The best definition of noise, I think, is sound that interferes with the transmission of meaning or disrupts the process of interpretation.
It's really that vague, and depends entirely on context and the people and intentions involved. Any definition that attempts to be more precise is certainly going to produce counterexamples. Certainly any definition that tries to define noise in terms of a finite set of identifiable properties of sound is doomed to fail. And, despite the attempts of this article, you most certainly cannot define noise as anything other than tonal music. There are many forms of atonal music, many of which are quite old.
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The best definition of noise, I think, is sound that interferes with the transmission of meaning or disrupts the process of interpretation.
It's really that vague, and depends entirely on context and the people and intentions involved. Any definition that attempts to be more precise is certainly going to produce counterexamples. Certainly any definition that tries to define noise in terms of a finite set of identifiable properties of sound is doomed to fail. And, despite the attempts of this article, you most certainly cannot define noise as anything other than tonal music. There are many forms of atonal music, many of which are quite old.