A new derivation of the results commonly referred to as Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) is given by studying the asymptotic behavior of classical modal analysis for a general, linear (structural) system. It is shown that, asymptotically, the response at (almost) all points of the system is the same. A numerical example is used to illustrate the way in which the asymptotic limit is approached. Both random and sinusoidal loadings are considered; for the latter an extension of the usual SEA result is obtained.