In a nutshell, genes in Nature acquire random changes. If the changes interfere with reproduction, they are thrown in the bin; otherwise they stick around. I use the same logic for writing music in collaboration with others, so far composer Luke Cissell (Evolution of Music) and artist/mathwiz Christopher Hanusa (Genetics of Music). We make changes to music as if it were DNA then discard the pieces that make for lousy music. If the piece is somewhat workable, we keep it and continue to change it. In the Genetics of Music project, the public gets to decide which music to keep.