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Standardized cross-cultural databases of the arts are critical to a balanced scientific understanding of the performing arts, and their role in other domains of human society. This paper introduces the Global Jukebox as a resource for comparative and cross-cultural study of the performing arts and culture. The Global Jukebox adds an extensive and detailed global database of the performing arts that enlarges our understanding of human cultural diversity. Initially prototyped by Alan Lomax in the 1980s, its core is the Cantometrics dataset, encompassing standardized codings on 37 aspects of musical style for 5,776 traditional songs from 1,026 societies. The Cantometrics dataset has been cleaned and checked for reliability and accuracy, and includes a full coding guide with audio training examples (https://theglobaljukebox.org/?songsofearth). Also being released are seven additional datasets coding and describing instrumentation, conversation, popular music, vowel and consonant placement, breath management, social factors, and societies. For the first time, all digitized Global Jukebox data are being made available in open-access, downloadable format (https://github.com/theglobaljukebox), linked with streaming audio recordings (theglobaljukebox.org) to the maximum extent allowed while respecting copyright and the wishes of culture-bearers. The data are cross-indexed with the Database of Peoples, Languages, and Cultures (D-PLACE) to allow researchers to test hypotheses about worldwide coevolution of aesthetic patterns and traditions. As an example, we analyze the global relationship between song style and societal complexity, showing that they are robustly related, in contrast to previous critiques claiming that these proposed relationships were an artifact of autocorrelation (though causal mechanisms remain unresolved). Introduction Background The Global Jukebox and its data 1. The data 1.1. Datasets of the Global Jukebox 1.2. Comparison with other cross cultural datasets 1.3. Coded performance variables: Selection and reliability 1.4. Performance data sources 1.5. Selection of audio examples 1.6. Availability of audio recordings 1.7. Performance metadata 2. Sampling societies and links to other datasets 2.1. Sampling societies 2.2. Links to other cross-cultural datasets 3. Data curation, cleaning, and validation 4. Coding reliability 5. Is song style correlated with social complexity? An example of hypothesis testing using the Global Jukebox 5.1. Hypothesis testing with the Global Jukebox datasets 5.2. Methods 5.3 Results of reanalysis 5.4 Discussion 6. Ethics, rights and consent 7. Conclusion

Music and language are both universal but diverse cultural traits shaped by cultural and biological evolution. However, there is disagreement on the relationships between music, language, and human history. Some argue that musical and linguistic similarities trace ancient migrations of people and their cultures, while others argue that they primarily reflect more recent contact between neighboring societies and local micro-evolution independent of population migration. Previous direct comparisons of musical, genetic, and linguistic diversity were restricted to small regional samples that gave conflicting results. Here, we analyze global patterns of diversity from newly public global databases containing over 5,000 traditional songs with standardized “Cantometric” codings and genomic profiles from over 4,000 individuals. We directly compare musical, linguistic, and genetic diversity for a subset of 152 matched societies (represented by 1,054 songs, genomic profiles of 1,719 individuals, and 152 languages). For both genes and music, differences within groups are greater than those between groups, but musical differences between groups are approximately three times greater than genetic differences. Song style and basic vocabulary both show relatively weak relationships with each other and with genetic distance and geographic proximity, in contrast to the much stronger relationships found between genes and geography. Thus, to our surprise, our findings suggest that music and language are weak proxies for human migrations.

Part 1 of this article explored the development of Alan Lomax’s theory of expressive style and culture in terms of his family background, temperament, cultural surroundings, influences, intellectual growth, and the nature and impact of his field experiences, the primary source of his ideas. It described the program of research established by Lomax and anthropologist Conrad Arensberg, codirector of the project, and set out its areas of investigation. Part 2 describes the project’s hypotheses, methodology, and results; reviews its criticisms; and takes a personal, reflexive look at Lomax’s personality, public persona, and presentational style as factors in the reception of his work. Finally, it touches upon the potential of a comparativist, cross-cultural approach to the current study of expressive culture.