For me, personally (and I know many do not agree!) music has to have melody, or at least harmony. I have listened to some grindcore which I would not consider music, would consider noise, and yet you can listen to birds singing and that can be music. But I think to qualify as music the sound needs to have some basic structure, something you can recognise as a pattern, and it should be also something that evokes an emotional response in you, be it good or bad. I mean, I can bang dustbin lids while screaming at the top of my voice and my cat wails at the sound: is that music?
To me, no. It has to sound, I don't know, finished and have a purpose. Naturally, people will come here and say freeform jazz has no pattern, some black metal or EDM or whatever has none, and that's still music. And it is. So my definition does not stand up.
However, to me, I don't consider it music unless I can recognise it as such. Which is why sometimes some random sound (fridge, water in pipes, wind in the trees) can suddenly sound like music, though it doesn't always.
That's my take on it anyway.
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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