The concept of noise revisited: some reflections on music

This article examines the distinction between noise and sound by following Jacques Attali’s critique which he matured in his classical work, Noise: The political economy of music. The main concern in revisiting the issue is the premise that the duality between noise and sound bears some significant implications for the difference between western and nonwestern musical forms as conceived by the Western modernity. The analysis extends to the other dualities, such as the one between melody and harmony, when it tackles the history of the emergence of theoretical interests in ‘other’ musics (namely ethnomusicology and comparative musicology). The article concludes with some speculative reflections on what these dualities and relations would mean for the social analysis of music with a brief reference to the methodology of the sociology of music.