Looks Like Up - Ev Cult A/B Experiment

`Looks Like Up'

The Haymakers

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Evolutionary Culturology meta-meta-scientific A/B Testing Experiment

Question: Which song version is better - Version A, or Version B?

`Looks Like Up' (Live version A) ~ by The Haymakers

(This version begins: "Darling, how many times...")

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`Looks Like Up' (Live version B) ~ by The Haymakers

(This version begins: "Tell me, how many times...")

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See: Evolutionary Culturology A/B Testing Experiments

How Evolutionary Culturology A/B Testing Works

In the meta-meta-science of Evolutionary Culturology (Ev Cult), all cultural information — including music — is, and is composed of, fractal HOLON/partons (units of culture).

These units exist at every scale level, functioning simultaneously as wholes and parts, within nested systems. (A whole unit, while also part of a larger unit.)

Their behavior is governed by the Three Universal Laws of Ev Cult:

Law #1 – Fractal HOLON/partons integrate upward into larger systems on the next scale-level above.
Law #2 – Fractal HOLON/partons co-operate and/or compete laterally with other units on the same scale-levels.
Law #3 – Fractal HOLON/partons command/control downward/inward, the smaller systems on the scale level below, which are inside them.

Ev Cult A/B testing is a scientific method for evaluating how a single fractal HOLON/parton (unit of culture) influences systemic reception, selection, and transmission of the larger systems, and/or smaller subsystems (units).

It works by creating two otherwise-identical versions of a cultural artifact — such as, a song — while modifying just one unit: either by changing, adding, or removing it.

These fractal HOLON/partons (units of culture) may exist along either of the two integrated dimensions of a musical work:

Instrumental (non-verbal/ non-vocal) fractal HOLON/partons (units of culture) may include:
Articulated sounds → notes / beats → motifs/phrases → musical lines → sections (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Outro) → the full composition → larger album/work → genre → domain of music → domain of all culture (information, &/or energy, &/or matter)
Vocal/lyrical (verbal) fractal HOLON/partons (units of culture) may include:
Phonemes → syllables → words → lyrical phrases/motifs → sung lines → sections (Verses, Choruses, etc.) → complete vocal composition → larger album/work → lyrical genre → domain of music → domain of all culture (information, &/or energy, &/or matter)

Table 1. 13 Scale-levels of the Units (the fractal HOLON/partons) in Music

Or, as a text-table:

Table 1. 13 Scale-levels of the Units (the fractal HOLON/partons) in Music

#	SCALE LEVEL of the fractal HOLON/parton *(the unit of culture)*	Instrumental (Non-Verbal)	Vocal/Lyrical (Verbal)
1	13 – Supersystem of Supersystems	Domain of Culture: All cultural systems (e.g., maths, music, language, ethics, tech)	Same: Verbal art and language are subdomains of culture
2	12 – Supersystem	Domain of Music: All musical systems, forms, and traditions	Same: All sung and lyric-based musical traditions
3	11	Genre: Jazz, Classical, Rock, Ambient, etc.	Rap, Ballad, Protest, Opera, Folk, etc.
4	10	Album / Work: Album, Score, Symphony, EP	Concept Album, Opera, Libretto
5	9	Composition (incl. Arrangement): Complete musical work—instrumental arrangement, orchestration, rhythm	Full lyrical composition—lyrics, vocal arrangement, phrasing
6	8	Section (Song Part): Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Outro	Same: Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Outro (lyrical units)
7	7	Line: Musical line or motif fragment	Sung line (typically one complete sentence)
8	6	Phrase / Motif: Hook, riff, recurring melodic pattern	Lyrical phrase, refrain, poetic motif
9	5	Note / Word Unit: Individual musical note, pitch step	Word (within a sung line)
10	4	Rhythmic Unit / Syllable: Beat, time subdivision, rhythmic articulation	Syllable (vocal rhythmic + phonological unit)
11	3	Articulated Sound / Phoneme: Played sound (struck, bowed, plucked)	Phoneme (vowel/consonant vocal articulation)
12	2	Timbre / Acoustic Signal: Instrumental waveform + tone color	Vocal waveform + tone quality (e.g., breathy, nasal, vibrato)
13	1 – Subsystem	Physical Signal: Vibrations in air (mechanophysical sound wave)	Same: Physical air vibrations from vocal or instrumental source

In the case of “Looks Like Up” by The Haymakers, two versions of the same song are presented for scientific A/B Testing:

Version A opens with: “[Darlin’], how many times must I lie for you?”
Version B opens with: “[Tell me], how many times must I lie for you?”

