By John Cage... the infamous song about silence.

Thoughts? is this art? crap? shit? art? did it make a statement about how silence can be music? or silence can be art? or is just pretentous crap? i wanna hear opinions!

crap of course

not playing golf is NOT a sport

atheism is NOT a religion

no music is NOT music

at best this uhhmm... "idea" ...could make some mediocre Monty Python sketch, but even for that I'm not sure

These people have nothing better to do? [says the fool who keeps posting on the org ]

It's art.

This piece gets discussed a lot in the academies, but it's usually brought up in a joking manner. I don't think anyone really sweats over the question if it's really music or not. The piece itself is obviously a commentary on the "institutional" nature of modern art.

I think when it gets performed in a concert hall it qualifies as "performance art". The explanations provided for it (e.g. "silence itself becoming music" or "there existing no absolute silence") are indeed pretentious. I don't know if Cage himself was that serious about its "intentions".

Bottom line: it's pretty funny.

It's the musical equivalent of Duchamp hanging a store-bought urinal upside down and calling it "Fountain." Not that exciting as a work itself but an interesting conversation starter. What does it mean, what does it make you feel? Actual art, conceptual art, not art?

I've heard some of Cage's actual compositions and he was a real composer, this was not an attempt to get out of producing music. Obviously it struck a chord, heh heh, in the culture.

bobzilla77 said:

It's the musical equivalent of Duchamp hanging a store-bought urinal upside down and calling it "Fountain." Not that exciting as a work itself but an interesting conversation starter. What does it mean, what does it make you feel? Actual art, conceptual art, not art?

I've heard some of Cage's actual compositions and he was a real composer, this was not an attempt to get out of producing music. Obviously it struck a chord, heh heh, in the culture.

It can seem ridiculous at first, but when you start thinking about what it makes you think, what conversations it creates, this kind of statement "art" can be far more interesting than a lot of work that is generally accepted as works of art.