28| Music Evolution & Empirical Aesthetics — Manuel Anglada Tort

Music may be magical. But it is also rooted in the material world. As such it can be the subject of empirical inquiry. 

How does what we are told of a performer influence our appreciation of the performance? Does sunshine change our listening habits? How do rhythms and melodies change as they are passed along, as in a game of Chinese whispers?

Our guest is Manuel Anglada Tort, a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has investigated all those topics. We discuss the fields of Empirical Aesthetics and cultural evolution experiments as applied to music. 

• Manuel's website with PDFs and links to papers
• Multiverses.xyz

Chapters

(00:00) Intro

(03:35) Start of conversation: Music Psychology and Empirical Aesthetics

(07:54) Genomics and Musical Ability

(18:25) Weather's Influence on Music Preferences

(31:57) The Repeated Recording Illusion

(43:24) Empirical Aesthetics: Does Analysis Boost or Deflate Wonder?

(49:59) Music Evolution and Cultural Systems

(52:18) Simulating Music Evolution in the Lab

(1:01:27) The Role of Memory and Cognitive Biases in Music

(1:05:33) Comparing Language and Music Evolution

(1:20:37) The Impact of Physical and Cognitive Constraints on Music

(1:31:37) Audio Appendix