
So i dont see how youre going to ever get absolute consensus on what it is or should be. However anyone who thinks Stockhausen isn't music is working to a pretty weird definition - by being one of the most influential composers of the last century, he played a fairly major part in writing the definition. It's just music they don't like / can't be bothered to work for. Where are the tunes? Etc. Which is fine, I don't really see why them not liking it has to be a problem for them or me. I can't be bothered with films that have any depth, but I see no reason to insist they aren't films because they don't have a story.
( , Thu 9 Aug 2012, 22:31, Reply)

I have concluded that there are three kinds of music:
1. Music you listen to (e.g. songs, symphonies, dance pieces)
2. Music you hear in the background (e.g. Muzak, film soundtracks)
3. Music you read about with great interest because of it's originality and innovation, but don't listen to because it lacks aesthetic considerations (e.g. John Cage, Stockhausen, Schoenberg)
A lot of neo-classical music is far more interesting (and bearable) on paper than it is on record.
( , Thu 9 Aug 2012, 22:38, Reply)

After 3 years of a music degree AND several years of postgraduate work and letters after my name I mostly disagree. ;) (and find neo-classical stuff insipid and lazy :D)
But let's put it down to just that. My aesthetic considerations are clearly just a bit different from yours. I hear beauty in an Elliott Carter string quartet. It just takes a bit longer to get to it!
Having said that I don't believe post tonal music is in any way more worthy or 'better' than anything else. I find writing in that hyper modernist style really unrewarding. I just think that tonality and even-tempered consonance have convinced Western ears that they are the only way over the years and I don't really buy it.
( , Thu 9 Aug 2012, 22:53, Reply)

( , Thu 9 Aug 2012, 22:55, Reply)

That last point is a particularly good one, as changing your approach to what "sounds like music" to you is a bit like trying to unlearn basic maths. It's so ingrained.
Had a quick look at Elliott Carter, and I can see what you're getting at. When I first heard Rammstein it was just noise to me and everything sounded the same, now I'm a total fanboy. You have to devote some patience to these kind of things to appreciate what's being done differently each time.
It's nice to find music that surprises you, one of my favourite finds of recent years was these guys, recommended to me by a peculiar Finnish man. No idea if this is your kind of thing, but they caught me off guard.
( , Thu 9 Aug 2012, 23:24, Reply)

I have no idea what I just listened to but it caused me great joy.
( , Thu 9 Aug 2012, 23:29, Reply)

"...what one hears with the intention of hearing music."
( , Thu 9 Aug 2012, 22:54, Reply)