Argumentative Essay Example: Tap Dancing is Music

Many people have subjective feelings towards what is and what is not considered to be music, which begs the question, do you think that tap dancing should be included under the category of music? As more ways of creating music have seemingly sprung out of the ground in recent years, the fine line of what constitutes music and not music has slowly faded more and more. One of these categories is tap dancing which contains both dancing and music, with many claiming that it is strictly dancing and others saying that it can be both at the same time, so there must be a consistent definition. The best way to determine if tap dancing is included in the music genre is to narrow down a specific, but solid definition of what music really is. Music requires regular or irregular beats, both speed and loudness, and it must be intentionally created, so tap dancing is music.

First, music must contain regular or irregular beats created by various mediums such as instruments, objects, breaks/rests, vocals, technology, and tones. Some may argue though that music does not require beats to be considered music and just necessitates rhythm. But while music does require rhythm, beats continue to be a necessary component because they are just one of the multiple combined musical components that make up rhythm. For example, if someone argues that a song only contains rhythm then it must contain beats because they help make the rhythm what it is. The International Journal of Early Childhood wrote an article studying music in the classrooms where they described what music is and they said that “a core skill in music making, at the foundation of the musician advantage, is the ability to adapt to and maintain a steady beat” (Williams, 2018, Para. 4), the article goes on to say that this steady beat can be regular or irregular. In other words, at the basics of music creation, to be considered music, a piece must create and sustain a steady beat that is used in helping create rhythm (Williams, 2018, Para. 4). Since beats are such a vital component of all music, there are a plethora of tools that can be utilized in order to make these beats in music, which include instruments, random objects, vocals, computer technology, and much more. While works that seem to only contain rhythm may not be considered music by many, these works must fit into the category of music because beats are used to make rhythm, therefore all music must contain beats.

Not only does music necessitate beats, but it also requires either speed, loudness, volume, accents, storyline, tone, or a combination of the listed in order to provoke various emotions and create understanding. Some may argue that a song with no words cannot create any emotion in a person, but take classical music, for example, often people are left speechless and many times even crying after listening to powerful classical music. Because music can spark both good and bad emotions in its listener, even songs with no words can do the same. According to Day, “Juslin and colleagues proposed that visual imagery is an important mechanism by which music induces emotional states in listeners” (Day & Thompson, 2019, Para. 1), which helps explain that when a person listens to a certain type of music it creates a mental image and takes them back to a memory which induces a specific emotion within that person. Also, according to the Journal of Positive Psychology, a study that took place in 2013 “discovered that individuals who listened to music that could be classified as happy and upbeat were able to improve their mood and overall happiness in just a few weeks” (“Music and emotion relationship,” 2019, Para. 2), but this study does not strictly apply to happy music, but rather all types of music. This study helps can help an individual assume that people who listen to angry music will probably tend to be angrier, and people that tend to listen to sad music are probably going to find themselves to be sadder. This study goes to show the power that music has on a person and their mood and how it can change a person’s outlook on the positives and the negatives of life.

Lastly, to be considered music, a piece must be intentionally created and, in some cases, recorded by someone, in order to give more people around the world the chance to listen to the beauty of their music. Still, some people may argue that an object such as wind chimes blowing in the wind is creating music even though no one is purposely creating these sounds. While on the surface this does appear to be creating music, music requires someone to be purposely creating it, which means that the example of wind chimes is not music but rather just beautiful sounds created by man-made objects and the wind clashing. Recording music is not a necessity for a piece to be considered music, gatherings such as Sunday church or concerts where music is being played are not always recorded but that does not take away the credibility that it is music. People may also argue that a song such as “4’33 by John Cage is not music because it has no sound and therefore cannot be music. While it does not seem like a song with no sound would constitute music, any music that is intentionally created can be considered music assuming it fits the other necessary criteria for being listed under the category of music. Sarrazin, who wrote a book called “Music and the Child” that was published at SUNY Brockport, explains the educational purposes of music towards the beginning of her book. In chapter 2 of the book Sarrazin says that “music is an intentionally organized art form whose medium is sound and silence” (Sarrazin, 2016, Para. 5), which disproves the argument that “4’33 is not music, because it contains silence, it just happens to be that the whole song is silent, but it was still intentionally created. Although a song may contain an extra amount of silence, that does not make it any less of music, it is still considered music just with breaks and silence that last for an extended period of time. While music does not need to contain all of the following components, to be considered music a piece must use at least one or a combination of speed, loudness, volume, accents, sound, or tone.

Furthermore, it seems nearly impossible to make claims about what music is without practically applying it to a real-life situation, that is why the connection needs to be made between tap dancing and music. First, the idea that all music must contain beats or rhythm as a whole applies to tap dancing because many consider tap dancing to be a type of jazz music. According to the Journal of Pan African Studies, “the founding fathers and mothers of rhythm tap elevated the art form from its illegitimate past to a level of serious artistic recognition by turning dance into music - the syncopated rhythms of jazz,” (Peters, 2011, Para. 2) which confirms the idea that tap dancing is considered to be music because of its rhythm. Justifying tap dancing as music is also supported by the idea that all music requires various speeds and loudness to spark different emotions into the listeners, which is exactly what tap does, but to a more intense scale because it utilizes both dance and music to induce an even greater emotional state. And finally, tap dancing is considered to be music because it is intentionally created by the tapper. If someone were to simply drop tap dancing shoes on the ground they would simply make a noise, but not music. For all of these reasons, tap dancing is considered to be music.

Tap dancing is a form of music based on the unbiased definition and criteria previously listed. Although this may be true, many people will continue to keep tap dancing out of the music category for biased, subjective reasons. Many people will continue to argue that tap dancing is not music because it is strictly a form of dance, which tap dancing most definitely is. But that does not refute the idea that tap dancing can be both dancing and music at the same time. The criteria-based definition listed above is vitally important to determining whether something is or is not music is because if something does not fit into all of the criteria in one way or another, then it cannot be considered music. Based on the specific criteria listed above, tap dancing is music, although people should be actively taking their personal beliefs and biases into account for the purpose of good judgment and critical thinking. Anyone can go be a great dancer and be great at making music at the same time, just simply go practice becoming a great tap dancer.