brettworks

music,
as an organization of noise
or sound,
arises within the structure of listening

music’s social significance
derives from the role it plays
in the stabilization of this structure,

that is, how it articulates
and consolidates
structurally necessary
practices of listening.

– John Mowitt, “Music in the era of electronic reproducibility”
in Music And Society, p. 178 (italics added).