound, or a combination of sounds that is pleasant, or a combination of soudns that has tonality and harmony, or none of these. Personally I find it hard to put a definition on what I believe to be music. It's hard to define it without letting preference get in the way. I mean, as much as I hate american hip-hop and generic pop music, I still acknowledge that it is, in fact, music. That said, I love the spoken word, especially to the backing of music, but are the words described as music? Or is it just the music backing that makes it music.
The activity that we did in forum this week divided the class. I think it's one of those things that you either love or hate. We each had a part that was basically different to everyone elses. I believe there were some double ups, but I don't know for certain. Then the rest of it was basically random. There were high noises, low noises, mid-pitch noises, guitar, bass, weird percussion, and people speaking. The idea was that in the time frame given, we would play a part improvised on what the piece said.
The end result was really weird, but interesting. To be honest, I quite like the effect it made. There were periods of utter noise and cacophony, and then almost silence. The complete removal of any rhythmic or harmonic sense made it hard to view as a piece of music, but it was. It did rather go on a bit, considering it took 45 minutes to do much the same thing over and over, but it actually got to a point near the end where I was actually really into the music/sound/noise.
I thought that the way people were divided over the exercise was really interesting. The way our opinions can vary on something so seemingly simple as this is showing how different individuals can be. It's just that there isn't a way to put a definite definition on music. What sounds appealing to you, or what strikes a chord within you can count as music. And that very much relies on the each persons taste, background, and feelings.
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I would agree that musical taste is influenced by environment, it all depends on what you were brought up with. I tried to make the point at the end of the forum that it isn't about liking it, just understanding it. The more you are exposed to this stuff the more interesting it gets.
Still, I hated it and would never consider it music.
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