5 ms·
Extreme metal guitar skill linked to intrasexual competition, not mating success
- timeagain 3y agoAs soon as I read “evolutionary perspectives” I noped out. Musicians aren’t competing to spread their genes, especially not as a result of evolution. Music may have helped us in our journey somehow, maybe even as a precursor to language. But music is something we do to bring us together, not to compete for dominance.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- justinclift 3y ago> Musicians aren’t competing to spread their genes ... Groupies are a well known thing.
- bongoman37 3y ago[dead]
- romwell 3y ago>As soon as I read “evolutionary perspectives” I noped out. Musicians aren’t competing to spread their genes ...and their study, unsurprisingly, came to the same conclusion. >But music is something we do to bring us together, not to compete for dominance. Sure, but the specific genre they looked into is more athletics than music. Competition for dominance may be a part of music and poetry, too. Diss tracks have existed since ancient times ("Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo"[1]), and today's Nicki Minaj vs. Megan Thee Stallion feud is very much a performative competition for dominance. Music brings us together, music also divides us (many subcultures formed around musical genres). It's a medium of human expression. And as such, it can reflect all of our sides. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_16
- defrost 3y agoÓ nón, cupídinem sció
- andriesm 3y agoI've always found evo psych interesting and it has some very serious scolars, a lot of experiments and predictions, yet a few years ago it used to be very trendy to say it is all bunk and projective stories about human behavior. Also it seems some people are more comfortable with evo-psych when it comments on male-behavior than when it comments on female behavior. I think the entire field is massively interesting.
- RoyalHenOil 3y agoThe problem with evo psych is the poor science that goes into verifying the claims, not the concept itself. The field presents a lot of extremely interesting hypotheses, but then does not test them rigorously. Psychology can often be pretty bad about this (overreliance on very weak experimental methods, such as surveys), but evolutionary psychology is a particularly weak subfield of psychology. For this reason, scientists in more rigorous fields tend to look upon evolutionary psychology as pseudoscience. If there is good science happening there, I am unaware of it. I strongly suspect that serious scientists interested in this subject matter go into more rigorous fields, like evolutionary biology or neuroscience. If you are interested in this subject matter (I know I am!), I recommend following these fields instead because they are far less likely to dress up an under-tested hypothesis as true.
- Brian_K_White 3y agoPeople compete for dominance in literally any possible context. Anything people do at all, a bunch of them do for dominance. There are people competing for dominance at volunteering in soup kitchens.
- anamax 3y ago> Musicians aren’t competing to spread their genes Says who? Eric Clapton said that he learned guitar to meet girls and that was well before the thing with George Harrison. There's probably a point of diminishing returns but ....
- Rochus 3y agoMeet another worthy candidate for the Ig Noble Prize.
- andriesm 3y agoCare to elaborate?
- 15457345234 3y agoIf you're going to use the word at least get the quote right https://www.bonequest.com/2899 https://www.bonequest.com/2899
- foofie 3y ago> Care to elaborate? Not op, but even if we accept the conclusions from the statistic analysis at face value, stating that guitarists work on their skills hoping to impress others is hardly ground breaking research.
- kybernetyk 3y agoIsn’t it the same?
- afpx 3y agoReminds me of the guys who cruise around in rumbling cars. It's not to get the ladies. Some sort of territorial marking?
- u32480932048 3y ago[flagged]
- romwell 3y agoOh those darned HOA types!
- theGnuMe 3y agoOr drive giant trucks
- greenhearth 3y agoThe evolutionary aspect is very interesting, but probably an incomplete picture. Guitar playing and music, all art really, are spaces of the impossible pleasure/fantasy complex and are ripe with psychological nuance. And yeah, just because you play guitar doesn't mean you're going to get all the girls, maybe even the opposite.
- 331c8c71 3y ago> However, trends within metal music, and especially the genre of extreme metal music with basically virtuoso-level guitar skills The virtuoso technique of extreme metal guitarists seems to be offset by lack of creativity and feel in the vast majority of cases (imo). Talking about soloing skills mostly...
- RockCoach 3y agoIt's not extreme metal, but if you've ever been to a guitar shredding performance or a prog rock show, you can attest that it's a sausage party. On the other hand, male admiration can still increase reproductive fitness by generating wealth, fame and social contacts for the virtuoso.