Is Music Melody, or Is It the Other Way Around? (footnote)

In my previous post, I attempted to tackle what, to me, has become a big issue and also a big interest. Are the building blocks of music as concrete as other artforms? And, if not, is that a bad thing? does that mean breaking them down and moving in directions away from tradition is even more valid? I'm not sure, but this is what I was trying to bring to mind. I'm sure there will be more of my thoughts on this in the future. (I'm not sure that my using melody as the basis for this was the most valid approach.)