This article discusses the perspectives of evaluation that has had the musical work and the own figure of Erik Satie, with the purpose to review what could be the fundamentals of his musical thought. Considering that most of these assessments start from a canonical musical vision, we will treat this as a problem, from how this vision could have affected the understanding of its musical proposal by a certain sector of the academy. It is assumed that Satie opposes the Western musical canon through a musical subversion, that we will ground on Nietzsche. Since subversion is an important feature of cynical thinking, we will establish a link between Erik Satie and the presuppositions of the cynical philosophy, considering the animal as a key concept within this school of thought.