Evolution: Evolution will occur whenever three processes are present: (1) a process by which traits can propagated, (2) an environment that selectively facilitates or impedes propagation, and (3) a process through which traits can be varied.
Memetics: The view that ideas are propagated in minds, mutate, and are subjected to selective pressures.
Meme: A basic unit of information transferred between minds. The smallest self-sufficient idea that can be propagated.
Meme Pool: The complete collection of ideas ever entertained by human minds. Successful memes are ideas that commonly occupy human minds. An estimate of meme success might be made by tallying how often an idea appears in library books.
A memeticist might approach the analysis of a musical work as follows:This document is available at http://csml.som.ohio-state.edu/Music839B/Approaches/memetics.htmlMost evolutionary theorists are opposed to any notion of evolutionary "achievement" or "success." However, most theorists accept some notion of "adaptive fitness" (often as measured by the pervasiveness of some trait). A possible evaluative component to memetic-inspired music analysis might:
- Identify potential memes in a work. That is, identify auditory ideas (themes, textures, rhymes) or conceptual ideas (palindromes, word-painting, parody) that might be regarded as mentally infectious. Examples include earworms (tunes that stick in the mind) and cool concepts (music-related concepts that are interesting or compelling in some way). (MEME)
- Identify the venues for contagion. How are the memes propagated? What is it about the mental and cultural environments that might encourage these memes to spread? What memes have trouble propagating? Whose minds provide the best "vectors:" the minds of listeners, performers, commentators, critics, politicians? (PROPAGATION)
- How have the memes been modified, simplified, or elaborated? (MUTATION)
- Identify how widespread the meme is in the meme pool. That is, how widely distributed is the meme? (SUCCESS)