Social Networking, Classical Music Style

The social networks of classical composers are strikingly similar to other present day networks, study shows.

AsianScientist (May 13, 2015) – Professor Park Juyong of the Graduate School of Culture Technology at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and his research team have recently discovered the dynamics of how classical music is created, stylized and disseminated. Their findings were published online in EPJ Data Science.

The researchers used big-data analysis and modeling technique to examine the complex, undercurrent network of classical music composers, which was constructed from the large volume of compact disc (CD) recordings data collected from an online retailer, ArkivMusic and a music reference website, AllMusicGuide.

The study discovered that the basic characteristics of composers’ network are similar to many real-world networks, including the small-world property, the existence of a giant component, high clustering and heavy-tailed degree distributions. The research team also found that composers collaborated and influenced each other and that composers’ networks grew over time.

The research showed that consumers of classical music CDs had preferences that clustered around certain group of different composers, offering a useful tool to understand how the music style and market develops. Based on this, the research team predicted the future of the classical music market would be centered on top composers, while maintaining diversity due to the growing number of new composers.

“In recent years, technology greatly affects the way we consume culture and art. Accordingly, we see more and more artists and institutions try to incorporate technology into their creative process and this will lead us to larger—and higher—quality data that can allow us to learn more about culture and art. The quantitative methodology we have demonstrated in our research will give us an opportunity to explore the nature of art and literature in novel ways,” said Park.

The article can be found at: Park et al. (2015) Topology And Evolution Of The Network Of Western Classical Music Composers.

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Source: KAIST.
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