无论现在或过去，音乐存在于各个文化当中，并在不同的时间和地点，以不同的形式呈现。科学家相信人类最早在非洲出现，并于大约五万年前开始向各大陆迁移。在世界的各个角落，甚至是最偏远的部落或团体，都具有一定的音乐形式存在。因此，科学家认为音乐早在人类祖先活跃在非洲时，就已深植于人类生活当中。所以我们可以知道，音乐从出现到现在已经超过五万年，并且成为人类生活中不可或缺的一部份。

音乐都受到文化的影响很深，不同的文化背景会产生出全然不同的音乐型态。影响音乐的因素非常的多，包括社经组织状态和经验、气候和科技的发展。音乐传达的情感和想法、演奏或欣赏音乐的情境、对演奏家或作曲者的态度等等，也都有所不同。音乐史是音乐学当中最为特别的一个领域，并且是依照发展的时间先后顺序来记载。

Music is found in every known culture, past and present, varying widely between times and places. Since all people of the world, including the most isolated tribal groups, have a form of music, it may be concluded that music is likely to have been present in the ancestral population prior to the dispersal of humans around the world. Consequently, music may have been in existence for at least 55,000 years and the first music may have been invented in Africa and then evolved to become a fundamental constituent of human life.