Week 2: Reaction to "The Future of Music: Credo"
"The Future of Music: Credo", by John Cage, is a fascinating piece of writing, even more so considering that it was written in 1937.
As far as I can tell, all of the basic premises of his piece have been proven true. The use of noise, the use of non-musical sounds (samples), percussive music, etc are all widespread practices.
However, these practices have not taken off in the world of academia or musical education, but in popular music, and from there, are making their way into the musical "canon". The music that most dramatically exemplifies Cage's credo is not the somewhat sterile world of "experimental" music, but the thriving world of dance music.
There is an entire genre that refers to itself as "noise" music, elements of which have appeared in techno and trance. (For more, see Ishkur's Guide). The use of non-musical sounds, or sampling, is now extremely widespread, especially in rap and hip-hop. Purely percussive music based on samples is also popular, see turntable-based scratching and sampling-based music (the Akai MPC 1000 is a crucial landmark).
It is interesting that all these innovations have appeared precisely in dance music, since it represents a reconnection of music with its roots. A lot of the "classical" music which is typically consumed sitting solemnly in an auditorium was originally meant to be danced, as a celebration, or a kind of meditation. The sort of detachment from the audience that we see in the "classical" music world is a form of stagnation. Hence, it is not surprising to see Cage's prediction materialize in environments where people engage physically and profoundly with the music!