Submit: tracks that are not Music

[Sebasty]

Hey all 🙂

I want to create a thread for tracks that are not deemed as music either by general public or from your personal stance.

I've been listening to a playlist put together by friends that's around songs that most people wouldn't call music, and it has been quite interesting. It has Nicky Minaj and Merzbow (unsurprisingly), but also some peculiar instrument (ab)use and sound design among other content.

Thus I feel it could be interesting to ask what you deem not musical, or if you have a track you like but feel general public does not, submit that too 🙂

👀

[AdamDam]

Here’s a track from my library that I like, but that I wouldn’t consider to be music:

https://open.spotify.com/track/2ytitxqQ7JehV0JadqjsJW?si=I-_DuZpnQv-tztcQ9ULzVw

It’s from a lecture by the philosopher Alan Watts, where he guides the listener through a few ways that one can get into a meditative state. He talks about how listening to the sounds around oneself, as well as one’s own thoughts in the same way (just as if they are happenings rather than something one is doing), can be conducive to getting into a meditative state. He also talks about the importance of focusing on breathing in meditation, since breathing happens whether you try to do it voluntarily, or whether you are not thinking about it. In this way, breathing can be looked at both as a voluntary and involuntary action, and brings about a state of mind where one understands that the distinction between what you do and what happens to you is arbitrary; both the voluntary and involuntary aspects of one’s experience are one happening. And at the end of the track, he emphasizes not to hurry anything while using these meditative aids, and rather to be content with being aware of what is.

The “music” part of the track is a sort of flowing continuum of ambient, droning background sounds that are probably meant to complement the spoken word parts of the track. I think they sound nice, and accompany Watt’s voice well; however, I wouldn’t consider this track to be music, since there aren’t any noticeable rhythmic or melodic patterns.

Cheers!

[Ivan]

Hi everyone, 

I'll join this thread with a favorite album intro that's included as a track in the album but contains no music. This is the intro to Sandra's album Mirrors (1986) called The Second Day: 

spotify:track:561wU5FqAGhfFvBOFDIuFl:small 

It leads to the first song in the album, a great track titled Don't Cry (The Breakup Of The World): 

spotify:track:7o4zg8mYkSTdJ3CBXasqX2:small