[extropy-chat] infinite fun but finite tunes?

[Martin Striz]

On 4/14/06, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Here is the disturbing part: Stevie called to say he loves us somewhere
> around 1984-ish.  But I cannot think of a single viral tune that was written
> after that one.  Did we really run out of them over twenty years ago?

I can't find anything on the Internet about it now, but I remember
reading once that John Stuart Mill calculated the number of possible
musical compositions based on the  average length of a composition,
the number of musical notes and the combinatorial rhythms that they
can produce.  I don't remember the exact number that he derived, but
I'm pretty sure that I remember he was worried that we would soon run
out of new music.

That was before the invention of big band, jazz, blues, rock, reggae,
rap, techno, country, etc. etc. etc.

Combinatorial systems have a way of running away from you.  Pinker has
a nice discussion about this in The Language Instinct.

As to why there aren't any more "viral tunes," how old are you?  Maybe
you just don't find modern music catchy. :)

Martin