Abstract: This article is devoted to understanding the phenomena of classical music and sound art that are often seen as synonymous. The subject of the author's reflection becomes the legitimacy of such an approach in a post-modern society where certain crises between the composer, the performer and listener. The communicative crisis caused by the gradual intellectualization of musical language in the XX century was partly linked by the spread in the second half of the last century avant-garde practices that are traditionally associated with academic music art. To compare certain definitions of music and sound art in order to find out their principal difference, the author has used comparative and axiological methods. The main conclusions of the article are the following: the basis of a musical work is the intentional-semantic aspect unlike sound art oriented at searching various sound impressions in the first place. Currently, due to the 'decompression values' observed in contemporary culture, it is necessary more clearly define the spheres of influence of these phenomena.