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Preston Reddick
Aaron Pellerin
English 1020
7/1/11
Definition of Music
Dear World,
Music has been apart in the world since the beginning of time. All over the world music
is a major part in any society. Music is something that everyone listens to or is involved in. I
never met anyone who did not like music and if someone tells you they do not like music then
they are lying. There are so many different types and genres it is hard to determine what the true
definition of music is. Everyone has their own definition of what music is and what they would
classify as music. The definition that I have for music is that music is sound, noise, rhythm and
beats that sound good to the ear and that can make people want to dance and uplift them if they
are not in a good mood. It brightens up spirits and just makes people feel good all over. Myself I
listen to all different types of music and they might be different from each other but they are all
still music. The argument being made here is that with all the different types of music and genres
there is no one that is better than any other and none can be excluded. What is not music to you
can be music to someone else. I want to look at the different genres of music that a lot of people
might not classify as music but they still have to be considered music.
I went around and took a poll from a lot of different people such as family member,
Wayne State students and other friends to find out what their definition of music was and I got a
lot of different answers. Some of the answer I got were “Music is the sound of emotion and it is
what we as people go through in an artistic way.”(Kelly Parker). “Music is something that speaks
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to me, it helps uplift me when I’m sad and it helps me when I’m happy as well.”(Cassia Black).
“Music is the sound that agrees with your soul.”(Victoria Clark). “Music is not a sound but a
feeling, a way to escape from outer reality and express oneself, canvas for your artistic vision
and poetry in motion.”(Patricia Vaughan). “Music is the combination of different sounds from
beats, instruments, and lyrics that make up a song. Music is beats that moves you in rhythms to
dance, think, cry. Music relates to everyone differently because we all make different
connections to songs.”(Ashley Lumpkin). These are just some of the definitions I received from
my peers when I asked them on what their definition of music was.
Music is a lot of different things. Singing, instruments, and beats are just a couple of
examples of the types of things that are involved with music. Hip hop, R & B, Pop, Rock,
Country, Gospel and Heavy metal are just some of the different genres of music that are out
today. Everyone has their own preference of what they like to listen to. The music that the media
plays has a big influence on the things that people like as well. The media might only play
certain music so other songs might not get as much play and exposure so they are at a
disadvantage. For example just look at how many different radio stations there are and how there
are only a couple channels dedicated to certain music. Radio stations play the same songs all the
time so that people will get used to it and start liking it. Other songs might not get as much play
and recognition so people will not be used to hearing it and might not like it.
Now what classifies as music and as non-music? Many people have their own opinions
on what they believe is music and is non-music. One example is how a lot of people feel that
Heavy metal is not really music. A publication in the American Sociological Review called
“Anything But Heavy Metal”: Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes, author Bethany Bryson
discusses how Heavy metal is not music. In the article Bryson mainly tries to say that music is
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connected with education. The more education a person has then the type of music they like will
be different. Bryson came up with numerous hypotheses in the article. “People with high levels
of education, income, and occupational prestige dislike more types of music than people do with
low levels of education, income, and prestige.”(Bryson pg. 888). She goes on to give similar
hypotheses of this as well. In this article Bryson’s main argument is that the music people listen
to is effected by their economic status. She uses scales that show which group of people fall
under which category in the economy. She also talks about how racism is a factor as well.
“Whites who have high racism scores dislike the types of music that are disproportionately liked
by people of color more than do people who report less racist attitudes.”(Bryson pg. 888).
Bryson comes up with many different factors on why people might now like certain kinds of
music and won’t include them as music. She gives very good reasoning on why this is so.
Another genre of music that takes a lot of criticism is Hip Hop. Hip Hop has never really
not been consider apart of music but there are many people who would like for it to be. The big
criticism in Hip Hop is the content of the music and the different lyrics a lot of rappers use. One
of the biggest haters against Hip Hop is Bill O’Reilly. He thinks that Hip Hop should be in no
way shape or form involved in politics. In an article titled “Whats’s behind Bill O’Reilly’s beef
with hip hop?” writer Camilo Smith goes into why O’Reilly hates hip hop. Smith suggest that
O’Reilly maybe really doing this just because of the controversy it was cause and all the different
ratings that he can get. “He knows conservative Fox viewers love to be stirred by the other world
that is hip-hop. No matter how mainstream the culture and music has become, there's still a
segment of (White America) who thinks that rap is all guns, gangsters, strippers and saggy jeans,
and only focused on the worst of black American.”(Smith) The most recent case of O’Reilly’s
hatred towards hip hop is when rapper Common was invited to the White House and O’Reilly
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and other politicians felt as though he should not be because of some of his lyrics and the content
that he talks about in his raps. The O’Reilly vs. Hip Hop beef has been going on for a while now
and in the end it only makes Hip Hop look bad. “Hip-hop's embrace of Bill O'Reilly and his
caustic invectives is just as bad as this man dissing the culture and its progenitors. When O'Reilly
is mentioned in a song, it gives him something to bark about on his show. When rappers think
they can go on his show to defend or explain themselves, they think they can outsmart him -- it
isn't' that difficult -- but in the end it probably increases his viewership and never really helps the
man understand the culture or the people behind it…….He's always the winner.”(Smith) Hip
Hop is the only big genre of music who takes criticism like this. You can also say that race could
be a factor in this because most people in hip hop are African American and everyone knows
what African Americans had to go through in this country to gain freedom. Hip Hop artist that
come out have a chip on their shoulder and have something to prove. They want to prove that
they can make good music.