I’m in shock right now at reading that abstract. The OPs question is one I’ve thought about a lot, and this matches my intuitions/hypotheses perfectly.
I think the next interesting step is to look into the compression process and figure out exactly what patterns/relationships/properties the compression algorithm uses and how. Once you have that, you have a fully predictive model of musical quality, and could use it to generate optimal music.
But of course, that’s all assuming that this model is actually right, and would entail quite a lot of work even if that’s the case. Still, very excited to see this idea suggested academically, I’ve never encountered it before.
How does this model explain/deal with the facts that people have different musical tastes and that (at least some) people have no taste in music at all, but rather appreciate music based on weather or not their peers like it.
The paper isn’t particularly long, if you haven’t read it.
It doesn’t attempt to explain music at a cultural level, only an individual one. You don’t need a theory of aesthetics to explain why people would decide to like whatever their peers do, there’s plenty of general psychology to cover that.
As for different musical tastes, the compression algorithm that the model is based around is subjective and adaptive. So mine can be different from yours (though there’s a fair amount that humans on the whole will tend to have in common), and yours can change over time (esp in response to new data).
In particular, if you’ve been exposed to a lot of e.g. reggae music, then your algorithm will likely be especially efficient at compressing reggae. So it will seem more accessible to you. If I’ve been exposed to only a little reggae, it will likely seem less accessible, but more interesting: the compression algorithm can detect the presence of order and structure, but still has work to do in uncovering and utilizing all the regularity that’s there. And if someone has never heard any music but classical, reggae could be incomprehensible gibberish to that person (read: they won’t like it), because it clashes with their existing model and expectations so drastically.
I’m in shock right now at reading that abstract. The OPs question is one I’ve thought about a lot, and this matches my intuitions/hypotheses perfectly.
I think the next interesting step is to look into the compression process and figure out exactly what patterns/relationships/properties the compression algorithm uses and how. Once you have that, you have a fully predictive model of musical quality, and could use it to generate optimal music.
But of course, that’s all assuming that this model is actually right, and would entail quite a lot of work even if that’s the case. Still, very excited to see this idea suggested academically, I’ve never encountered it before.
How does this model explain/deal with the facts that people have different musical tastes and that (at least some) people have no taste in music at all, but rather appreciate music based on weather or not their peers like it.
The paper isn’t particularly long, if you haven’t read it.
It doesn’t attempt to explain music at a cultural level, only an individual one. You don’t need a theory of aesthetics to explain why people would decide to like whatever their peers do, there’s plenty of general psychology to cover that.
As for different musical tastes, the compression algorithm that the model is based around is subjective and adaptive. So mine can be different from yours (though there’s a fair amount that humans on the whole will tend to have in common), and yours can change over time (esp in response to new data).
In particular, if you’ve been exposed to a lot of e.g. reggae music, then your algorithm will likely be especially efficient at compressing reggae. So it will seem more accessible to you. If I’ve been exposed to only a little reggae, it will likely seem less accessible, but more interesting: the compression algorithm can detect the presence of order and structure, but still has work to do in uncovering and utilizing all the regularity that’s there. And if someone has never heard any music but classical, reggae could be incomprehensible gibberish to that person (read: they won’t like it), because it clashes with their existing model and expectations so drastically.
From talking with a friend in psychology, related ideas have been around for a while.