Wx ITH ITS ADOPTION of modern technology, music enters new and complex relationships with the society to which it belongs. Both specialized scientific research and the economy of mass media become directly entangled with the practice of music composition. As a way of analyzing these new relationships, I want to examine the use of the word "experimental" with regard to music: how this term is used by composers and critics; how it sets up and dissolves historical opposition and categories; how it defines music's use of technology and technology's use of music.