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This glossary is intended to assist you in understanding commonly used terms and concepts when reading, interpreting, and evaluating scholarly research in the social sciences. Also included are general words and phrases defined within the context of how they apply to research in the social and behavioral sciences.Acculturation -- refers to the process of adapting to another culture, particularly in reference to blending in with the majority population [e.g., an immigrant adopting American customs]. However, acculturation also implies that both cultures add something to one another, but still remain distinct groups unto themselves.Accuracy -- a term used in survey research to refer to the match between the target population and the sample.Affective Measures -- procedures or devices used to obtain quantified descriptions of an individual's feelings, emotional states, or dispositions.Aggregate -- a total created from smaller units. For instance, the population of a county is an aggregate of the populations of the cities, rural areas, etc. that comprise the county. As a verb, it refers to total data from smaller units into a large unit.Anonymity -- a research condition in which no one, including the researcher, knows the identities of research participants.Baseline -- a control measurement carried out before an experimental treatment.Behaviorism -- school of psychological thought concerned with the observable, tangible, objective facts of behavior, rather than with subjective phenomena such as thoughts, emotions, or impulses. Contemporary behaviorism also emphasizes the study of mental states such as feelings and fantasies to the extent that they can be directly observed and measured.Beliefs -- ideas, doctrines, tenets, etc. that are accepted as true on grounds which are not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof.Benchmarking -- systematically measuring and comparing the operations and outcomes of organizations, systems, processes, etc., against agreed upon "best-in-class" frames of reference.Bias -- a loss of balance and accuracy in the use of research methods. It can appear in research via the sampling frame, random sampling, or non-response. It can also occur at other stages in research, such as while interviewing, in the design of questions, or in the way data are analyzed and presented. Bias means that the research findings will not be representative of, or generalizable to, a wider population.Case Study -- the collection and presentation of detailed information about a particular participant or small group, frequently including data derived from the subjects themselves.Causal Hypothesis -- a statement hypothesizing that the independent variable affects the dependent variable in some way.Causal Relationship -- the relationship established that shows that an independent variable, and nothing else, causes a change in a dependent variable. It also establishes how much of a change is shown in the dependent variable.Causality -- the relation between cause and effect.Central Tendency -- any way of describing or characterizing typical, average, or common values in some distribution.Chi-square Analysis -- a common non-parametric statistical test which compares an expected proportion or ratio to an actual proportion or ratio.Claim -- a statement, similar to a hypothesis, which is made in response to the research question and that is affirmed with evidence based on research.Classification -- ordering of related phenomena into categories, groups, or systems according to characteristics or attributes.Cluster Analysis -- a method of statistical analysis where data that share a common trait are grouped together. The data is collected in a way that allows the data collector to group data according to certain characteristics.Cohort Analysis -- group by group analytic treatment of individuals having a statistical factor in common to each group. Group members share a particular characteristic [e.g., born in a given year] or a common experience [e.g., entering a college at a given time].Confidentiality -- a research condition in which no one except the researcher(s) knows the identities of the participants in a study. It refers to the treatment of information that a participant has disclosed to the researcher in a relationship of trust and with the expectation that it will not be revealed to others in ways that violate the original consent agreement, unless permission is granted by the participant.Confirmability Objectivity -- the findings of the study could be confirmed by another person conducting the same study.Construct -- refers to any of the following: something that exists theoretically but is not directly observable; a concept developed [constructed] for describing relations among phenomena or for other research purposes; or, a theoretical definition in which concepts are defined in terms of other concepts. For example, intelligence cannot be directly observed or measured; it is a construct.Construct Validity -- seeks an agreement between a theoretical concept and a specific measuring device, such as observation.Constructivism -- the idea that reality is socially constructed. It is the view that reality cannot be understood outside of the way humans interact and that the idea that knowledge is constructed, not discovered. Constructivists believe that learning is more active and self-directed than either behaviorism or cognitive theory would postulate.Content Analysis -- the systematic, objective, and quantitative description of the manifest or latent content of print or nonprint communications.Context Sensitivity -- awareness by a qualitative researcher of factors such as values and beliefs that influence cultural behaviors.Control Group -- the group in an experimental design that receives either no treatment or a different treatment from the experimental group. This group can thus be compared to the experimental group.Controlled Experiment -- an experimental design with two or more randomly selected groups [an experimental group and control group] in which the researcher controls or introduces the independent variable and measures the dependent variable at least two times [pre- and post-test measurements].Correlation -- a common statistical analysis, usually abbreviated as r, that measures the degree of relationship between pairs of interval variables in a sample. The range of correlation is from -1.00 to zero to +1.00. Also, a non-cause and effect relationship between two variables.Covariate -- a product of the correlation of two related variables times their standard deviations. Used in true experiments to measure the difference of treatment between them.Credibility -- a researcher's ability to demonstrate that the object of a study is accurately identified and described based on the way in which the study