What is the Cause?

We're inclined to view cultural changes and innovations in terms of influences. We are interested in trying to describe the causes of musical and artistic drifts and breakages. However, this model presumes the effectiveness of cause and effect relationships, something that the maxim "correlation does not mean causation" should caution us against. Rather, as observers of culture, we should in my opinion focus our attention on every element in the environment. What are the resources, the institutions, the trends expressed in other arts?

Of course, there is the other approach, the non-approach. If John Cage is still relevant, then we can simply turn off all our judgments and queries and simply observe, listen and participate (or not).