4 ms·

A melody written by a crowd

20 points by combinatorio 11y ago

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Isn't this like trying to paint a painting one pixel at a time? Music has patterns, is going somewhere; disputing the next note will result in noise for lack of a coherent plan.
- xlm1717 11y ago
  Or like trying to play a video game one keystroke at a time. If it turns out anything like the "Twitch Plays" series, it will probably start chaotic but become more coherent as time goes on, usually because the troublemakers get bored and move on.
- ArekDymalski 11y ago
  It seems that the structure is already defined as standard pop/rock verse,verse,chorus,verse etc. And I guess it will result in people gravitating towards popular chords progression and melody. So at the end it won't be noise but a perfect Kate Perry/Shakira/Nickelback/campfire song like https://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM https://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM
- combinatorio 11y ago
  You can see the stats at https://crowdsound.net/stats https://crowdsound.net/stats There are parts where the crowd is divided and I guess you could call those areas "noise", however there are other parts where the crowd has strongly decided what should come next. The future pattern is generated piece by piece by the crowds judgement about how the next bit of the song should combine with the previous patterns. So perhaps if there are some places which are random noise, it is regularly brought back to coherence by obvious subsequent patterns, deduced by consensus.
logicallee 11y ago
hahahahahaha. This sounds godawful. I think this is the best argument I've ever heard for the great person theory of history[1]. I think the next time I hear someone deny it I will point them at this work of the crowd. (In case I didn't express it sufficiently, I think it's clear that most important progress is made by individuals doing something great, and standing out from the crowd - something that is true not only for every composer who lived, but inventors, entrepreneurs, philosophers, writers, scientists, what-have-you. I've heard rather large orchestras play well without a conductor: but not truly well.) I realize this link certainly does nothing prove my thesis, but it shows a good reflection of my thinking about the alternative claim, i.e. by analogy. I like it! It's a true experiment. (I was expecting a better result.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man_theory
- combinatorio 11y ago
  Don't forget the song is in a very simple form (basic chords and melody) and is incomplete. It will sound a lot more acceptable I think when it is put together in a proper arrangement at the end. Personally, I wouldn't say it is awful. I think it is surprisingly coherent. Regarding Great Man Theory, I find it hard to be convinced about that. Doesn't linking to a Wikipedia link rather than say Britannica illustrate that the crowd has produced a more useful source of information than the experts in this case :)
  - logicallee 11y ago
    We will have to disagree that it sounds "surprisingly coherent". (So does a markov chain, if you ignore the parts that don't.) The page says they are next crowd-sourcing lyrics - that should make it more obvious. (on your other point, practically any single author can write in two sentences something much better than the entire wikipedia article I linked; there's nothing great about it except that it happens to be there. The great person in this case would be: Jimbo Wales. No Jimbo Wales, no wikipedia. we are getting really off-topic though; there's an email in my profile, you can mail me if you'd like to discuss this further.)
    - combinatorio 11y ago
      The Great Man theory is an interesting point of view - I would like to read more about it. One immediate observation though is that the majority of the Wikipedia article is a criticism about the theory.
  - c3534l 11y ago
    What do you mean by surprisingly coherent? Is it that it's vaguely in the same scale? That really isn't impressive. Once it's been established pretty much anyone can tell if there's a clearly sour note. The song plays like a markov chain. There's not structure, no real pattern, bizarre changes. I guess the real failure is that there's no progression, no building up of tension. It's just a meandering, structureless mess.
timrichard 11y ago
> This melody will eventually become a song with a chord structure of C, G, Am, F <sarcasm> Thanking my lucky stars that someone has finally thought of this </sarcasm> Axis of Awesome put it better : http://youtu.be/5pidokakU4I http://youtu.be/5pidokakU4I

20 points by combinatorio 11y ago

Isn't this like trying to paint a painting one pixel at a time? Music has patterns, is going somewhere; disputing the next note will result in noise for lack of a coherent plan.

xlm1717 11y ago
Or like trying to play a video game one keystroke at a time. If it turns out anything like the "Twitch Plays" series, it will probably start chaotic but become more coherent as time goes on, usually because the troublemakers get bored and move on.
ArekDymalski 11y ago
It seems that the structure is already defined as standard pop/rock verse,verse,chorus,verse etc. And I guess it will result in people gravitating towards popular chords progression and melody. So at the end it won't be noise but a perfect Kate Perry/Shakira/Nickelback/campfire song like https://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM https://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM
combinatorio 11y ago
You can see the stats at https://crowdsound.net/stats https://crowdsound.net/stats There are parts where the crowd is divided and I guess you could call those areas "noise", however there are other parts where the crowd has strongly decided what should come next. The future pattern is generated piece by piece by the crowds judgement about how the next bit of the song should combine with the previous patterns. So perhaps if there are some places which are random noise, it is regularly brought back to coherence by obvious subsequent patterns, deduced by consensus.

logicallee 11y ago

hahahahahaha. This sounds godawful. I think this is the best argument I've ever heard for the great person theory of history[1]. I think the next time I hear someone deny it I will point them at this work of the crowd. (In case I didn't express it sufficiently, I think it's clear that most important progress is made by individuals doing something great, and standing out from the crowd - something that is true not only for every composer who lived, but inventors, entrepreneurs, philosophers, writers, scientists, what-have-you. I've heard rather large orchestras play well without a conductor: but not truly well.) I realize this link certainly does nothing prove my thesis, but it shows a good reflection of my thinking about the alternative claim, i.e. by analogy. I like it! It's a true experiment. (I was expecting a better result.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man_theory

combinatorio 11y ago
Don't forget the song is in a very simple form (basic chords and melody) and is incomplete. It will sound a lot more acceptable I think when it is put together in a proper arrangement at the end. Personally, I wouldn't say it is awful. I think it is surprisingly coherent. Regarding Great Man Theory, I find it hard to be convinced about that. Doesn't linking to a Wikipedia link rather than say Britannica illustrate that the crowd has produced a more useful source of information than the experts in this case :)
- logicallee 11y ago
  We will have to disagree that it sounds "surprisingly coherent". (So does a markov chain, if you ignore the parts that don't.) The page says they are next crowd-sourcing lyrics - that should make it more obvious. (on your other point, practically any single author can write in two sentences something much better than the entire wikipedia article I linked; there's nothing great about it except that it happens to be there. The great person in this case would be: Jimbo Wales. No Jimbo Wales, no wikipedia. we are getting really off-topic though; there's an email in my profile, you can mail me if you'd like to discuss this further.)
  - combinatorio 11y ago
    The Great Man theory is an interesting point of view - I would like to read more about it. One immediate observation though is that the majority of the Wikipedia article is a criticism about the theory.
- c3534l 11y ago
  What do you mean by surprisingly coherent? Is it that it's vaguely in the same scale? That really isn't impressive. Once it's been established pretty much anyone can tell if there's a clearly sour note. The song plays like a markov chain. There's not structure, no real pattern, bizarre changes. I guess the real failure is that there's no progression, no building up of tension. It's just a meandering, structureless mess.

timrichard 11y ago

> This melody will eventually become a song with a chord structure of C, G, Am, F <sarcasm> Thanking my lucky stars that someone has finally thought of this </sarcasm> Axis of Awesome put it better : http://youtu.be/5pidokakU4I http://youtu.be/5pidokakU4I