Sorry if this question is stupid, are melodies infinite?

[Barnabas]

Can we ran out of melodies? Can we reach a point in which all melodies, especially catchy likeable ones, have already been invented?

[Asher]

No, they are finite unless you consider time to be a factor that can be unlimited.

Hip hop and rap have already run out of melodies, so they borrow from other genres.

[Lorizael]

The Offspring have also run out of melodies, but they just borrow from themselves.

[Dauphin]

Finite, but still a very large arbitrary number.

[onodera]

Can we ran out of melodies? Can we reach a point in which all melodies, especially catchy likeable ones, have already been invented?

If you specify the rhythm, the tempo and the available instruments, then there's a finite amount of combinations of notes. But even then the limit is practically unreachable.

[Asher]

The amount of pleasing melodies to the human brain is substantially less than the theoretical maximum combinations, though.

[Asher]

If you're interested in this kind of stuff, you should read "This is your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin. It's a great book.

[DaShi]

Bon Jovi ran out of melodies after his first song.

[Asher]

It's his life.

[Barnabas]

What Asher said, pleasing melodies are a small subset of all melodies.
Thanks for the recommendation btw.

I had a discussion with a friend who said that modern rock-music is something like an almost depleted mine, that is why modern pop-rock music sucks.

[Dauphin]

I recall something about this being discussed back in the days of Haydn, when it was alleged that the creation of new music was so much harder because all the possible melodies had been "invented". Original music (like original storylines) are still being created even if the building block melodies (or words) are being reused.

[onodera]

If you're interested in this kind of stuff, you should read "This is your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin. It's a great book.

Yes, it's a great book. But even when taking into account aesthetically pleasing intervals between adjacent notes the range of possible melodies is huge.

[Cort Haus]

I think there's plenty of scope for recycling, especially considering that in reality we're often dealing beyond melody - not only with harmonic layers but different tempos, rhythms, and combination of timbres when it comes to most recorded music. Of course many genres have been criticised and will be criticised by people who don't like them as sounding all the same anyway, and this criticism may or may not be true. The fact is that people listen to music for many reasons, and originality of melody is usually well down the list.

Also consider that most people have only ever listened to a tiny, tiny subset of all the music that is out there.

[Hauldren Collider]

It's kind of like writing. Theoretically it could be any order of letters and punctuation which sets the limit at virtually unreachable, but the set of words and sentences that make writing pleasing to people is far more limited...and yet that limit is also almost unreachable.

[DaShi]

Not in the Library of Babylon.