The definition of the word "music" is hotly contested, not least because the word has such strong connotations and use beyond the subject itself.
Music as sound: One common definition of music is to label it as "organized sound" or more ornately, "the artful organization of sound and silence". This definition is widely held to from the late 19th century forward, which began to scientifically analyze the relationship between sound and perception.
Music as subjective experience: Another commonly held definition of music holds that music must be "pleasant" or "melodic". This view is used to argue that some kinds of organized sound "are not music", while others are. Since the range of what is accepted as music varies from culture to culture and from time to time, more elaborate versions of this definition admit some kind of cultural or social evolution of music. This definition was the predominant one in the 18th century, where, for example, Mozart stated that "music must never forget itself, it must never cease to be music."