was conducted.Critical Theory -- an evaluative approach to social science research, associated with Germany's neo-Marxist “Frankfurt School,” that aims to criticize as well as analyze society, opposing the political orthodoxy of modern communism. Its goal is to promote human emancipatory forces and to expose ideas and systems that impede them.Data -- factual information [as measurements or statistics] used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation.Data Mining -- the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information, often to discover patterns and/or systematic relationships among variables.Data Quality -- this is the degree to which the collected data [results of measurement or observation] meet the standards of quality to be considered valid [trustworthy] and reliable [dependable].Deductive -- a form of reasoning in which conclusions are formulated about particulars from general or universal premises.Dependability -- being able to account for changes in the design of the study and the changing conditions surrounding what was studied.Dependent Variable -- a variable that varies due, at least in part, to the impact of the independent variable. In other words, its value “depends” on the value of the independent variable. For example, in the variables “gender” and “academic major,” academic major is the dependent variable, meaning that your major cannot determine whether you are male or female, but your gender might indirectly lead you to favor one major over another.Deviation -- the distance between the mean and a particular data point in a given distribution.Discourse Community -- a community of scholars and researchers in a given field who respond to and communicate to each other through published articles in the community's journals and presentations at conventions. All members of the discourse community adhere to certain conventions for the presentation of their theories and research.Discrete Variable -- a variable that is measured solely in whole units, such as, gender and number of siblings.Distribution -- the range of values of a particular variable.Effect Size -- the amount of change in a dependent variable that can be attributed to manipulations of the independent variable. A large effect size exists when the value of the dependent variable is strongly influenced by the independent variable. It is the mean difference on a variable between experimental and control groups divided by the standard deviation on that variable of the pooled groups or of the control group alone.Emancipatory Research -- research is conducted on and with people from marginalized groups or communities. It is led by a researcher or research team who is either an indigenous or external insider; is interpreted within intellectual frameworks of that group; and, is conducted largely for the purpose of empowering members of that community and improving services for them. It also engages members of the community as co-constructors or validators of knowledge.Empirical Research -- the process of developing systematized knowledge gained from observations that are formulated to support insights and generalizations about the phenomena being researched.Epistemology -- concerns knowledge construction; asks what constitutes knowledge and how knowledge is validated.Ethnography -- method to study groups and/or cultures over a period of time. The goal of this type of research is to comprehend the particular group/culture through immersion into the culture or group. Research is completed through various methods but, since the researcher is immersed within the group for an extended period of time, more detailed information is usually collected during the research.Expectancy Effect -- any unconscious or conscious cues that convey to the participant in a study how the researcher wants them to respond. Expecting someone to behave in a particular way has been shown to promote the expected behavior. Expectancy effects can be minimized by using standardized interactions with subjects, automated data-gathering methods, and double blind protocols.External Validity -- the extent to which the results of a study are generalizable or transferable.Factor Analysis -- a statistical test that explores relationships among data. The test explores which variables in a data set are most related to each other. In a carefully constructed survey, for example, factor analysis can yield information on patterns of responses, not simply data on a single response. Larger tendencies may then be interpreted, indicating behavior trends rather than simply responses to specific questions.Field Studies -- academic or other investigative studies undertaken in a natural setting, rather than in laboratories, classrooms, or other structured environments.Focus Groups -- small, roundtable discussion groups charged with examining specific topics or problems, including possible options or solutions. Focus groups usually consist of 4-12 participants, guided by moderators to keep the discussion flowing and to collect and report the results.Framework -- the structure and support that may be used as both the launching point and the on-going guidelines for investigating a research problem.Generalizability -- the extent to which research findings and conclusions conducted on a specific study to groups or situations can be applied to the population at large.Grounded Theory -- practice of developing other theories that emerge from observing a group. Theories are grounded in the group's observable experiences, but researchers add their own insight into why those experiences exist.Group Behavior -- behaviors of a group as a whole, as well as the behavior of an individual as influenced by his or her membership in a group.Hypothesis -- a tentative explanation based on theory to predict a causal relationship between variables.Independent Variable -- the conditions of an experiment that are systematically manipulated by the researcher. A variable that is not impacted by the dependent variable, and that itself impacts the dependent variable. In the earlier example of "gender" and "academic major," (see Dependent Variable) gender is the independent variable.Individualism -- a theory or policy having primary regard for the liberty, rights, or independent actions of individuals.Inductive -- a form of reasoning in which a generalized conclusion is formulated from particular instances.Inductive Analysis -- a form of analysis based on inductive reasoning; a researcher using inductive analysis starts with answers, but formulates questions throughout the research process.Insiderness -- a concept in qualitative research that refers to the degree to which a researcher has access to and an understanding of persons, places, or things within a group or community based on being a member of that group or community.Internal Consistency -- the extent