Music, evolving like an organism

I recently watched this video from one of my favorite YouTube channels, SciShow, and got me off on a thought tangent.

I’ve always wondered about how non-life things could evolve, such as languages and cultures, and music is just the same. It endures the same selection pressures as life, if you take some imaginative interpretations. The most popular songs will reproduce more often, by being played in more clubs or on more radio stations, and spread across the globe to live in the brains of the people who hear that invasive tune.

And just like life, the selection pressures change over time, and so artists adapt, always working toward producing the song that will reproduce most.

I bet the same study could be applied to movies and books, and any other form of creativity as well. But do these things only appear to be evolving because we, their creators, are evolving? I don’t think so, because these things–music, ideas–they adapt and mutate way faster than even a single generation sometimes. It is evolution outside of biology. Maybe it’s memeology.

Whatever it is it’s intensely interesting to me, and I might go on a journey through the internet to see what else I can find about it!