Cage, Coke, and Conceptualization

John Cage has a special place in my brain, resting between the music and philosophy sections, like the pointed oval of commonality on a venn diagram. He isn't the kind of composer that gets a lot of plays on my iPod- he's the kind of composer that can make you see your playlists differently. He first bent my conceptualization of 'music', but he has also seeped into the general philosophy governing my perspective of life.

He sounds kind of like a crazy old man in this clip, but what he is trying to say (about music) is that if there were no conventions to music, no memories of what exists, you would not judge the manifestations of new sounds in music. It's the 'newness' of music that excites him.

At 2:20, he talks about two seemingly identical coca-coal bottles being completely different because they are occupying different spaces, being effected by different stimuli, and being perceived from different angles. Give it a think. (ps- at 3:00 it turns into a French interview and a bunch of music you will hate, so you don't have to watch that far)