Reading Blog #2

The article “Searching for Silence” by Alex Ross discusses John Cage and how he was an extremely pivotal figure in reshaping how people view and take in sounds and music. Cage’s performances were very out of the ordinary and posed lots of questions from his audiences as it took much analyzation to understand what Cage was trying to say. The article touches especially on his performance of 4'33" and how it gave lots of people a sense of shock and confusion as to how what he was doing could be considered a performance. I similarly felt that sense of confusion when watching a video of the same act being performed during class. Yet, what Cage is trying to say with his performance is that there is so much more to music than just the instruments. The silence of his performance provides that sounds and the natural ambience that we hear every day can be a type of music within itself. Cage created a new understanding of music, placing emphasis on the artistic attributes that music has, leading people to view music as an art form. The article also touched on the freedom Cage had with music and how he used everyday mechanisms to create sound and life from dull objects. The overarching theme that this article shares is that Cage paved the way for differentiation in music style and genre, demonstrating that art and music can be made from ordinary life and basic objects. I really enjoyed reading this article and it helped me to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning behind 4'33" and other performances done by Cage.