According to the Tenth Doctor, with music, one could "dance to it, sing with it, fall in love to it. Unless you're a Dalek of course. Then it's all just noise". (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
Most forms of music needed to have a rhythmic or thudding beat. (PROSE: Happy Endings, Revolution Man) Rock and roll was one such form. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark)
Music could also a melodic structure or upon a rhythmic foundation, complete with chanting. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
Music could also be defined as; a complex flow of notes all played on the same instrument. (PROSE: Sleep)
Music could be written down on paper as sheet music, or in some cases painted into a painting, as was the case with Rassilon's Lament. (PROSE: Emotional Chemistry, Blood Harvest)
History of music styles
The Seventh Doctor considered Ace's music from her boombox anachronistic in 1963. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
By mid-2596 some music could be classified as "club-generic, layered, white-noise structures, underlaid with low-level, subsonic dynamics operating directly on the limbic system". (PROSE: Return to the Fractured Planet)
At some point in the far future, music consisted of "harsh electronic sounds with a pumping bassline". (PROSE: Hope)
Genres of music
- Hardcore industrial techno (PROSE: Eternity Weeps)
- German industrial house (PROSE: Eternity Weeps)
- Jazz (PROSE: Dragons' Wrath)
- Disco music (PROSE: Beyond the Sun)
- Easy-listening music (PROSE: Mean Streets)
- Waltz music (PROSE: Dry Pilgrimage)
- Martial music (PROSE: Dry Pilgrimage)
- Thrashmetal (PROSE: The Sword of Forever)
- Blues (PROSE: The City of the Dead)
- Classical music (TV: The End of the World)
Music uses
Harrison Chase believed plants liked music, and played music to them. (TV: The Seeds of Doom)
Guinevere One contained music samples. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
Music was one of several bodies of human achievement archived on microfilm on the the Ark. (TV: The Ark in Space)
Allusions to music
Marco Polo likened a sandstorm to musical instruments being played. (TV: Marco Polo)
Galleia thought the sound of the Master's TARDIS materialising sounded like music. (TV: The Time Monster)
Time Lords
Gallifreyans demonstrated they valued music as a respected art. Adric thought Old High Gallifreyan sounded musical. (PROSE: Cold Fusion) A painting of Rassilon showed him with a harp and sheet music. The Fifth Doctor induced this was the key to Rassilon's Tower and played the painted music on the harp, opening the secret passage. Details of Rassilon's entombment were passed down as a nursery rhyme, which the Second Doctor sang. (TV: The Five Doctors)
The First Doctor was occasionally fond of singing and proud of his ability to "charm the birds from the trees." He had used a perigosto stick in the Academy to make music. (TV: The Chase) He and the Master played in a band together in school. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion). He played a harp. (TV: The Romans)