Music is part of every culture on Earth. Many people feel that music makes life worth living. We can make music ourselves if we play an instrument or sing. We can hear music on CDs and on radio or television. Music gives us pleasure. It can cheer us up, excite us, or soothe us.
WHAT IS MUSIC?
Music can be happy, sad, romantic, sleepy, spine-tingling, healing—all kinds of things. But what is it? Some people define it as an artful arrangement of sounds across time. Our ears interpret these sounds as loud or soft, high or low, rapid and short, or slow and smooth. The sounds need to continue for a time in some sort of pattern to become music.
Music, like language, is a uniquely human form of communication. As with language, there are many different kinds. In North America, people listen to jazz, rock, classical, folk, country, and many other kinds of music. Each kind of music has its own rules and "speaks" to us in its own way.
What we think of as music depends on where we live. What Americans are used to listening to might sound strange to someone from another culture, and vice versa. It might not even sound like music. In Indonesia, gamelan orchestras play music on gongs, drums, and xylophones. These aren’t the instruments you’d find in a typical orchestra in North America.
Today, modern communications make it possible for us to listen to music from all over the world. Music from one part of the world influences music from another part. For example, gamelan music from Indonesia influenced 20th-century American composers such as John Cage.