This is a single, controlled variation at the first-line lyrical scale-level, where one 2-syllable fractal HOLON/parton (unit of culture) (“Darlin’”) is replaced by another: (“Tell me”).

While both contain two syllables, the shift alters tone and intimacy — from a nickname to a direct question (not necessarily, the singer's "Darling"; applying to any gender, etc.) — allowing precise testing of how micro-level cultural differences affect macro-level reception.

In other Ev Cult A/B tests, the altered fractal HOLON/parton (unit of culture) may be:

a musical phrase,
a vocal line,
an added (or removed) verse (or, other song-section)
or a larger song structure (such as, a bridge/middle-8-bars, or outro, etc.)
...and so on.

Regardless of the form, only one unit is manipulated at a time, and always at a specific scale-level of the fractal HOLON/parton (unit of culture), enabling causal mapping of its systemic effects.

Unlike other pseudoscientific models (such as memetics, or semiotics), the meta-meta-science of Evolutionary Culturology does not reduce culture to the imitation of “memes” (whatever they might be; they were never scientifically identified).

Instead, Ev Cult treats cultural evolution as the structured interaction of nested systems of fractal HOLON/partons (units of culture)—in full alignment with general systems science.

See: Ev Cult and Evolutionary Economics

Just as biology comprises nested systems—atoms → molecules → cells → tissues → organs → organisms → superorganisms → species → ecosystems — so too does culture evolve through hierarchically-organized (fractal HOLARCHY/partarchy) information systems...

Likewise, in Ev Cult, in the cultural domain of film we observe: pixels → still frames → shots → scenes → sequences of scenes → acts → complete films → franchises → genres → the domain of cinema;

See: Ev Cult and Evolutionary Economics

In literature: letters and punctuation → graphemes → words → phrases → clauses → sentences → paragraphs → chapters → books → literary genres → the domain of written narrative;

See: Ev Cult and Evolutionary Economics

And in technology: electrons → logic gates → circuits → components → devices → systems → platforms → standards → technological paradigms → the domain of engineered systems.

Evolution acts not just on genes, but on entire systems (fractal HOLON/partons), and Ev Cult provides the universal framework to model this process scientifically, empirically, across all 50,000+ Domains.

To explore more A/B experiments in Ev Cult music, visit: the Ev Cult weblog

And see also:

~ Thus Spake The EthiSizer

References

`Elements of Evolutionary Culturology' (Velikovsky of Newcastle, 2023)
`A Selection of Empirical Data, Charts, Tables, & Graphs, from The Meta-Meta-Science Of Evolutionary Culturology' (2023)

Velikovsky, J. T. (2020). Technology: Units of Culture. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed., pp. 585-604). San Diego, Calif.: Elsevier Science & Technology Books.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2019). The HOLON/parton Structure of The Unit of Culture. In D. B. A. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 795-811). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2018). The HOLON/parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment, and the Arts. In IRMA (Ed.), Technology Adoption and Social Issues: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1590-1627). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). The HOLON/parton Structure of The Unit Of Culture. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (4^th ed., pp. 4666-4678). New York: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). The HOLON/parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the "Meme", and the Narreme/Unit of Story): In Science, Media, Entertainment and the Arts. In A. Connor & S. Marks (Eds.), Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (pp. 208-246). IGI Global.

The Evolutionary Culturology PhD (Velikovsky of Newcastle, 02016)

von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General Systems Theory. George Braziller

E O Wilson (1998). Consilience - The Unity of Knowledge

...Watch out for...

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So anyway...

...Enjoy Ev Cult !

...And, you're welcome.

...Anyway - Enjoy Ev Cult!)

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