Music, aesthetics of

10. Popular and non-Western music

Recently philosophers have gone beyond the traditional focus on Western classical music to explore the aesthetics of popular music such as jazz, rock, rap and so on, as well as the aesthetics of non-Western music. With regard to jazz, for example, issues related to improvisation have come up. Rock music is often discussed in connection with the role of recording technology, the use of loud volumes, noise, rhythm and beat, and it has been claimed that these constitute rock’s unique aesthetic (Gracyk 1996).

Much work, however, still needs to be done on non-Western music. Here rather than lumping all non-Western music in the same category, one should recognize that the music of different cultures may often raise unique aesthetic issues besides those common across musical cultures, just as the indigenous philosophies of China, India, Africa and the like yield common issues as well as some issues unique to each.