What is Music?

The problem with answering the question What is music? is understanding what would constitute a proper answer. Music arises from human behaviour, and the study of human behaviour is part of biology. So any question about music is a question about biology, and every question about biology requires an answer within the framework of Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection.

2.1 Music is Something We Like

What is music? Its what comes out of the speakers when we play a CD on our stereo. Its what we hear on the radio. Music is singers singing and musicians playing. Music is a sound that we enjoy hearing. Is this a proper answer to the question What is music?? If I asked What is a car?, you could answer by pointing at a large object moving up the street and saying Its one of those. But this may not be a satisfactory answer. A full explanation of what a car is would mention petrol, internal combustion engines, brakes, suspension, transmission and other mechanical things that make a car go. And we dont just want to know what a car is; we also want to know what a car is for. An explanation of what a car is for would include the facts that there are people and other things (like shopping) inside cars and that the purpose of cars is to move people and things from one place to another. By analogy, a good answer to the question What is music? will say something about the detailed mechanics of music: instruments, notes, scales, rhythm, tempo, chords, harmony, bass and melody. This matches up with the mechanical portion of our car explanation. Its harder to answer the What is it for? part of the question. A simple answer is that music is enjoyableit makes us feel good. We could expand on this a bit and say that music creates emotions, or interacts with the emotions we already feel and, sometimes, it makes us want to dance.