What is John Blacking’s definition of music? How is this definition related to other aspects of culture?

What will be an ideal response?

• "Music is sound that is humanly patterned or organized." Music is humanly constructed like all other aspects of culture.


• Listen again to "Postal workers" online and consider whether or not the example is music. Most listeners from the Western music-culture would classify the example as music. How could the example not be considered music? Where do you stand on the issue and why? (Views may differ.)


• According to Koetting who observed and described the music of the postal workers, these men did not quite think of themselves as musicians who were performing music and creating a musical event. Rather they thought of themselves as simply postal workers who were coordinating their work efforts.


• Let students discuss their own examples that illustrate sound as "music" vs. sound as "non-music."


• Work Song is found in music-cultures all over the world. The postal workers turned life into art.