What exactly makes music music?

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Y'know, I have the same attitude about all these kinds of things...art definitions. I would grudgingly say that music is organised sound designed to induce a feeling or atmosphere, although on an admittedly biased and personal level I don't call some music 'music' in the same way I don't call all modern art 'art'. Music I like doesn't come from all one genre, although there are some with higher concentrations of music I like than others, I often like individual pieces instead.

But to get to the question that is the issue at the centre of this thread: yes of course dubstep is music. If modern composers can base music off maths, which for me induces nothing but cringing and falls far short of appreciation at the clashing tremolos, and I have to consider that music, dubstep is music.

 

[Fishyash]

I define music as sound intended to be listened to as entertainment, whose chief attraction as such is the expression of some or all of the Elements of Music: melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, timbre, and form. This means that I definitely consider dubstep to be music, albeit a relatively simple genre (not nearly as simple as "pop", though), since its emphasis is on timbre and, to a lesser extent, harmony. I couldn't care less for it myself, but whatever floats your boat.

Spoiler: anti-rap mini-rant

It also means that I think rap, as distinguished from hip-hop (I'll explain after), is not music, because (unless I've been misinformed) the chief attraction is the lyrics, a non-musical element of the piece (hip-hop, to me, is the result of injecting a significant amount of melody or something else musical into rap). And yes, the drums are prominent, but that doesn't mean that they're the reason you listen to it. I'm NOT saying that rap isn't art, just that it's been mis-classified. It bears more of a resemblance to poetry. Actually, scratch that. It bears more of a resemblance to Shakespeare. And I just realized how absurdly ironic that is.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you've got stuff like progressive rock, in which any given piece will probably end up emphasizing at least 5 of the Elements of Music by the time it's (finally) over.

Rap goes under rhythm alone, akin to african drumming. Would you say african drumming isn't music?
Also, everyone has different reasons for listening to a certain piece of music. My brother really does not care too much about the lyrics of the song. He does however like the beats within the song. For example, the riffs created within the song, the chopping up of mowtown tracks etc.. It doesn't have to be the intended reason, but I don't think that matters really.

Finally, the thing that distinguishes rap from something like "free form poetry" is that rap has a heavy emphasis on rhythm in the vocals. It doesn't matter how fast, slow, accurate or inaccurate the rhythm is, you cannot deny it being there.

If poetry has a form of rhythm to it, I count it as music. It's basically a song, I really don't see a difference except there may not be a melody.

 

[TheRealJLars]

SNIP

This might break your heart, but i cant listen to this and not notice how similar it is to 21st Century Schizoid Man, which i know from guitar hero. its weird... every few seconds theres something that sounds exactly like it, but on different instruments...

I like it though... it might give me a headache after a while and i wouldnt listen to it with headphones mind you.

...

A lot of people seem to regard most of the music i listen to as a "random bunch of noises" and i hate when they do, because all i can tell them to do is the listen to it properly.

I agree with you 100%. When I first listened to it, I called it simultaneously the most awesome and terrifying thing I've ever heard. And then I proceeded to give myself a migraine listening to the rest of the album.

I'm not a huge fan of the "listen to it properly" argument simply because people have different ways that they perceive and listen to music and frankly, some very good music is very difficult to listen to. Sometimes it just takes multiple listens, but people don't always have the patience to do that.

 

[Smithburg]

One of the most basic definitions of music is repetition of some sort but it goes much deeper than that

 

[Smithburg]

The point was if it makes musical sense and was written with good composition in mind it is still music opinions aside. Personally, Dubstep grates on my ears and I do not like it but I still have to accept some of it is music. I'd also like to launch that Gerald Barry piece into space and it cannot be unheard after having to study it for a year. Even at that just because something qualifies as music does not make it good music.

Any song that can be played by setting your audio equipment on fire is not music.

"Good" music is entirely subjective, there are tons of good dubstep tracks, as there are good songs for every genre. Also a lot of people confuse dubstep and electronic music in general. But just saying something is not music because you don't like it makes you look like an idiot.

 

[mickey]

If you go back far enough in time you can guess that people from the past would certainly not consider some of the sounds we make now as music. Yet to us they awe fantastic "Music". So maybe its really just about where our minds are, what our culture gives us to respond to. Meanwhile Oliver Sack wrote a book called Musicophilia digs deep into ideas about this. http://musicophilia.com/