Ten minutes of silence might top the iTunes chart this week

Perhaps the very height of experimental art wankery is a track named 4′33″ by composer John Cage. Presented to the world in 1952 — back when they should have known better — and written for any instrument (sigh), the track is basically four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence, in three movements.

Cage’s song has been one-upped by Samir Mesrahi’s ‘A a a a a Very Good Song’: ten minutes of absolute silence, which is currently racing up the charts. It’s not through nefarious methods either – people are choosing to download this song, knowing exactly what it is.

Whereas Cage’s pursuit was artistic, Mesrahi’s is functional. On a number of vehicles (cars, hoverboards, spaceships, etc.), as soon as an iPhone is plugged into the USB port, the first song in your iTunes library, in alphabet order by track name, begins playing  — which is only part of the reason why the Absolutely Fabulous theme song is currently your most-played track on iTunes.

Jokes aside, this is quite annoying, so this A-heavy miracle grants iTunes users ten minutes of silence, during which they can scroll through their library, and pick something else, like the Only Fools and Horses theme song, for example.

People are quite liking this 99c fix, and as a result, the song is climbing iTunes charts.

Buy this masterpiece here, and find solace in the silence. You may enjoy it more than music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–DbgPXwLlM

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.