GENRE, EXPERIMENTALISM, AND THE MUSICAL FRAME
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causes or external associations of a sound, which Schaeffer advocated as reduced listening. It instead means that listeners can contemplate a sound from the outside world for its own aesthetic merits. One of Cage’s goals was to enable listeners to hear all sounds as if they were music, and it would be impossible to talk about any of the music featured in this book without also acknowledging Cage’s influence. But experimental electronic music demonstrates not merely that music has expanded or should expand its boundaries but also that musical listening constitutes only one very limited type of aesthetic listening experience. And while insiders might still insist on the distinctions among various metagenres and genres, outsiders might well perceive in electronic music as a whole not only a new musical experience but a new medium in which sound is aesthetic but not especially musical. This book’s conclusion begins with this premise, that electronic music forecasts the end of music as we have known it in the West for several centuries. I don’t make this claim lightly or for dramatic effect. Music, as any form of organized sound, will continue to exist, and listeners and musicians will continue to argue and obsess over its meanings and significance. But the rituals and expectations surrounding this experience have changed and promise to continue to do so.