Usually when people buy a ticket for a concert or a performance they expect to be in their seats in the concert hall and hear a mix of sounds from different instruments. However, that was not the case for John Cage’s performance called 4 '33". In this performance John Cage walked on stage and sat in front of his piano in silence for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. The compilation of people coughing or moving around and rustling in their seats was John Cage’s ‘song’. John Cage was a musician that changed the course and style of music forever. John Cage claimed that any sound encountered in our every day lives can be interpreted as song or music. Many people thought that John Cage was making a joke and not taking the art of music seriously. However, for some they applauded his work and his creativity to identify every day sounds as music. John Cage was a life long lover and advocate of music and he used and transformed sounds in ways that people had never thought of before. Not only did Cage make impressive songs with conventional instruments, he also created songs using every day items and the sounds that they made. He made people question how they heard and interpreted music, challenging the rules of how people defined what music was.
Long after his death, John Cage still leaves his mark on the music world and how people hear the world around them. Cage will forever be remembered in the music industry for the ways he challenged the conventional ways of making songs.
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