I was listening to some music on the way to work and I came across an artist that I had downloaded last night. What struck me about the music was that it just sounded like these random sounds were tossed together and a song title given. It immediately reminded me of this conversation that I had with some friends back in college. Now granted half of the people in the room were stoned on marijuana, but there were definitely profound things said in the course of the "roundtable".

One of those profound questions was "When is music no longer music?" I thought it was an interesting question because in college we studied this piece I can't remember the artist right now, so if anyone recognizes it help me. But essentially, a person comes out onto a stage, sits at a piano, goes motionless for a few minutes, gets up and bows. The focus of the "piece" is that it's the sounds around you that will make the music: the coughing, throat clearing, moving in the chairs, outside noise, etc. When I first heard about this composition I immediately thought "Well, shizz, let me create a piece where I drop some silverware on the ground. It'll be a new song every performance!"

Then I remember doing this Side A/Side B performance for one of my dear friends in San Diego. During this performance he had a couple of the percussionists sit in front of the audience and beat up a microwave while the rest of us instrumentalists played this normal sounding composition. Granted his music is labeled avant-garde, but still...

Now I think of some of the artists that we have today. Have you ever listened to an artist and thought "Who the f**k greenlighted this CD? What marketing guy thought that putting out this record was a good idea?!" Believe me, in my diverse travels through the Zune Marketplace I've come across many a record like that.

But that leads me back to my question: When is it no longer considered music? Can it be considered music to have your audience sit around for a few minutes and listen to the sounds around them? Is it music when you take various random sounds and loop them together and put them on a CD? Is it really all in the eye (er ear) of the beholder? Where is the line between music and just noise?

I'd like to hear what you guys think on this, so sound off!