Musical and Non-musical Sound: Average Listener’s Perspective

This project aims to understand what 'noise' is within the context of music, how it can be used within music to introduce interesting timbres and ideas, and what musical characteristics cause the average listener to perceive a piece as either noise or music. This research topic was chosen as it is essential to stretch the boundaries of what sound can be used in music to create fresh ideas. The research is also crucial for experimental artists to understand noise, how it can be used in music, and how an audience may react. The methods used to research this topic include the creation of a survey that presents experimental music pieces to an audience and gathers an audience's opinion on the pieces' musicality. Another method is using experimental sounds and production techniques to create music samples and a long-form piece. According to the survey results, melody, rhythm, recognisable musical instruments, and intention to create art are essential elements for a piece to be considered music to the average listener. Many interesting sounds and timbres were discovered by creating the music samples and the long-form piece. 'Noise' can be defined in many ways, as discovered through the research resources. It can be defined as unwanted or unintentional sound; it can be defined by the characteristics of the Noise genre and by the use of 'noise' in experimental music