Is music infinite or will there come a time when it has all been done?

We considered this question in college. The math says that the possible combinations of notes, timing, instrumentation, instrumentation, style and so forth are so close to infinite that for all practical purposes we'll never run out of new songs.

I think there will always be a new style and uniqueness in music. It may be influenced by earlier music types, but it will never repeat. At least I hope not.

Heck no. Music, for one, has no definite "properties." Go outside and listen to nature...that's music...and it's different every time.

music can never "be done."

even if you run out of notes and melodies, you can always change them, put them to different timing, change the key of it, etc.

it may have all been done, but i dont think anyone could live long enough to hear it. if you feel like you have heard it all, buy some windchimes... those things never stop inventing new music.

As long as there is emotion, there will be music

That is subjective, as you can see from the answers. You can argue that music will always find a way to replenish itself, be new. But if you think about it, even with 1/4 tones, there are only so many different chordal progressions that can be made before repeating yourself. It's about how you make it sound that makes it original or not.

Its ALL already been done and artist today are just sampling beats from other songs and adding in shitty lyrics and call it their own creation :(

infinite, not just with the rythm and note combinations, but as new instruments are made, and electronic sound utilized.

I don't know that the right term for music would be infinite. Nothing is infinite, not even the universe. But as long as there are people still alive, there will be a form of music even if it is described as beating two sticks together in rhythm.

Music is infinite. That's like saying 'is there a time when all the books have been written?'.

NO! Anything can be chopped and screwed. ;)

Music is infinite in the sense that there are an infinite number of different songs/melodies, each of finite length. Proof: Consider writing a melody for each of the following infinite number of songs with the following words:
1. "I sing song number 1."
2. "I sing song number 2."
3. "I sing song number 3."
etc. etc.
Writing the melody for each of the above songs is mechanically done as follows: Choose any 4 notes for the first 4 words (keep it the same for all songs), but then change the next note(s) according to the digits encountered by mapping, say, 0 to A (440 hz.), 1 to A#, 2 to B, 3 to C, etc. The tune for each song is unique because each integer is unique. The number of songs is countably infinite because they are obviously in one-to-one correspondence with the integers. QED. (Admittedly, none of these tunes is great music - but then neither is all intentional music.) -- James D. Klein, Walla Walla University

Music still has a lot of room to grow and will do so forever. As of right now (in Western theory) we regularly only use 12 tones. There are an infinite amount of tones in between each. Eventually, we may be come accustomed to hearing more of those. Also as times change, media changes which changes the way we are able to create music. Think of the last 10 years and how drastically music has been changed by digital alteration. The possibilities are endless, therefore music is endless.

when we hear music, we feel it, we are told that we hear it so we stop thinking about it, but we feel it. its not like another one of your senses. for this reason i think that music is completley infinite and with music you can manifest a emotion or thought ever.

Music is an expression of collective and individual experiences. When life stops music stops. It will never stop until everything alive stops living.

There will ALWAYS be new music ... New instruments, new lyrics, new sounds...

That question is like asking if AB will be around when all the questions have been asked... They NEVER will ALL be asked. ;-)

No, technolegy will develop, and so will music

Yes, it has all been done. However, as long as there is a beating heart and breathing body, music will be infinite. People die, and new ones come along appreciating the music of 500 years ago. The Beatle's will die off at some point, and (god willing we're still around) 500 years from now they will be discovered again. This will inspire some 15yr old kid to pick up a guitar, or whatever instrument is in, and play. Styles will come and go, but Music will never die.

It has all been done, and it will all be done again. The experience will always be new.

Infinity is within EVERYTHING. Nothing is finite. To say it is only stops intelligent evolution. There is always more to it. And by "it" I mean EVERYTHING. (Including music.)

music is infinite. (well it better be)

musical notes are like letters of the alpabet, string the letters together to make words, the words to make sentences into conversations around the dinner table with friends sentences overlaping and changing the course of the evening. It's hard to have the same party twice when you are alive in the moment. Turn off the radio and make music with your friends. Don't keep score.

considering how many notes there are, it is possible but it would take an unending amount of years to happen

you can say music is practically infinite because of all the

possibilities and combinations, but it's actually a lot more

limited than you think. you can have two songs that are nearly

identical but one note between them is slightly different, would

anyone say that's a whole new song? not necessarily. if you

wrote a tune and then someone copied your tune and changed one

little thing, then hey it's another song! no, you would think

that's bull crap.


so saying music is so vast because all the possibilities and

combinations, doesn't take that similarity issue into account.

if you were to layout and view all the possible songs to exist,

there should be borderlines in which however many songs can be

grouped together based on being similar enough, then all those

songs that are similar enough would be considered one song.

though each one is technically its own song, the music industry

and listeners would not be able to handle different songs that are

99% the same, and thus because of this, music is a lot more

limited.


the time when it has all been done will not come suddenly like a

slap in the face, it will come gradually as songs become more

and more similar to some other songs already made, until we

eventually throw up our hands and give-up. with future

technology involving increasing the number of frequencies we can

hear and giving birth to new music with that much more

frequencies will only move the time of 'when it has all been

done' further up in the future, since despite more combinations,

will still eventually, however long, in time reach a brick wall.


you would have to believe also that when artists write new

music, they have to be aware of the possibility that their

particular tune could be the same or too similar to someone

else's already released, and this would be especially the case

in country, rock, and electronic music. realize, that songs are

discovered. all the possible tunes are waiting to

exist, waiting for someone to discover any one of them.


on a final note, there is the concept regarding thinking

some songs sound the same when they are actually totally

different. for example, someone who listens to mainstream pop

music could think a lot of electronica/trance songs sound the

same whereas a fan of elec/trance music would hear them each as

being totally different and unique from one another. this

concept would play a major factor in how similar you could have

all the songs before they are too similar beyond recognition

from one another.

have you listened to the radio lately? i havent heard anything over the airwaves over the last 5 years that sounded different. and eveything that does sound different is written off as garbage by critics so it never gets the credit its deserved.

As soon as someone declares all the music that can be written, has been written, someone else will take this as a challenge, and prove the original someone wrong.

For all practical purposes, the mathematical permutations (combinations would be wrong to use here) of notes, then combined with instruments, or not, voices, or not, inflections, or not, etc. may as well be infinite because the number is so great as to approach infinity.