The Rhythm of Life
In The Rhythm of Life project, we’re investigating how musical features evolve over time, both within specific individuals and in a broader context of changing sociocultural trends and tastes. As regards the former, we’re studying musical features as a function of age. For the latter, we’re exploring large datsets from streaming and social media platforms to explore evolution of soundscapes over time. We utilise established computational feature extraction and statistical modelling techniques to examine these phenomena.
Table of contents
Project duration
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Core fields of research
Basic natural phenomena and mathematical thinking
Research areas
Brain changes across the life-span
Funding
Research Council of Finland
Project description
Music is a human universal known to have evolved over at least tens and perhaps hundreds of millennia. Music as a ‘modern day’ sociocultural phenomenon is no less likely to continue to develop over time. Indeed, a number of studies have revealed that features of songs and other media have changed even over the last half century. Investigation of changing musical trends and tastes has been greatly facilitated by availability of large digitised databases. However, with few exceptions, studies typically focus on original content created and released by the most popular individuals. We are interested in more general evolution of musical features employed by a wider spectrum of individuals in more diverse contexts.
Project team
Project leaders
Project members
External members
Olivier Lartillot
Researcher
RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, University of Oslo
Olivier Senn
Professor
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Toni Bechtold
Lecturer
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
