Music is universal, agree? What do you think extraterrestrial music is like?

well the earth rotates to d flat. so all of what we percive as noise or music is relative to that. this would change depending on the size, tilt, gravity of the ailens' world. our music could sound like the static on chanell 134 to them, but chanell 134 could be the best damn music they ever heard.

I think being exposed to music from an alien species would change how this world works. (Along with all the other aspects of life it would share.) The music would probably have some similarities, although the possibility of our brains not being able to perceive it could be a problem. Obviously I have no idea what it would be like, but all know, it would be one of the best moments of my life to experience extraterrestrial music. Especially if I got to jam with them. :)

Some spacecrafts have instruments that can capture radio emissions in space. I have heard that the planets in our solar system do have "ghostly" sounding songs! See NASA's recording of Jupiter's song.

I think it would be very haunting and echoing. I lived for some time above the Arctic Circle and frequently observed the Aurora Borealis. My Inuit companions said they could hear the sound of it (I couldn't). They described it as a high pitched wailing sound with a very deep undertone...wavy and long, long notes. I did notice the dogs ears prick during the early stage of the light 'show'..so there is something to this..altho' modern scientists deny any evidence of sound.
Interesting Question.....

It is called, "The music of the spheres."

Music is universal because it is based on the laws of physics which permeate the universe. Sound exists because of vibrations and all the music that has ever been and ever will be is out there waiting to be organized into formants of expression.

So, I think we will find some real common elements if we discover other cultures, but also unique elements because there are so many possibilities in music that have yet to be composed.

music is definitely universal!

it always blows my mind to think since everyone's brain interprets sound in a different way the same piece of music sounds different to everyone on earth, imagine an alien race! It probably won't be the same to us i image though, since the design of ours brains most likely won't be the same (who knows?) it might just be weird sounds to us orrr the best sound we've ever heard? lol i guess we'll have to wait and see (or hear in this case)

I recall they sent a pink floyd record in space on some mission... i've always wondered if an alien species ever heard it what it would sound like to them

Spaced out.

without extraterrestrial life there would not be et music... so if there is life lets hope our audible range is similar i wouldn't mind hearing a track or two☺

Ashtar Sheran says that the art when has no vibration is nothing. I read many books about extraterrestrials but they say very little about this argument. Elohim our creators do love artists with sentiments of love

et's big on Michael Bolton

We cannot even fully comprehend another cultures' genre of music on planet earth! I do not think that the people on earth are open minded enough to answer that question, but my thoughts on the subject is this:

I think it would be wonderful and maybe too complicated for us to grasp. Or maybe music is music the setting in this case is just different.

Cosmic satellite bands in motion, from starlight visual equalisation.

It might not be as different as one would think. If you have creatures who breathe, live on a planet surface, and manipulate tools... even a civilization far more advanced and long-lived than ours would probably have evolved as beings using tools fashioned from their immediate environment. My guess is that, just as we did, they would start out in four ways- using their "voice"; somebody beating on something; somebody pushing air through a hollow cylinder(bone?); and finally, driving two nails on a wall and stretching a string between them, making a "diddley bow". I'm pretty sure that any wind or string instrument, no matter where in the known universe, would produce the same harmonic series, and the same major chord at the second octave, possibly forming an affinity for triad I-IV-V-I harmony at the beginning. Perhaps over millenia(as brains grow larger, or augmented by AI), harmony would become trite, with regular top-40 pop rockin' the masses with some crazy Webern-like atonal stuff, but with a beat. Or perhaps labyrinthine chains of circle-of-fifths progressions and retrogressions, time compressed, rapid key changes, and juggling an insane number of theme-melodies...that would overload our senses were we to somehow have the opportunity to listen to it. Which, if we ever do, I hope that I am alive to hear it.

These two music videos. One is "Moments In Space" and the other is "Enjoy The Beauty Of The Universe With New Age Music". Enjoy!

Much of music is based on math and physics, so there will be some familiarity.

Certain instruments are pretty universal: flute, drum, cymbal, and bell come to mind as the best examples as those not dependent on biological shape (the "whistle flute," more commonly called a recorder, can be used by any creature with a mouth, lungs, the right kind of manipulating limbs, and a sense of music). It's also likely that alien cultures would have found many of the same ways we have to make tuned sound: plucking a string or wire (like the guitar and its large family), running a bow along a string or wire (violin and its family, including Far Eastern varieties), vibrating the lips at the end of a tube (brass instruments), blowing air past a reed (clarinet, oboe, and other woodwinds), and so forth. So many of the basic sounds of their music would be similar.

They probably would have some that we don't have, or that we have that just haven't made a big deal of, like striking the end of a tube with the palm or a paddle (such as Blue Man Group is known for doing).

As for how music is assembled, the pentatonic scale is derived mathematically (octave, fifth, third, seventh, second) and is pretty universal. It's probably not that much of a stretch to think that the twelve-tone chromatic scale, and the seven-note diatonic scale derived from it, are in common usage as well. (Even some cultures on Earth use other extended scales, so the same is probably true of alien species, and I wouldn't begin to try to guess how the proportional divisions would work for species overall.)

Being simple constructs, major and minor triads are the basic building blocks of music on the diatonic scale; where the diatonic scale is in use, they're almost certainly a big part of it. The strength of various chord changes, and the preferences they generate, are probably fairly universal (for example, preceding a final tonic with the dominant fifth marks the end of a section).

Simple rhythms (4/4, 3/4, 6/8, and other basic time signatures) are probably the norm universally. Yes, even we on Earth have a lot of good stuff in 5/4, 7/8, and other "odd" times, but simpler is better.

Beyond that, who can tell? It would depend on what kind of values the society has had through its development, and what instruments have "caught on.' Some highly specific cultural styles on Earth, like blues and Gospel, are probably unique to our world. Others, such as folk, jazz, or polka, may have close analogues elsewhere.

And they probably have musical styles and forms all their own.

Somewhere out there, an extraterrestrial might be listening to Spike Jones with his more-or-less-tuned cowbells, or the Korean fusion-jazz band Oriental Express, and think we've been listening to their stuff.

i would so love to hear alien rap...i mean i doubt dey rap about jewelz and cars n hoes...hahaha dat be some funny shit if dey did...

timonewcombe: There are not many things we can take for granted about neither the appearance nor psychology of possible intelligent aliens. Not even a such fundamental thing as breathing. It is enough to look out the window. Insects, fish, molluscs,worms lack the ability to breath, and among the creatures who do breath not all can control their breathing.

Taking it to the extreme, we can't even be sure that they perceive sound or, if they do, put any importance in it.

As some people mentioned, we can't be sure that the sounds they DO perceive are in a range we can hear. They might also have a different perception of time with brains working much faster or, for that matter, slower than our own. The result could be insanely rapid music or music to slow for us to call music.

What I do agree on, however, is that if they make music they are probably also banging things:)

To answer the original question: I think it has rhythm and that the time signatures they use include those we use. I also think that it is diverse. How would you say that human music sound? It ranges from australian didgeridoo'ing to Mozart, from african drummed dance music to the Backstreet Boys and from Bollywood soundtracks to scottish bagpipe music. I hope this answers the question:)