Gregory's Serverran into a facebook thread where somebody asked "what's the biological reason why 4/4 time feels natural while every other time signature is awkward" and the replies are equally split between americans who are like "i'm writing my evopsych phd on this subject and it seems to be that bipedal locomotion fits 4/4 so work songs are more effective and labor productivity is a form of lekking" and people who are like "bro i'm from india 4/4 is awkward af what are you talking about"
ð’€ð’‚—ð’†
8 comments
ð’€ð’‚—ð’†
Yup. I've simplified a bit but the difference seems to be between the evopsych people in North America & western Europe and the polyrhythm people in the whole rest of the world
Antonius Marie ⚧
@enkiv2 I am suddenly reminded of one of my favourite comedy songs from 1944. The singer/songwriter is a Swedish comedian, and the point of view is an old man whose younger son is importing boogie-woogie albums from the US ("the states"), and while the old man finds himself enjoying the music ... he also needs to tweak it. Because it should be 3/4 time (turning it into a Boogie-Woogie Waltz) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFO0SXf4mw4 Edited for typo. 
JimmyB (he/him)
@enkiv2 Is that like the same EvoPsych which says women put red lipstick on because it reminds potential mates of their genitalia? And we cover out mouths when shocked to stop the spread of predator-attracting scent? That kind of no evidence, make it up EvoPsych??? 😀 I'm with the Indian!
ð’€ð’‚—ð’†
The folks commenting that they were doing evopsych phds in that thread were mostly women, so I don't think they're liable to promote that first one. But yes, this seems to be a clear case of a huge amount of academic work trying to explain a phenomenon whose real explanation is "the researchers at your institution are uncultured".
JimmyB (he/him)
@enkiv2 Oh - I'm not really on their case too much - I mean: lots of us believe stuff and are invested in things that just can't possibly true, or even where we have absolutely no evidential right to believe them. I find the whole of EvoPsych to be like that - it's a kind of license to speculate in sciency terms, and often with great certainty, but have zero scientific accountability. But is that worse than many other things we indulge in? Probably not! |
@enkiv2 ah americans, always assuming their experiences are universal