to which all questions or items assess the same characteristic, skill, or quality.Internal Validity -- the rigor with which the study was conducted [e.g., the study's design, the care taken to conduct measurements, and decisions concerning what was and was not measured]. It is also the extent to which the designers of a study have taken into account alternative explanations for any causal relationships they explore. In studies that do not explore causal relationships, only the first of these definitions should be considered when assessing internal validity.Life History -- a record of an event/events in a respondent's life told [written down, but increasingly audio or video recorded] by the respondent from his/her own perspective in his/her own words. A life history is different from a "research story" in that it covers a longer time span, perhaps a complete life, or a significant period in a life.Margin of Error -- the permittable or acceptable deviation from the target or a specific value. The allowance for slight error or miscalculation or changing circumstances in a study.Measurement -- process of obtaining a numerical description of the extent to which persons, organizations, or things possess specified characteristics.Meta-Analysis -- an analysis combining the results of several studies that address a set of related hypotheses.Methodology -- a theory or analysis of how research does and should proceed.Methods -- systematic approaches to the conduct of an operation or process. It includes steps of procedure, application of techniques, systems of reasoning or analysis, and the modes of inquiry employed by a discipline.Mixed-Methods -- a research approach that uses two or more methods from both the quantitative and qualitative research categories. It is also referred to as blended methods, combined methods, or methodological triangulation.Modeling -- the creation of a physical or computer analogy to understand a particular phenomenon. Modeling helps in estimating the relative magnitude of various factors involved in a phenomenon. A successful model can be shown to account for unexpected behavior that has been observed, to predict certain behaviors, which can then be tested experimentally, and to demonstrate that a given theory cannot account for certain phenomenon.Models -- representations of objects, principles, processes, or ideas often used for imitation or emulation.Naturalistic Observation -- observation of behaviors and events in natural settings without experimental manipulation or other forms of interference.Norm -- the norm in statistics is the average or usual performance. For example, students usually complete their high school graduation requirements when they are 18 years old. Even though some students graduate when they are younger or older, the norm is that any given student will graduate when he or she is 18 years old.Null Hypothesis -- the proposition, to be tested statistically, that the experimental intervention has "no effect," meaning that the treatment and control groups will not differ as a result of the intervention. Investigators usually hope that the data will demonstrate some effect from the intervention, thus allowing the investigator to reject the null hypothesis.Ontology -- a discipline of philosophy that explores the science of what is, the kinds and structures of objects, properties, events, processes, and relations in every area of reality.Panel Study -- a longitudinal study in which a group of individuals is interviewed at intervals over a period of time.Participant -- individuals whose physiological and/or behavioral characteristics and responses are the object of study in a research project.Peer-Review -- the process in which the author of a book, article, or other type of publication submits his or her work to experts in the field for critical evaluation, usually prior to publication. This is standard procedure in publishing scholarly research.Phenomenology -- a qualitative research approach concerned with understanding certain group behaviors from that group's point of view.Philosophy -- critical examination of the grounds for fundamental beliefs and analysis of the basic concepts, doctrines, or practices that express such beliefs.Phonology -- the study of the ways in which speech sounds form systems and patterns in language.Policy -- governing principles that serve as guidelines or rules for decision making and action in a given area.Policy Analysis -- systematic study of the nature, rationale, cost, impact, effectiveness, implications, etc., of existing or alternative policies, using the theories and methodologies of relevant social science disciplines.Population -- the target group under investigation. The population is the entire set under consideration. Samples are drawn from populations.Position Papers -- statements of official or organizational viewpoints, often recommending a particular course of action or response to a situation.Positivism -- a doctrine in the philosophy of science, positivism argues that science can only deal with observable entities known directly to experience. The positivist aims to construct general laws, or theories, which express relationships between phenomena. Observation and experiment is used to show whether the phenomena fit the theory.Predictive Measurement -- use of tests, inventories, or other measures to determine or estimate future events, conditions, outcomes, or trends.Principal Investigator -- the scientist or scholar with primary responsibility for the design and conduct of a research project.Probability -- the chance that a phenomenon will occur randomly. As a statistical measure, it is shown as p [the "p" factor].Questionnaire -- structured sets of questions on specified subjects that are used to gather information, attitudes, or opinions.Random Sampling -- a process used in research to draw a sample of a population strictly by chance, yielding no discernible pattern beyond chance. Random sampling can be accomplished by first numbering the population, then selecting the sample according to a table of random numbers or using a random-number computer generator. The sample is said to be random because there is no regular or discernible pattern or order. Random sample selection is used under the assumption that sufficiently large samples assigned randomly will exhibit a distribution comparable to that of the population from which the sample is drawn. The random assignment of participants increases the probability that differences observed between participant groups are the result of the experimental intervention.Reliability -- the degree to which a measure yields consistent results. If the measuring instrument [e.g., survey] is reliable, then administering it to similar groups would yield similar results. Reliability is a prerequisite for validity. An unreliable indicator cannot