>Bach didn't invent the rules of the contrapuntal Baroque style any more than he invented the "rules of music theory". Which is what the actual FA is saying.
I know that, and I agree with the actual FA.
Just not with the comment that there are no "rules of music", which even if pedantically true (obviously, there are microtonal and different harmonic ethnical traditions, there are western niches like noisecore or musique concrete, there is contemporary classical and atonal music, and so on), it falls flat when it comes to the huge majority of music as the audience knows it, and especially western audiences (which the article is addressed at).
Heck, not just in the west but also in Europe, Latin and Central America, Japan, Korea, Chinese pop, etc. follows the same set of foundational rules (12 note scales, major and minor keys plus a dozen variations, modes, triads, and so on). Heck, even A4=440 has been pretty much standard for decades...
I know that, and I agree with the actual FA.
Just not with the comment that there are no "rules of music", which even if pedantically true (obviously, there are microtonal and different harmonic ethnical traditions, there are western niches like noisecore or musique concrete, there is contemporary classical and atonal music, and so on), it falls flat when it comes to the huge majority of music as the audience knows it, and especially western audiences (which the article is addressed at).
Heck, not just in the west but also in Europe, Latin and Central America, Japan, Korea, Chinese pop, etc. follows the same set of foundational rules (12 note scales, major and minor keys plus a dozen variations, modes, triads, and so on). Heck, even A4=440 has been pretty much standard for decades...