Output details
13 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials
Queen Mary University of London : A - Electrical and Electronic engineering
Evolution of Music by Public Choice
The work is the first major study on the dynamics of musical evolution. In an Internet experiment (http://DarwinTunes.org) over 20,000 participants voted on musical loops; an algorithm randomly combined the highest-scoring loops producing the next generation. Analysis shows that music with increasing appeal evolved by public selection and that later evolution slowed due to gene transmission infidelity.
The study received media attention internationally (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/DT-ScientificAmerican, http://tinyurl.com/DT-LeMonde, http://tinyurl.com/DT-PublicoPT) and nationally (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/DT-Guardian, http://tinyurl.com/DT-BBCRadio). MacCallum gave an invited Royal Institution talk (http://tinyurl.com/DT-RoyalInstitution). The paper received the 2012 Cozzarelli Prize for scientific excellence and originality (Behavioral and Social Sciences) from the PNAS (http://tinyurl.com/PNAS-CozzarelliPrize).