Originally Posted By: MarioD
My point is that music is always evolving, sometimes for the better and sometimes not, but to evolve one must break the current rules.

Or am I way off base here?

Yes, music is always evolving and yes, sometimes rules are broken or changed and yes, new rules are written to add to the body of existing rules. But none of this says rules don't exist.

In addition to the rule of rhythm, I suspect that if we explore deeper that we will find that there are rules involving melody, harmony and other elements of good/great music, that if broken will slide you down the spectrum from music into sound and then if you keep going, painful noise.

I suggest that music in general is saturated with rules . . . for good reason. Some we may be conciously aware of and others not so much.

Even in our most "rule-less" genre, jazz, in many works I can hear the rules at play; consistent rhythm, repeating phrases, moving away from a musical thought and the returning to it, etc. I think this is because the composer had an audience in mind that he/she intends to communicate with.

I suspect that music is full of rules because at some deep level, music is a language. And in order for the reciever to understand what the transmitter is transmitting, both have to understand a common set of rules that govern the language.

No Rules = Randomness = Noise

In my opinion, here is a great piece of music. To demonstrate my above equation, import this into your DAW and then attempt to break every rule you can. Tweak the rhythm, alter the phrasing, randomly modify the structure. I think you'll find noise is the result.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgFhNbFvl_s

https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677
BiaB 2024 Windows
For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.