"The Sound of Silence" (originally "The Sounds of Silence") is a song by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, written by Paul Simon.

In 1964, the American music duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel released a song titled The Sound of Silence. Garfunkel, one half of the duo and co-writer of the famous song, summed up the meaning of this song by stating, “this is a song about the inability of people to communicate with each other” (Patton, 2023).

Garfunkel once said the song is about "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly intentionally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other."

"We were really best friends up until Bridge over Troubled Water,” Simon says about his former bandmate and friend since elementary school Art Garfunkel, 82. “[Afterwards], it didn't have the harmony of the friendship… that was broken.”