produce trustworthy results.Representative Sample -- sample in which the participants closely match the characteristics of the population, and thus, all segments of the population are represented in the sample. A representative sample allows results to be generalized from the sample to the population.Rigor -- degree to which research methods are scrupulously and meticulously carried out in order to recognize important influences occurring in an experimental study.Sample -- the population researched in a particular study. Usually, attempts are made to select a "sample population" that is considered representative of groups of people to whom results will be generalized or transferred. In studies that use inferential statistics to analyze results or which are designed to be generalizable, sample size is critical, generally the larger the number in the sample, the higher the likelihood of a representative distribution of the population.Sampling Error -- the degree to which the results from the sample deviate from those that would be obtained from the entire population, because of random error in the selection of respondent and the corresponding reduction in reliability.Saturation -- a situation in which data analysis begins to reveal repetition and redundancy and when new data tend to confirm existing findings rather than expand upon them.Semantics -- the relationship between symbols and meaning in a linguistic system. Also, the cuing system that connects what is written in the text to what is stored in the reader's prior knowledge.Social Theories -- theories about the structure, organization, and functioning of human societies.Sociolinguistics -- the study of language in society and, more specifically, the study of language varieties, their functions, and their speakers.Standard Deviation -- a measure of variation that indicates the typical distance between the scores of a distribution and the mean; it is determined by taking the square root of the average of the squared deviations in a given distribution. It can be used to indicate the proportion of data within certain ranges of scale values when the distribution conforms closely to the normal curve.Statistical Analysis -- application of statistical processes and theory to the compilation, presentation, discussion, and interpretation of numerical data.Statistical Bias -- characteristics of an experimental or sampling design, or the mathematical treatment of data, that systematically affects the results of a study so as to produce incorrect, unjustified, or inappropriate inferences or conclusions.Statistical Significance -- the probability that the difference between the outcomes of the control and experimental group are great enough that it is unlikely due solely to chance. The probability that the null hypothesis can be rejected at a predetermined significance level [0.05 or 0.01].Statistical Tests -- researchers use statistical tests to make quantitative decisions about whether a study's data indicate a significant effect from the intervention and allow the researcher to reject the null hypothesis. That is, statistical tests show whether the differences between the outcomes of the control and experimental groups are great enough to be statistically significant. If differences are found to be statistically significant, it means that the probability [likelihood] that these differences occurred solely due to chance is relatively low. Most researchers agree that a significance value of .05 or less [i.e., there is a 95% probability that the differences are real] sufficiently determines significance.Subcultures -- ethnic, regional, economic, or social groups exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish them from the larger society to which they belong.Testing -- the act of gathering and processing information about individuals' ability, skill, understanding, or knowledge under controlled conditions.Theory -- a general explanation about a specific behavior or set of events that is based on known principles and serves to organize related events in a meaningful way. A theory is not as specific as a hypothesis.Treatment -- the stimulus given to a dependent variable.Trend Samples -- method of sampling different groups of people at different points in time from the same population.Triangulation -- a multi-method or pluralistic approach, using different methods in order to focus on the research topic from different viewpoints and to produce a multi-faceted set of data. Also used to check the validity of findings from any one method.Unit of Analysis -- the basic observable entity or phenomenon being analyzed by a study and for which data are collected in the form of variables.Validity -- the degree to which a study accurately reflects or assesses the specific concept that the researcher is attempting to measure. A method can be reliable, consistently measuring the same thing, but not valid.Variable -- any characteristic or trait that can vary from one person to another [race, gender, academic major] or for one person over time [age, political beliefs].Weighted Scores -- scores in which the components are modified by different multipliers to reflect their relative importance.White Paper -- an authoritative report that often states the position or philosophy about a social, political, or other subject, or a general explanation of an architecture, framework, or product technology written by a group of researchers. A white paper seeks to contain unbiased information and analysis regarding a business or policy problem that the researchers may be facing

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this were the case.There are only so many chord-progressions and melodies that can be used effectively. Granted, the more complex your music is, the less likely you are to duplicate that which has already been done.With more and more people obsessing over ownership of music, you will get more and more copyright strikes on music that is “inspired” let’s say, by another artist. What these so-called “artists” fail to appreciate, as they sue their own fans millions in royalties, is the fact that it is highly unlikely that their own music is pure and organic, and doesn’t rip directly from a classical composer somewhere, or some old pop music they heard as a child.This says something about the evolution of music as a whole. Why is it an evolution at all? Because, like genes, the best of it floats to the top (of the charts perhaps, in the modern era) and as such, is selected by the the environment after its initial cultivation. An individual’s unique subjective experience will result in subtle differences in interpretation when compared to his peers. So if he is to be inspired by such interpretations, the music he creates will differ — stylistically — slightly from the source material. You could call this a sort of “mutation”. Dawkins