"Water Walk" by John Cage

I first heard of musician John Cage in a class about art and music since 1945, he was introduced at nearly the beginning of the class right along with visual artist Marcel Duchamp- if that might give you any sort of idea what type of musician he is. I dont really remember much about the 1st piece I heard other than it sounded like a bunch of random sounds, not even "music." But I guess that was Cage's point- pushing the envelope of what was considered music just like ol' Duchamp sticking that urinal in an art museum and forcing people to consider visual art differently. The 2nd Cage piece was called 4'33". The instructor started the recording and we heard nothing. We waited and waited, assuming there was something wrong with the sound equipment. Eventually people started quietly chatting and moving about, and by the end of the song, most everyone was doing something else than listening entirely, and the class was all out loud. Hey, what do you know- all of our sounds were actually what Cage intended to be the song. Yeah, okay- hold the phone: that's pretty lame. I get it- he did it first, but really is that art? People love to judge art based on things such as this, whether it's original, pleasant to take in, understandable, etc.

Here's an original recording of him performing on a 1960's game show called "I've Got a Secret." It's funny that this sort of performance must have been considered complete quackery at the time, but the host is genuinely cordial towards Cage, although acknowledging that the audience is probably going to laugh- which they do. The audience must be wondering, "Is this guy for real?" Even though they laughed, I think they were much more polite than what today's tv audience might be.