Musical taste and harmonic conventions evolve as innovations become tradition

Evidence

Perhaps all sound memories turn into romances. And the more quickly new sounds are hurled at us the more we are thrust back into the wells of memory, attractively fictionalizing the sounds of the past, smoothing them out into peaceful fantasies. — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 607 (#expands, via linked claim)

A few things do truly distinguish biological and cultural evolution, however. In biological systems the ultimate source of new variation is mutation, copy errors incorporated into the genetic code when DNA replicates itself during cell division. Mutations don’t happen very often, and when they do, they strike at random. Novelty in the design of manufactured weapons can arise through random events, too, such as mistakes that crop up during production. But manufactured weapons are usually modified on purpose, as engineers and designers seek to improve them. Brilliant minds like those of Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, and J. Robert Oppenheimer, all strived to develop new and better weapons, and the varieties they experimented with were deliberate. This means that new variation can arise faster in cultural traits than in biological ones, and this variation is more likely to be constructive. Once in place, however, variation is variation, and selection drives evolution just the same. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 499 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Aesthetic sound-quality reactions depend strongly on sociocultural background; Rapid sound change drives nostalgic fictionalization of past sounds — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 607; Deliberate design generates new cultural variation faster and more constructively than random mutation — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 499 (+2 more)

Related

• Deliberate design generates new cultural variation faster and more constructively than random mutation (similarity 0.84)
• Rapid sound change drives nostalgic fictionalization of past sounds (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Rapid sound change drives nostalgic fictionalization of past sounds #expands (0.75) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 607
• Deliberate design generates new cultural variation faster and more constructively than random mutation #expands (0.75) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 499