Originally Posted by The Unfan

This is an awkward question with an answer that is far more deep than I could ever hope to attempt to articulate but I'll try.

Art in general is the purest expression of the human mind. Music falls within the realm of art so music is the purest expression of the human mind. So in that respect it means a lot of things, but at the same time it can mean nothing too. For something communicative to work there must be a host and an audience. From there things get a bit muddled because while the host, the presenter of said music, is trying to express a thought, an emotion, or something else that comes from within his or her brain, we as the audience will take from it something that stems from the subjective relatibility or understanding of said expression. It is here that music has gained a secondary meaning, one which is probably vastly different than the original expression. Now consider that each individual who hears said music is an audience unto him or herself and music gains a near infinite meaning, yet no meaning what so ever to the person who doesn't understand or relate to any element of said music. In this respect music is subject to an infinite amount of subjective meaning, including the entire lack of meaning what so ever.

However, my answer won't end there. Since music is the purest expression of human thought or emotion that means the writer is capable of having an absolute meaning which he or she intended to express and you're too stupid to get. Music is capable of having an objectively expressed opinion, belief, emotion, or thought. That is to say I could write a song about Chinese economy, and that would be what the song is about objectively. However you could subjectively take the meaning to be about drinking a cup of coffee. Your subjective understanding would be far different than the actual intended expression of the song itself which is the actual objective meaning of the song.

In conclusion, music typically has an objective meaning, which would be the meaning of the song specifically, however open to subjective misinterpretations which correlate with something on your mind. However, music is also capable of being entirely subjective. It just depends on writing style. Music is capable of having an absolute meaning, an infinite number of meanings, and no meanings what so ever. Therefore music has no definitive meaning.