What Is Music?

[PaladinFoster]

Have you ever been listening to a favorite song of yours and just completely lost yourself in the music? Almost all of us have experienced something like what people call an eargasm; an intense feeling of joy and pleasure achieved by listening to really, really good music.

But what is it about music that does this to us? Why does the jazzy sounds of Goldfish get me going, while the craggy and brutal riffs of death metal do it for others? What even qualifies as music anyways? While some people would call dubstep an excellent genre of music, others don't even consider it to be music at all.

Wikipedia defines music as "an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture." This is a pretty generic definition, which pretty much includes everything from the sound of rain falling to Beethoven's 5th.

Plato said "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything." This gives a more precise definition, but it is also a much more subjective one. By this definition, what is and is not music is defined by the experience and perspective of the person doing the defining. So what for one person is music can be non-music to another. Or does this make any sound which is enjoyed by at least one person music?

While the precise meaning of what is and is not music is hard to pin down, there is one thing everyone agrees on; music is awesome. Everyone loves music. No matter if you're a Nazi, a Buddhist monk, or a street urchin from nineteenth century London, you like at least one kind of music. Music does something with the chemistry of our brains and we just love it. We routinely compare it to the feeling of an orgasm. So perhaps Plato was right, music really is just something that sounds good.

[Asuras]

Even shit like this. It's like, I know I shouldn't be enjoying this, but I do anyways.



*shrug*

[PaladinFoster]

Even shit like this. It's like, I know I shouldn't be enjoying this, but I do anyways.



*shrug*

Exactly what I'm talking about, this does nothing for me.

[Alphakoka]

music = food. Maybe not as essential though.

[Darkdrago666]

I like most forms of music, don't know why.

an example would be this.



The story of that song...is quite dark, and twisted, but somehow, I feel like it's a beautifully disturbing song.

[Hank]

Music is really just the abuse of the amygdala's appreciation of rhythm and expectation. Sounds that happen at regular intervals are soothing to us because it means whatever it is you're listening to is happening as it should. The sound of rain doesn't disturb animals, but something moving around in the undergrowth and creating an unpredictable, irregular amount of noise attracts attention and may be cause for alarm. Most (modern) forms of music are regular (you know, 4/4 tempo etc) and that appeals to us (we love rhythm, right?). On top of that, music creates a sense of expectation. If the change in pitch or melody or whatever appeals to this expectation you've subconsciously created... well, of course you love that shit. That's why everyone has favorite parts in their favorite songs and hearing these parts, according to expectation and properly in sequence, makes them happy.

But that's just science and science is boring. I love beautiful music. Death metal doesn't appeal to me because the very sound of it is ugly and rough. But, for example, these sounds are (in my opinion) pleasant to listen to:

[SmexySpiral]

/thread

[Asuras]

/thread

That's it. Everyone go home.

[TripMyHop]

[PaladinFoster]

*tries to begin philosophical discussion on the nature of music*

*ends up just making a thread for people to post their favorite songs in*