Reading Blog #2

I think what John Cage did with his 4’33 piece was very significant and I like the meaning behind it, but I just remind myself that if I was there, I would be pissed. I think that it is amazing to be able to drag such strong emotions of disturbance and annoyance from a crowd, simply just from not playing music and forcing everyone to listen to the sounds of the environment instead. One thing that I questioned is if he himself was uncomfortable not appeasing to the audience. Cage’s exploration of randomness went from silence to composing a bunch of random noises and pieced them together to showcase noises as art pieces rather than just sounds. I do see how this seems comedic, as it is unconventional compared to the beautiful sounds of the piano, however I think it is the reaction that he gets from fans that he is looking for. He wanted to play something that no one is expecting and have people appreciate these sounds as another form of music. I like that he found beauty in sounds that are considered annoying by most, but artistic to him because it shows that beauty can be found in the unlikeliest of places, provided you've got the right set of ears to appreciate it. Cage challenged traditional composition and performance of music by incorporating randomness, environmental sounds, and unconventional techniques. He encouraged audiences to reconsider their perceptions of sound and artistic creation and I see that a lot within music now. Especially with techno music and bands such as AJR, who incorporate a lot of random objects which they can edit and be made to sound beautiful while edited amongst a bunch of other sounds. Although he may not have influenced them directly, he did influence the timeline of music and changed the creation of it from his fearless exploration of new artistic creations.