DOI: 10.5061/dryad.h0228
title: Data from: Evolution of music by public choice

description: Music evolves as composers, performers, and consumers favor some musical
 variants over others. To investigate the role of consumer selection, we
 constructed a Darwinian music engine consisting of a population of short
 audio loops that sexually reproduce and mutate. This population evolved
 for 2,513 generations under the selective influence of 6,931 consumers who
 rated the loops’ aesthetic qualities. We found that the loops quickly
 evolved into music attributable, in part, to the evolution of
 aesthetically pleasing chords and rhythms. Later, however, evolution
 slowed. Applying the Price equation, a general description of evolutionary
 processes, we found that this stasis was mostly attributable to a decrease
 in the fidelity of transmission. Our experiment shows how cultural
 dynamics can be explained in terms of competing evolutionary forces. The
 audio files attached below can also be heard at .
description: DarwinTunes-medley-at-0-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-150-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-250-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-400-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-500-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-600-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-700-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-900-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1000-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1125-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1250-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1375-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1500-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1600-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1700-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1800-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-1900-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-2000-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-2125-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-2280-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-2375-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-2500-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).DarwinTunes-medley-at-3000-generationsA medley of audio loops selected manually from a particular point in the evolution of experimental population 1 (EP1).