Screen labels

A scholarly approach to the social use of sound needs concepts and categories that help us make sense of the complexity of reality, rather than screening it out. There would be no advantage in putting all kinds of metal tools into the same conceptual category, only because they are all made of metal, and so miss the essential difference between a spanner and a pair of pliers. Similarly, there is no advantage in calling “music” (a term, a concept, that is not universal, that very many cultures do not feel any need for) all forms of sound produced with intelligence, craft, and purpose.