made the case for memes being analogous to genes whilst being entirely independent of them, and I’m sure he would agree that the gradual development of musical styles over time is a great example of such a meme.Anyway, this leads to a broader point. If all of the above is true, we may be beginning to reach a sort of critical-mass when it comes to the creation of brand-new yet meaningful music. As the boundaries of meaningful music get stretched further and further apart, in attempt to accommodate more and more songs occupying the border, we see the younger generations hunger for music that is closer to the center, less experimental and inherently more melodic.I think all of us know the feeling of hearing a song on the radio, and finding it to be rather catchy, but then, right when it is about to hit the perfect note, it stalls, and hits a more bland note. It is highly unlikely the artist didn’t think to hit this perfect note, but, out of fear of copyright-strikes from previous artists, he had to take the song away from its meaningful center, pushing the song further out to the boundaries. This craving for a decent song leads people back in time, back to when artists could have no fear of using such melodies, harmonies, and progressions together, because either the classical musicians that first discovered them were long gone, or the songs had legitimately never been written — or at least made public.The fact of the matter is, the vast majority of meaningful music was created prior to the 90s. All the way from Baroque era music, to 80s synth-infused pop. Here’s my theory as to why that is, time-ordered:As early as the turn of the 20th century — which saw in it’s wake, the rise of experimental melodic rebellion, the likes of the Impressionistic movement — one would be apt in saying the vast majority of meaningful melodies had been exploited, over and over again, by various musicians. The experimental approach, aimed to push the perhaps “overly strict” boundaries of music at the time, and sought to enlighten people as to the good music, and melodies, that exist outside of tradition. They were largely correct on this front. There were indeed areas of melody, harmony, and form that had not been exploited yet still had amazing value to them. Could you imagine a world without Jazz, for example? It’s important to note that, of course, not all took this approach to individuality or exploration, but it was undoubtedly becoming increasingly more difficult to write classical music that was unique, yet not at risk of sounding experimental. For the most part, these experimental genres were welcomed with open arms as the nuance they added to various musical structures was very well-appreciated. It’s like classical physics and quantum physics. They both work, at their own resolutions, but one of them is slightly more nuanced and reflects a more vivid picture of reality, albeit less idealized — as we’re still learning. The latter is also more complex, and so more cumbersome to use when dealing with simpler tasks like building (or composing, if you will) a bridge.Prior to the 20th century, much music would have been unknowingly duplicated, as the networks to share and discover music were still primitive. To listen to music, you had to listen to it live, and so this already cuts out half of the competition. If you couldn’t get your piece played, or you couldn’t play it yourself, you were screwed, and your music was probably lost forever. It’s honestly sad to think about how many beautiful pieces of music were simply lost, because the paper inevitably decomposed, or because the composer couldn’t find — of afford for — anyone to publish it. Perhaps, he didn’t even know how to write music in the first place. This is why most classical music we still have stored today, was written by relatively well-to-do university-educated folk that had every good teacher at their disposal, and every publishing deal waiting at their doorstep. Not to mention, if you were a decently talented musician at the time, you probably would have been given the opportunities necessary to pursue your goal. Populations were extremely low back then. You didn’t need a job, the job needed you. That’s how I see it. Many of the biggest cities didn’t even exceed a half-million people. So if there were 250 schools (of 1000 — not 2000, since roughly half the population would have been below 20) in your area, and you were the best musician out of 5 schools, you would have been guaranteed a spot in a 50-person musical academy, and given that you were probably the only musicians in town that could play music, you would have been guaranteed performances. No radios in pubs and cafes! Needless to say, these days, we don’t have such storage problems, nor scarcity problems, with our sequencers and FL Studios, our .mp3s and CD players, our record buttons and our SoundClouds. Which brings me to the next time-frame.The proliferation of audio-storage media and radios saw the decline in requests for live performance. People could more cheaply experience music as frequently as they liked, for one single upfront payment. Not only did this increase the amount of available music — by virtue of not having to cart around performers, or have people learn to play the songs — but it also increased the amount of music people had to consciously avoid replicating. Music critics were already tough on people that “weren’t being themselves” enough, and were simply trying to fill someone else’s shoes, and this didn’t make it any easier. Having said that, there was still some new music to be found.Most of this “new” music, can be credited to large advances in audio recording/reproduction technology. The music was virtually the same, but the instrumentation, sound-quality, and the subtle stylistic sound effects weren’t. The 60s, 70s, and 80s constituted the largest jumps in this area. Truth be told, there are still technological boundaries being broken, but they’re of littler significance to those of the decades listed above. Gradually, throughout these decades, we saw the introduction of the electronic synthesizer, sample-playback of musical instruments, digital audio workstations, and much easier “studio magic” — *cough* pitch-correction, quantization, over-dubbing. All of which made composition of music much easier, and allowed for increased polyphony, sequences of notes that couldn’t possibly be played in real-life, and generally speaking, superhuman levels of sonic perfection. Meanwhile, musical experimentation was coupled with the advances in technology. When in combination, this led to some pretty interesting musical developments, almost all of which had been exhausted by the 90s.The 90s however, essentially acted as a refinement era. Musically, it wasn’t a whole lot different from the 80s, but, since record companies had amassed such enormous