The Music Phylogeny Project : Collecting Suggestions for Traits!

[Guybrush]

Some said it couldn't be done. What do they know - have they studied phylogeny? I don't know. Have I studied phylogeny? Well, yes - a bit. Do I think it can be done? Yes, of course it can! Let's do it!



Above, you can see a phylogenetic tree. It is a hypothesis describing the evolutionary relationship between different kinds of whales, how they diverged from a common ancestry.

Just for fun, I want to do the same for music. Music evolves over time much the same way as species do and if you can identify the characters that have changed over time, making such a tree for bands instead of whales is perfectly possible. I want to make a big phylogenetic tree showing different bands and see how they relate to eachother. Will metal form a monophyletic group? Is King Crimson really ancestral to Nirvana?

Hopefully in the end, I'll end up with one consensus tree and I can publish the results here. Maybe I can even write up a nice article-scientific-style pdf explaining the study along with results and discussion and of course a thank you section to all those who have helped .. Because of course I'm gonna need help!

What I need to do first is to identify the traits from which to compare the relationship between bands. That's where hopefully you come in.



How you can help : Traits and criteria

I'll need to record a number of traits for all bands/artists in the study and use that as a basis to compare bands with eachother. I need you guys to suggest such traits! Suggested traits should fit the following criteria :

• Binary - For any given band or artist, the trait is either present or absent. They have it or they don't!
• Is directly defining for the the sound bands and artists have
• Is so easy to understand that most people can identify whether or not a given band has the trait or not

Example traits :

Good traits : Growling vocals? High pitched screams? Distorted guitar? Untraditional time signatures?
Bad traits : How many band members? are they young? is the production value good? (little direct influence on sound) Do they use pentatonic scales? (too advanced!)

In other words, think of them as yes/no question you can ask about the sound of bands and artists I want to have an outgroup - an ancestral group which posesses mostly ancestral or unevolved characters. For a character like distorted guitar, the most ancestral trait will be to not have distorted guitar since it came later. Therefore, posessing the trait is translated to 1 while not having it shall be 0. The most ancestral band or artist should have lots of zeros in my matrix.



How you can help : How to suggest a trait

If you want to suggest a trait, write up your trait with a short description and then give an example of a band posessing it and a band which does not posess it. If you want, it's also helpful if you can provide a youtube video or something which demonstrates the trait.

Originally Posted by Example

Trait : A Capella

Description : Says whether or not a band sometimes uses a capella (music with only voices and not instrumental accompaniment) in their music!

Possesses trait (1): Gentle Giant
Does not possess trait (0) : The Clash

Example :

Don't worry too much about the quality of your suggestion. Hopefully, there will be lots of suggestions and I can select a number (f.ex 20) that I will work with. Eventually, I'll have a bunch of traits along which a bands sound can be defined as a series of 1s and 0s. Gathering that data will be another thread, though.

I really hope you've read this far because I can't do this project without help. I'm quite eager to get crackin' with this, so know that all who help out will forever have my gratitude