"Music is a universal language" is a cliche that I think is not really true.
Certainly it's true that all cultures apparently share enjoyment of music, and moreover that cultures appear able to enjoy music that originates from other cultures; therefore in that sense it is universal. A "language" though? If so, it's a very rudimentary language. Most people seem to agree on whether a particular piece of music sounds joyful, sad, angry or indifferent, so to that extent it can convey emotion, but that's about as far as it goes. You can't even tell someone via music something as simple as "I have a red pencil box", not unless it's a song with lyrics, and then it's the language of the lyrics that is conveying the information. Importantly, even the examples I gave above of emotion in music are only like statements in a language such as "I am sad"; I can think of no way a fragment of music could be used to frame a question for someone else to answer, not even something as elementary as "Are you happy?", and being able to ask questions would seem to be a primary requirement for a true language.
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