Is Music Really Universal?

Anything about MUSIC but doesn't fit into the forums above.
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what was the question? heh
music universal - most definitely, akin to language being universal, and food as examples

musical taste.. surely there's some commonality in really simple tunes (Happy Birthday, Auld Lang Syne?) that are known and well revered around the globe, with exceptions like the Peruvian jungle, Australian outback, and Alaskan eskimos. Those are the same cultures who have been spared Bieber though - so maybe they have got it right!
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mcnoone wrote:The "music is universal" saying is not about whether people like it all the same...universally, but that music notation is a universal language.
Though I'm guessing we've established this much, and have moved on to the sarcasm at this point?
Oh, is that the question? I thought that the question was "is music universal" like physics is universal. Well, that's what the space music postings led me to believe. I'm just coming into the conversation where it is. It's way to much work to read the rest of the thread.

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VariKusBrainZ wrote:I just read your post in the voice of Eric Cartman, hilarious :)
:hihi:

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mcnoone wrote:...music notation is a universal language.
But it's clearly not, certainly no more so than any other language.
There are a variety of musical notations. The traditional staff notation we use in the West is good for stuff derived and influenced from Western classical music (for obvious reasons), but there is an enormous amount of music for which it is very ill suited (music using intervals smaller than a semitone, music with significant electronic elements etc.)

Despite the saying, music is not universal, in any sense of the term.
Unfamiliar words can be looked up in my Glossary of musical terms.
Also check out my Introduction to Music Theory.

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Music notation is NOT used in rap. Things that make you go "hmmmmmmmmmmm".

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Is there evidence it is not universal, is there some society on earth, even, that totally has no music? I assume not.

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emcee wrote:what was the question? heh
music universal - most definitely, akin to language being universal, and food as examples

musical taste.. surely there's some commonality in really simple tunes (Happy Birthday, Auld Lang Syne?) that are known and well revered around the globe, with exceptions like ...
OMFG do I detest both of those horrors. I can't even

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Be careful to note that "universal" is interpreted subjectively as any word may be. Based upon reading some of the posts in this thread I would be lead to believe in a few cases the meaning might be closer to "lowland gorilla" than "cosmos".
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I wonder if music came before language?
If so, then it might be possible that music influenced language.
Maybe they had little caveman raps using vocal noises and bones on hollow dead tree stumps.
Then the vocal noises became words with meanings derived from the songs.

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aciddose wrote:Be careful to note that "universal" is interpreted subjectively as any word may be. Based upon reading some of the posts in this thread I would be lead to believe in a few cases the meaning might be closer to "lowland gorilla" than "cosmos".
"cosmos"? lol, doubtful that's the question as we can't know if there are beings with ears out there, let alone an acoustically happening planet.

1. of, affecting, or done by all people or things in the world or in a particular group; applicable to all cases.

this definition is totally common currency, man, come on. "Be careful to note..." :help:

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You're failing to acknowledge a whole universe of confusion.

Do those born deaf move to the beat of a different drum?
Free plug-ins for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Xhip Synthesizer v8.0 and Xhip Effects Bundle v6.7.
The coder's credo: We believe our work is neither clever nor difficult; it is done because we thought it would be easy.
Work less; get more done.

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why would they? They can still feel it and likely feel it more acutely than you or I :shrug:
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Not if they're congas! Even less so if they're bongos!
Free plug-ins for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Xhip Synthesizer v8.0 and Xhip Effects Bundle v6.7.
The coder's credo: We believe our work is neither clever nor difficult; it is done because we thought it would be easy.
Work less; get more done.

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not being deaf it is hard for us to say, I imagine it would depend on the person's proximity to the source. I think that someone who is deaf quite likely can feel vibrations unfathomable to those able to hear.

http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/music02.htm
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Well I can make myself partially deaf by shoving stuff in my ears :)

I can say with 100% certainty that feeling vibrations does not to produce the same effect that hearing does.
Free plug-ins for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Xhip Synthesizer v8.0 and Xhip Effects Bundle v6.7.
The coder's credo: We believe our work is neither clever nor difficult; it is done because we thought it would be easy.
Work less; get more done.

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