Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves structured and audible sound, though definitions vary.

The history of music in relation to human beings predates the written word and is tied to the development and unique expression of various human cultures. Music has influenced man, and vice versa, since the dawn of civilization. Popular styles of music varied widely from culture to culture, and from period to period. Different cultures emphasized different instruments, or techniques. Music history itself is the (distinct) subfield of musicology and history, which studies the history of music theory.

The definition of music as sound with particular characteristics is taken as a given by psychoacoustics, and is a common one in musicology and performance. In this view, there are observable patterns to what is broadly labeled music, and while there are understandable cultural variations, the properties of music are the properties of sound as perceived and processed by people.

Traditional philosophies define music as tones ordered horizontally (as melodies) and vertically (as harmonies). Music theory, within this realm, is studied with the presupposition that music is orderly and often pleasant to hear.

John Cage is the most famous advocate of the idea that anything heard can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound," though some argue that this somewhat arbitrarily imposes the definition on anything audible. According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990 p.47-8,55): "The border between music and noise is always culturally defined--which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus.... By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be."

In support of the view that music is a label for a totality of different aspects which are culturally constructed. Often a definition of music lists the aspects or elements that make up music. Molino (1975: 43) argues that, in addition to a lack of consensus, "any element belonging to the total musical fact can be isolated, or taken as a strategic variable of musical production." Nattiez gives as examples Mauricio Kagel's Con Voce [with voice], where a masked trio silently mimes playing instruments. In this example sound, a common element, is excluded, while gesture, a less common element, is given primacy.

The platonic ideal of music is currently the least fashionable in the philosophy of criticism and music, because it is crowded on one side by the physical view - what is the metasubstance of music made of, if not sound? - and on the other hand by the constructed view of music - how can one tell the difference between any metanarrative of music and one which is merely intersubjective? However, its appeal, finding unexpected mathematical relationships in music, and finding analogies between music and physics, for example string theory, means that this view continues to find adherents, including such critics and performers as Charles Rosen and Edward Rothstein.

Genres

As there are many definitions for music there are many divisions and groupings of music, many of which are caught up in the argument over the definition of music. Among the larger genres are classical music, popular music or commercial music (including rock and roll), country music and folk music.

There is often disagreement over what constitutes "real" music: Mozart, Stravinsky, serialism, Jazz, rap, punk rock, and electronica have all been considered non-music at various times and places.

The term world music has been applied to a wide range of music made outside of Europe and European influence, although its initial application, in the context of the World Music Program at Wesleyan University, was as a term including all possible music genres, including European traditions. (In academic circles, the original term for the study of world music, "comparative musicology", was replaced in the middle of the twentieth century by "ethnomusicology", which is still an unsatisfactory coinage.)

Genres of music are as often determined by tradition and presentation as by the actual music. While most classical music is acoustic and meant to be performed by individuals or groups, many works described as "classical" include samples or tape, or are mechanical. Some works, like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, are claimed by both jazz and classical music.

As world cultures have been in greater contact, their indigenous musical styles have often merged into new styles. For example, the US-American bluegrass style contains elements from Anglo-Irish, Scottish, Irish, German and some African-American instrumental and vocal traditions, and could only have been a product of the 20th Century.Many current music festivals celebrate a particular musical genre.

Study

Many people also study about music in the field of musicology. The earliest definitions of musicology defined three sub-disciplines: systematic musicology, historical musicology, and comparative musicology. In contemporary scholarship, one is more likely to encounter a division of the discipline into music theory, music history, and ethnomusicology.

Research in musicology has often been enriched by cross-disciplinary work, for example in the field of psychoacoustics. The study of music of non-western cultures, and the cultural study of music, is called ethnomusicology

.In Medieval times, the study of music was one of the Quadrivium of the seven Liberal Arts and considered vital to higher learning. Within the quantitative Quadrivium, music, or more accurately harmonics, was the study of rational proportions.

Zoomusicology is the study of the music of non-human animals, or the musical aspects of sounds produced by non-human animals. As George Herzog (1941) asked, "do animals have music?" Fran鏾is-Bernard M鈉he's Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion (1983), a study of "ornitho-musicology" using a technique of Ruwet's Language, musique, po閟ie (1972) paradigmatic segmentation analysis, shows that birdsongs are organized according to a repetition-transformation principle. In the opinion of Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990), "in the last analysis, it is a human being who decides what is and is not musical, even when the sound is not of human origin. If we acknowledge that sound is not organized and conceptualized (that is, made to form music) merely by its producer, but by the mind that perceives it, then music is uniquely human."

Music theory is the study of music, generally in a highly technical manner outside of other disciplines. More broadly it refers to any study of music, usually related in some form with compositional concerns, and may include mathematics, physics, and anthropology. What is most commonly taught in beginning music theory classes are guidelines to write in the style of the common practice period, or tonal music. Theory, even that which studies music of the common practice period, may take many other forms. Musical set theory is the application of mathematical set theory to music, first applied to atonal music. Speculative music theory, contrasted with analytic music theory, is devoted to the analysis and synthesis of music materials, for example tuning systems, generally as preparation for composition.

Creation began with a tone - a soul note from which all emerged from the source of consciousness creating multidimensional grids based on patterns called sacred geometry. It will end with a tone - a soul/sole note.

The creation of humanity is linked to harmonics.

Music can unlock your DNA codings - your genetic race memory as to who you are and your mission here at this time.

Some believe that music - tones - can be used to move heavy objects and was used in ancient times for just that purpose.

Music can set your mood and inspire creative expression. It is a creative process involving the right/intuitive side of the brain.

Music can be channeled in the sense of a musician tapping into the energies of a deceased spirit and allowing that spirit to help create music through you. Many musicians put themselves in a totally relaxed space when they are creating thus allowing entities to channel through. A musician may have a style of music that is their own, but can channel something completely different and be successful with it.

Music can heal by creating balance.