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Cultural Memes, Innate Proclivities and Musical Behaviour: A Case Study of the Western TraditionsUNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Western music, it is argued, is a cultural invention, and resulting behaviours are learned from the culturally disseminated memesemanating from Homer, through the historical development of western culture through the High Renaissance, and on to Hollywood and our modern entertainment media. These memes concern semantic systems for both the intentions of musicians and the expected behaviour of listeners. In which case, it is argued, studies of western musical behaviour are, in effect, studies of the extent of the cultural assimilation which has occurred in the individual or group. Experimental evidence is cited suggesting that there may be innate, perhaps universal, proclivities for cross-modal integration which provided the platform for the western musical semiotic to evolve. Cognitive psychology has tended to ignore the cultural origins of musical behaviour in its focus on structures, and recent sociological concerns in music and music psychology are concerned more with the social mechanics of identity and meaning construction than with the cultural source of such constructions. This article suggests that there would be nothing to construct without cultural memes transmitted over time and place.
Key Words: cognitive psychology • cross-modal integration • cultural assimilation • innate behaviours • musical meaning • social psychology
Psychology of Music, Vol. 32, No. 2,
153-190 (2004) This article has been cited by other articles:
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