ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

4'33"

Imagine you and your friends are at a music concert. You are all excited to hear the music and the lights go down. Then a person walks onto the stage, but instead of playing an instrument or singing, they just stand there quietly for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. They don't make any noise, and there's just silence in the whole room. This is a piece of music called "4'33''."

This might seem weird or boring, but the idea is that the sounds that you hear during those 4 minutes and 33 seconds are actually the music. You might hear a car driving by outside, people whispering, someone coughing, or even your own breath. All of these sounds are part of the piece of music because it's meant to get you to listen to the sounds around you in a different way.

So even though there's no traditional music being played, "4'33''" is still considered a piece of music because it uses silence and the sounds around you as the music. It's like if you were playing a game with your friends where you all listened to the sounds around you and tried to hear as many different things as possible. That's what "4'33''" is all about!