The Final Question: What is music?

I came back to this question because throughout the whole class, this was the question we were trying to answer. Through our readings of 2 books and our class discussion, I think we are no closer to the answer than we were from the begging of the semester. Do not get me wrong, I learned some interesting things, and heard argument that put me on the fence about how I view music, and read some theories that I agreed with. I just think for questions like these, the answer is as many as there are people on the earth. There is no right or wrong answer to this question, music is whatever you deem it to be. If you think music is purely cognitive then let that be your answer to what is music, if you believe it is purely emotional, then let music play your emotions, if you think music is what it is, hey! no argument here. I think if a person has an answer to the question "what is music?" and is able to back it up with a logical explanation, then let them hold that truth.

To me music is something special. It is composed of many elements, and can be viewed as a work of art. I believe music does speak to the body, mind and soul and is a great way to express ourselves. Music lives through people and people live through music. Music is a memory trigger for events of the past and a social network medium that brings people together. I do believe, however, that music is losing its essence because people stop using music as a way to express themselves and only use it as a way to get rich and entertain. Music is dying as the business aspect of it is flourishing. The only way to get the true essence of music is to give it back its real purpose, to make it express who we are and where we've been. Music is a vital part of my life, and you don't have to agree with my definition of music, this is just music through my eyes. SO since the semester is over and we've discussed music so in depth...what is music to you?

Response to Blog: Band Sickness

Abby Lindamood asks if getting "sick of a band" alter our taste in music all together?

Honestly, I don't think it alters our taste in music all together. I don't think it alters our taste in the genre either. I think it is like what we talked about in class, having too much of one thing makes a person "sick" or annoyed after a while. It is like what we talked about with the bananas in class. Take a person stranded on an island. They have been stranded there for a few days without food and they stumble upon a banana tree. They eat banana after banana after banana. After eating so many bananas they feel sick and don't even want to hear the word banana let alone eat another one.

I know when I go to a buffet and I eat until I am ready to pop I don't want anyone to mention the word food around me, let alone put food in front of me, because at that moment I am sick of food. It doesn't mean my outlook on food has changed permanently, but just for that moment I am "sick" of food. The next day, believe me I will get hungry and will need food to eat. "too much of one thing is bad," is a saying that I believe. You just get saturated of that thing and annoyed and just don't want anything to do with it anymore. That is what happens with music.
I have had experiences with songs that I am "tired of hearing" because I hear it everywhere. I turn on the TV the music video is on, I watch my favorite show, it is playing in the background, I turn on the radio , the DJ just started playing the song, I walk on the street, and it is coming from someones bedroom. Ugh! When this happens I just want to scream, because I would start out liking a song and just because I hear it all the time I just get sick of the song, (or band) and I just grow to dislike the song; which makes me not so friendly with the person next to me humming the melody. However, after the hype over the song has died down and I don't hear it for a while, and I come across it I listen to it and I like it again. So to give a straightforward answer to the question, I think a person can "get sick of a band" , but only for a while. After a moment of not listening to them and not hearing anything about them for awhile, the first spark that you had when you first heard them returns and you fall in love all over again. The thing that we as a society need to learn is moderation. We either over do something, or under do something. We can never find the middle ground, people live in extremes and it effects our lives so much because (in terms of music) over listening to something cause people to get sick of a song for a while, then under listening causes them to miss the song which will once again lead to over listening (vicious cycle). So I guess my question is why do people live in extremes? Why can't they find the middle passage??

Evaluation absent of personal choice!

"...there is a connection between the enjoyment derived from listening to music and the standards by which music is evaluated,it is important for me to stress that the connection is impersonal rather than personal. No musical work is simply good because 'I like it', for any 'I'."

Since reading this, the question that filled my mind was, can someone really not be biased when listening to music?" I mean we are in a day and age in which even professionals have to know who did the work before they listen to it. I know Davies implies that a person can not like a piece of music but listen to it anyway to waste time, or a person can deem a piece of music as worthy, but not like it; but come on is this for real? I know when I listen to a song that doesn't interest me, I hear it but I don't listen to it. I am not able to sit and actually listen to what is playing and appreciate it, yet alone evaluate it. I just hear it as some sort of background noise; and when someone asks me what I thought about it I am put on the spot because I didn't listen.

So as far as evaluation goes can we trust these "professional evaluators" to say what is worth listening to and what isn't? I don't think music can be absent personal preference, even if one tries not to be biased. People like what they like, and I don't think evaluations of music should be trusted due to the fact that outside association with something personal, music is just there. Music is waiting to use people and be interpreted through and by people. People live and listen to music, hmm I guess I am answering my own question while I blog. Now that I think of what Davies is trying to get across in his chapter and what I learned from reading my book for the book review, I think I understand. If we look at music as one entity in itself, separate of genres and elements, separate of characteristics that makes each musical piece different from another, we are just left with art. I guess there are skilled evaluators who are able to appreciate and accept music outside of what makes it up and just takes music for what it is. Hmm... this is a lot to think about. So my question is..What do you think?