hoards of money due to their monopoly on expensive musical equipment, they had little fear paying out royalties to previous musicians if a song had clearly taken past influence. I urge you to try and find an era with more mainstream cover songs than the 90s, or an era with more songs that were essentially refinements of past songs. By the mid-90s, personal computers were everywhere, and it became increasingly easier for people to establish their own music-studios. Couple this fact with the easily copied .mp3 files, and you have a recipe for disaster for the record companies. In a way, what was initially intended to save production costs for record companies — the CD — ironically became their most costly decision. Some say, had they stuck to records, they could have held on to their wealth for a lot longer.By the early 2000s, there was so much music out there — all copyrighted of course — that it became virtually impossible to make anything original. Your only hope if you were aiming for originality was to either hope there was still something worth refining, or to go even further down the experimental path. But to go down such an experimental path, is totally unwarranted, and you’ll end up with next to no demand. The category of what is considered “normal music” these days is so open-ended, that if you were to create a song that even today’s folks consider experimental, you have truly created something terrible. Over human history, we’ve been refining our musical “center”, and we’ve gone to great lengths not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, which is to say, we’ve gone to great lengths attempting to include nuanced music, and appreciate its value. We know our limits now. To explore further is not only unnecessary, it’s a disservice. I mean, unless you somehow get enjoyment from it.We’re almost at the end of the second decade of the millennium, and the music of 2018 is essentially no different to that of 2014. There are differences in culture and lyrics, but by 2014, we really hit a brick-wall sonically. It’s hard to imagine audio-quality becoming any better. We’re reaching the limits of our biology, and it’s getting to the point where the average person can’t tell the difference sonic-wise between high-quality audio of 2014 and 2018, whereas the difference between a song from 1996 compared to 2000 is very clear.In conclusion, the music of today in order to survive in a mainstream market, must be one or more of the following:A rare combination of experimental and valuable. Almost non-existent these days. Think, micro-tonal music. It’s a new untapped genre (excluding certain historically ethnic uses) sure, but it’s inherently not musical.A cover song.An obvious refinement of a past song, that the company is either willing to pay for, or the original artist has consented to.A song that isn’t appreciated for its musical value whatsoever. Think, songs that use cultural, lyrical gimmicks, or gimmicky instruments that may be unique, but only in timbre.A remake of a past song.Just like video-games, and many other things, we’ve hit a combination-limit. That’s why everyone is obsessed with Super Mario Bros, and emulators. It’s why the nostalgia market is booming now more than ever before. It’s also why kids are going back to old music. They’re trying to trigger the latent musical desire to hear that catchy melody that rode the creative wave of those decades prior to their birth, that they cannot get with current music. The melody is already in their mind, waiting to be revived.

Studies of OBEsEarly collections of OBE cases had been made by Ernesto Bozzano (Italy) and Robert Crookall (UK). Crookall approached the subject from a spiritualistic position, and collected his cases predominantly from spiritualist newspapers such as the Psychic News, which appears to have biased his results in various ways. For example, the majority of his subjects reported seeing a cord connecting the physical body and its observing counterpart; whereas Green found that less than 4% of her subjects noticed anything of this sort, and some 80% reported feeling they were a "disembodied consciousness", with no external body at all.The first extensive scientific study of OBEs was made by Celia Green (1968).She collected written, first-hand accounts from a total of 400 subjects, recruited by means of appeals in the mainstream media, and followed up by questionnaires. Her purpose was to provide a taxonomy of the different types of OBE, viewed simply as an anomalous perceptual experience or hallucination, while leaving open the question of whether some of the cases might incorporate information derived by extrasensory perception.In 1999, at the 1st International Forum of Consciousness Research in Barcelona, International Academy of Consciousness research-practitioners Wagner Alegretti and Nanci Trivellato presented preliminary findings of an online survey on the out-of-body experience answered by internet users interested in the subject; therefore, not a sample representative of the general population.1,007 (85%) of the first 1,185 respondents reported having had an OBE. 37% claimed to have had between two and ten OBEs. 5.5% claimed more than 100 such experiences. 45% of those who reported an OBE said they successfully induced at least one OBE by using a specific technique. 62% of participants claiming to have had an OBE also reported having enjoyed nonphysical flight; 40% reported experiencing the phenomenon of self-bilocation (i.e. seeing one's own physical body whilst outside the body); and 38% claimed having experienced self-permeability (passing through physical objects such as walls). The most commonly reported sensations experienced in connection with the OBE were falling, floating, repercussions e.g. myoclonia (the jerking of limbs, jerking awake), sinking, torpidity (numbness), intracranial sounds, tingling, clairvoyance, oscillation and serenity.Another reported common sensation related to OBE was temporary or projective catalepsy, a more common feature of sleep paralysis. The sleep paralysis and OBE correlation was later corroborated by the Out-of-Body Experience and Arousal study published in Neurology by Kevin Nelson and his colleagues from the University of Kentucky in 2007.The study discovered that people who have out-of-body experiences are more likely to suffer from sleep paralysis.Also noteworthy, is the Waterloo Unusual Sleep Experiences Questionnaire that further illustrates the correlation. William Buhlman, an author on the subject, has conducted an informal but informative online survey.In surveys, as many as 85% of respondents tell of hearing loud noises, known as "exploding head syndrome" (EHS), during the onset of OBEs.Miss Z studyIn 1968, Charles Tart conducted an OBE experiment with a subject known as Miss Z for four nights in his sleep laboratory. The subject