Len Fehskens replies to me:

>>Second, noise isn't really something that can be objectively measured.
>
>Actually, it can.  The less correlated (i.e., structured) successive
>moments of the sound are, the more noiselike it is.  A spectral analysis
>of noise shows a simple distribution of frequencies (different kinds of
>noise have different kinds of simple distributions).

The point is that the "line" aesthetically dividing noise from non-noise
seems to be drawn in the sand where the individual listener wants to draw
it.  Furthermore, there are two definitions of noise going on here:  one
an acoustic definition and the other an aesthetic definition.  The first
claims that noise occurs when the spectral analysis shows a certain type
of distribution.  The second claims that rap is noise.

Steve Schwartz