Is Sound a Song?

Is sound a song? I think in postmodernism it is because anything-goes in postmodernism. In pop music it’s always the sound that counts first; it’s what hits a person’s ears within the first couple seconds. Music relies on time and so it takes time for you to absorb it. But in postmodernism, in the pop world, everything has to happen within seconds, so it’s impossible for music (in the modernist or premodernist sense) to fully exist in current pop music. It did obviously in previous decades, going back to the 20s and 30s. But back then, people weren’t looking for a Short. They were willing to devote more time to long-durational music, say an entire symphony in one sitting. I think music requires that. Perhaps with a metamodernist approach we can start to refocus on those things. As a musician, I focus on music first. Sometimes I may start with a sound but I’m not thinking that the sound in isolation, perhaps with rhythms or a beat, is going to be a song. But in today’s world, the sound is a song. In premodern times, the experience of music couldn’t use shortcuts. Recordings are in some sense shortcuts, so it’s ironic we now call them Shorts. But it was the sound as well, especially the natural beauty of harmonized vocals in cathedrals, bells, etc. The sound of bells, even if out-of-tune, has a natural beauty, and can be “songs”.

P.S. (From the book by Adam Gopnik, The Real Work):

"There are people who study the meanings of music scientifically, and they have made real discoveries. There seem to be, for instance, two systems” in the brain that respond to music. One is “veridical” and responds to the pleasant sounds of the songs we already know. The other is “sequential”: it anticipates the next note or harmonic move in an unfamiliar phrase of music and is stimulated when the music follows the logic of the notes or surprises us in some way that isn’t merely arbitrary. We recall the meaning of single harmonies from the melodic sentences they conclude. We “learn” music as we learn language, and, with both, our mind disguises from us the complexity of our brain’s calculations. The poignant C-major seventh saves your life when your emotions are already pitched somewhere around a hardedged, unresolved G7."