was attached to an EEG machine and a five-digit code was placed on a shelf above her bed. She did not claim to see the number on the first three nights but on fourth gave the number correctly.The psychologist James Alcock criticized the experiment for inadequate controls and questioned why the subject was not visually monitored by a video camera.Martin Gardner has written the experiment was not evidence for an OBE and suggested that whilst Tart was "snoring behind the window, Miss Z simply stood up in bed, without detaching the electrodes, and peeked."Susan Blackmore wrote "If Miss Z had tried to climb up, the brain-wave record would have showed a pattern of interference. And that was exactly what it did show."Neurology and OBE-like experiences EditThere are several possible physiological explanations for parts of the OBE. OBE-like experiences have been induced by stimulation of the brain. OBE-like experience has also been induced through stimulation of the posterior part of the right superior temporal gyrus in a patient.Positron-emission tomography was also used in this study to identify brain regions affected by this stimulation. The term OBE-like is used above because the experiences described in these experiments either lacked some of the clarity or details of normal OBEs, or were described by subjects who had never experienced an OBE before. Such subjects were therefore not qualified to make claims about the authenticity of the experimentally-induced OBE.English psychologist Susan Blackmore and others suggest that an OBE begins when a person loses contact with sensory input from the body while remaining conscious. The person retains the illusion of having a body, but that perception is no longer derived from the senses. The perceived world may resemble the world he or she generally inhabits while awake, but this perception does not come from the senses either. The vivid body and world is made by our brain's ability to create fully convincing realms, even in the absence of sensory information. This process is witnessed by each of us every night in our dreams, though OBEs are claimed to be far more vivid than even a lucid dream.Irwin pointed out that OBEs appear to occur under conditions of either very high or very low arousal. For example, Green found that three quarters of a group of 176 subjects reporting a single OBE were lying down at the time of the experience, and of these 12% considered they had been asleep when it started. By contrast, a substantial minority of her cases occurred under conditions of maximum arousal, such as a rock-climbing fall, a traffic accident, or childbirth. McCreery has suggested that this paradox may be explained by reference to the fact that sleep can supervene as a reaction to extreme stress or hyper-arousal.He proposes that OBEs under both conditions, relaxation and hyper-arousal, represent a form of "waking dream", or the intrusion of Stage 1 sleep processes into waking consciousness.Olaf Blanke studiesResearch by Olaf Blanke in Switzerland found that it is possible to reliably elicit experiences somewhat similar to the OBE by stimulating regions of the brain called the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ; a region where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe of the brain come together). Blanke and his collaborators in Switzerland have explored the neural basis of OBEs by showing that they are reliably associated with lesions in the right TPJ region and that they can be reliably elicited with electrical stimulation of this region in a patient with epilepsy.These elicited experiences may include perceptions of transformations of the patient's arms and legs (complex somatosensory responses) and whole-body displacements (vestibular responses).In neurologically normal subjects, Blanke and colleagues then showed that the conscious experience of the self and body being in the same location depends on multisensory integration in the TPJ. Using event-related potentials, Blanke and colleagues showed the selective activation of the TPJ 330–400 ms after stimulus onset when healthy volunteers imagined themselves in the position and visual perspective that generally are reported by people experiencing spontaneous OBEs. Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the same subjects impaired mental transformation of the participant's own body. No such effects were found with stimulation of another site or for imagined spatial transformations of external objects, suggesting the selective implication of the TPJ in mental imagery of one's own body.In a follow up study, Arzy et al. showed that the location and timing of brain activation depended on whether mental imagery is performed with mentally embodied or disembodied self location. When subjects performed mental imagery with an embodied location, there was increased activation of a region called the "extrastriate body area" (EBA), but when subjects performed mental imagery with a disembodied location, as reported in OBEs, there was increased activation in the region of the TPJ. This leads Arzy et al. to argue that "these data show that distributed brain activity at the EBA and TPJ as well as their timing are crucial for the coding of the self as embodied and as spatially situated within the human body."Blanke and colleagues thus propose that the right temporal-parietal junction is important for the sense of spatial location of the self, and that when these normal processes go awry, an OBE arises.In August 2007 Blanke's lab published research in Science demonstrating that conflicting visual-somatosensory input in virtual reality could disrupt the spatial unity between the self and the body. During multisensory conflict, participants felt as if a virtual body seen in front of them was their own body and mislocalized themselves toward the virtual body, to a position outside their bodily borders. This indicates that spatial unity and bodily self-consciousness can be studied experimentally and is based on multisensory and cognitive processing of bodily information.Ehrsson studyIn August 2007, Henrik Ehrsson, then at the Institute of Neurology at University College of London (now at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden), published research in Science demonstrating the first experimental method that, according to the scientist's claims in the publication, induced an out-of-body experience in healthy participants.The experiment was conducted in the following way:The study participant sits in a chair wearing a pair of head-mounted video displays. These have two small screens over each eye, which show a live film recorded by two video cameras placed beside each other two metres behind the participant's head. The image from the left video camera is presented on the left-eye display and the image from the right camera on the right-eye display. The