Some Irish tunes are just better at getting learned than others.

Why do we not end up listening to the same few songs if people always copy the best ones? Researchers studied this by looking at how often people played Irish traditional tunes over thirteen years. They tracked around 20,000 tunes using computer models of population growth to see why tunes spread. They found that tunes have different built-in appeal: musicians are simply more likely to learn certain ones. Sometimes a less popular tune gets pulled along just because musicians play it back-to-back with a hit tune. A popular recording can also wake up a forgotten tune. Even though musicians clearly prefer specific tunes, overall tune diversity keeps growing because people keep inventing new ones. Selection and variety can easily survive together.

Why it matters

This matters because it shows how cultural traditions can stay diverse even when some tunes are clearly more popular. For musicians, it explains why certain tunes spread while others fade, and for scientists, it provides a real-world system to study how selection and diversity coexist in culture, not just in biology.

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