Aesthetics of Music
The study of the aesthetics of music revolves around the question "what makes music pleasurable to listen to?". Views on what is "good music" have changed dramatically over the centuries as new musical forms have arisen and others have fallen out of favor. This fact shows the cultural dependence of a person's ability to interpret and enjoy music. Of importance is the difference between art music and popular music. Popular music is music that mass audiences find accessible and is thus is heavily dependent on culture and time period. Art music is music that is cultivated by relatively small groups and must be practiced and studied in order to be fully appreciated. The precise boundaries between art music and popular music are constantly changing and are often the subject of debate.
Read more about this topic: Philosophy Of Music, Philosophical Issues
Famous quotes containing the words aesthetics and/or music:
“Nothing is beautiful, except man alone: all aesthetics rests upon this naïveté, which is its first truth. Let us immediately add the second: nothing is ugly except the degenerating man—and with this the realm of aesthetic judgment is circumscribed.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“If I could believe the Quakers banned music because church music is so damn bad, I should view them with approval.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)