participant sees these as one "stereoscopic" (3D) image, so they see their own back displayed from the perspective of someone sitting behind them.The researcher then stands just beside the participant (in their view) and uses two plastic rods to simultaneously touch the participant's actual chest out-of-view and the chest of the illusory body, moving this second rod towards where the illusory chest would be located, just below the camera's view.The participants confirmed that they had experienced sitting behind their physical body and looking at it from that location.Both critics and the experimenter himself note that the study fell short of replicating "full-blown" OBEs. As with previous experiments which induced sensations of floating outside of the body, Ehrsson's work does not explain how a brain malfunction might cause an OBE. Essentially, Ehrsson created an illusion that fits a definition of an OBE in which "a person who is awake sees his or her body from a location outside the physical body."AWARE studyIn 2001, Sam Parnia and colleagues investigated out of body claims by placing figures on suspended boards facing the ceiling, not visible from the floor. Parnia wrote "anybody who claimed to have left their body and be near the ceiling during resuscitation attempts would be expected to identify those targets. If, however, such perceptions are psychological, then one would obviously not expect the targets to be identified."The philosopher Keith Augustine, who examined Parnia's study, has written that all target identification experiments have produced negative results.Psychologist Chris French wrote regarding the study "unfortunately, and somewhat atypically, none of the survivors in this sample experienced an OBE."In the autumn of 2008, 25 UK and US hospitals began participation in a study, coordinated by Sam Parnia and Southampton University known as the AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation). Following on from the work of Pim van Lommel in the Netherlands, the study aims to examine near-death experiences in 1,500 cardiac arrest survivors and so determine whether people without a heartbeat or brain activity can have documentable out-of-body experiences.As part of the study Parnia and colleagues have investigated out of body claims by using hidden targets placed on shelves that could only be seen from above.Purnia has written "if no one sees the pictures, it shows these experiences are illusions or false memories".In 2014 Parnia issued a statement indicating that the first phase of the project has been completed and the results are undergoing peer review for publication in a medical journal.No subjects saw the images mounted out of sight according to Parnia's early report of the results of the study at an American Heart Association meeting in November 2013. Only two out of the 152 patients reported any visual experiences, and one of them described events that could be verified.On October 6, 2014 the results of the study were published in the journal Resuscitation. Among those who reported a perception of awareness and completed further interviews, 46 per cent experienced a broad range of mental recollections in relation to death that were not compatible with the commonly used term of NDEs. These included fearful and persecutory experiences. Only 9 per cent had experiences compatible with NDEs and 2 per cent exhibited full awareness compatible with OBEs with explicit recall of 'seeing' and 'hearing' events. One case was validated and timed using auditory stimuli during cardiac arrest. According to Caroline Watt "The one ‘verifiable period of conscious awareness’ that Parnia was able to report did not relate to this objective test. Rather, it was a patient giving a supposedly accurate report of events during his resuscitation. He didn’t identify the pictures, he described the defibrillator machine noise. But that’s not very impressive since many people know what goes on in an emergency room setting from seeing recreations on television."AWARE Study IIThis observational multi centre study is a continuation or enhancement of the previous AWARE Study. The AWARE Study II will collect data from about 1500 patients who experienced cardiac arrest. The patient recruitment will close in May 2017. Once a patient experiencing a cardiac arrest meeting the study inclusion criteria is identified, researchers will attend with portable brain oxygen monitoring devices and a tablet which will display visual images upwards above the patient as resuscitation is taking place. Measurements will be obtained during cardiac arrest and survivors will then be followed up and with their consent will have in-depth, audio recorded interviews. Researchers think that the recollection of memories of what happened during cardiac arrest in certain patients might be related to a better cerebral oxygenation during cardiac arrest in those patients. Images displayed in the tablet above the patient tries to identify whether the "autoscopy" phenomenon observed in some patients is just an illusion or not.Smith & MessierA recent functional imaging study reported the case of a woman who could experience out of body experience at will. She reported developing the ability as a child and associated it with difficulties in falling sleep. Her OBEs continued into adulthood but became less frequent. She was able to see herself rotating in the air above her body, lying flat, and rolling in the horizontal plane. She reported sometimes watching herself move from above but remained aware of her unmoving “real” body. The participant reported no particular emotions linked to the experience. "[T]he brain functional changes associated with the reported extra-corporeal experience (ECE) were different than those observed in motor imagery. Activations were mainly left-sided and involved the left supplementary motor area and supramarginal and posterior superior temporal gyri, the last two overlapping with the temporal parietal junction that has been associated with out-of-body experiences. The cerebellum also showed activation that is consistent with the participant’s report of the impression of movement during the ECE. There was also left middle and superior orbital frontal gyri activity, regions often associated with action monitoring."OBE training and research facilities EditThe Monroe Institute's Nancy Penn Center is a facility specializing in out-of-body experience induction. The Center for Higher Studies of the Consciousness in Brazil is another large OBE training facility. The International Academy of Consciousness in southern Portugal features the Projectarium, a spherical structure dedicated exclusively for practice and research on out-of-body experience.Olaf Blanke's Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience has become a well-known laboratory for OBE research.Source: Wikipedia