in biological evolution, most mutations have no survival benefits, and, in fact, don't survive. The Folk Process isn't just about change, it's also about survival. So's biological evolution, even more so. As squeezy points out, though, because music can get set down (whether in script or recording), it can get redevelop long after its original environment has been destroyed. I'd compare this to cyst formation in bacteria- they can survive for hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of years in a dormant state. Going further with the analogy, look out for the "gene"'s "strategies" to survive by mutation to exploit a new environment (folk rock?), symbiotic association (with beer and a laid back lifestyle perhaps in the UK?), incorporation in another genome (Vaughan Williams?) etc. Even ensuring replication by being controversial in the sense of "what's really traditional" is a "strategy" to get quoted, and therefore perpetuated. But then Richard Dawkins and Susan Blackmore have had a lot to say about this kind of thing as regards selfish genes and memetics.
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