Music Preference

Question 1

What has a broad amount of research concluded about music preference?

Answer 1

Preferences largely reflect personality, self concept & social reality; listening can also shape attitudes & the causal direction is two-way

Question 2

Describe some factors that influence music preference

Answer 2

Personal & social factors: training, repetition, age, cultural identity, personality, brain processing, learning styles, emotional factors

Question 3

What are the two main philosophical perspectives in regards to music preference?

Answer 3

Referentialist (aka emotivists or arousalists) & Expressionist (aka cognitivists)

Question 4

Describe the Referentialist view;
Describe the Expressionist view;
Which view has been more dominant?

Answer 4

The listener determines the feelings in the music; the music evokes the emotion (internal emotional locus);
The meaning of the music is inherent within the piece; the music expresses the emotion (external emotional locus);
Expressionist

Question 5

Thompson & Robitalle (1992) wanted to know to what extent can composers communicate specific emotions to listeners. Describe their research & results

Answer 5

5 musicians composed short melodies to convey six emotions: joy, sorrow, excitement, dullness, anger & peace; these were played through a sequencer to 14 subjects; all successfully recognised the intended emotion in each piece

Question 6

What 5 categories did Bonneville-Roussy (2013) find which make up the acronym, MUSIC, & correspond to patterns of preference across age trends?

Answer 6

Mellow; Unpretentious, Sophisticated; Intense; Contemporary

Question 7

Describe the following genres across age trends & the processes involved:
Intense;
Contemporary;
Mellow;
Sophisticated;
Unpretentious

Answer 7

Adolescence - establishing identity, quest for independence; punk, metal;
Early adulthood - gaining acceptance from others; pop, rap
Adulthood - finding love & being loved; romantic, emotionally positive, danceable;
Middle age - high culture aesthetic linked to social status & perceived intellect; jazz, classical;
Onward - family, love, grief & loss; blues, country, folk

Question 8

What are Reminiscence Bumps & Cascading Reminiscence Bumps?

Answer 8

Songs popular in our formative years (early 20’s) seem to have the greatest lasting emotional impact (reminiscence bumps) & music from our parents’ generation also shapes autobiographical memories, preferences & emotional responses (cascading)

Question 9

How did the study by Krumhansi (2013) support the phenomenon of Reminiscence Bumps?;
As well as the resulting memory & cascading memory bumps, what else did they find?

Answer 9

62 college students listened to hits from 1955 to 2009 & were asked: which periods of music were more memorable; which songs conjured up the strongest memories; which made them happy, sad, energised or nostalgic;
Associated memories increased with age

Question 10

When Morrison (1998) compared the musical preferences of 469 white & African-American students in grades 6, 7 & 8 where they responded to 10 instrumental music excerpts, what was presented?;
What did white subjects prefer?;
What did African-American subjects prefer?

Answer 10

5 by white jazz artists & 5 by African-American artists; presented as music only; music accompanied by photo of performers; or music with photo representing a different ethnicity;
Excerpts by white performers regardless;
Music by white musicians in music alone condition; music believed to be by African-Americans (visual cues)

Question 11

Juslin & Sloboda (2010) found a link between music & personality. What type of music do high sensation types prefer?;
Extroverts?;
Open-minded?;
Highly intellectual people?

Answer 11

Intense music (need for physiological sensation);
Sociable & energetic (need to interact in a social manner with positive affect);
Variety of creative styles (need to experience new things);
Complex music (need for cognitive stimulation)

Question 12

What results did Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham (2007) find when asking if traits can explain how people use music?

Answer 12

When the listener focused more on the content of the song it was positively related to neuroticism; Openness, intellect & IQ were related to cognitive stimulation (focus on musical structure)

Question 13

What are music empathisers?;

What are music sympathisers?

Answer 13

Those who like to work with people & are interested in the mood of a piece;
Those who like to work with objects & are generally preoccupied with the structure of the music

Question 14

Dunn et al. (2012) studied how reported musical preferences related to actual listening behaviour in the workplace. What did they find about listening behaviour?;
What positive correlations were found regarding personality?;
When considering both reported preferences & listening behaviours, what correlations were consistent?

Answer 14

People listened to the types of genre they reported liking;
Extraversion with pop, dance, rock & religious music; agreeableness with soundtracks;
Neuroticism with classical music; openness to experience with jazz

Question 15

Instead of esoteric labels, what did Dunn et al. use in their study?;
What are some issues with these?;

Answer 15

Genre labels (i.e. rhythm & blues, hard rock, bass heavy, country, soft rock, classical);
May be too unstable (genres are evolving, overlapping & ambiguous); music is constantly changing

Question 16

According to Gans, what do Taste Public subscribe to?;

What is music taste culture set by?

Answer 16

Taste culture (those belonging to a group share a musical taste);
Shared values

Question 17

What do social influences on taste public include?

Answer 17

Socialisation (family, peers, values, training); Identification & cohesion (class, culture, ethnic group); Peer influence (individuation); Media (radio, TV, social media)

Question 18

What does the Interactionist Theory suggest?

Answer 18

People seek musical environments that reinforce & reflect personalities, attitudes & emotions

Question 19

Russell found links between music preference & individual factors. Among what groups is Classical music most common?;
Popular music?;
Progressive?

Answer 19

Higher socio-economic groups (minority among social classes);
Lower socio-economic groups;
Teenagers & young adults

Question 20

Musical tastes formed in youth persist as we get older. What did Le Blanc et al. find about open-earedness & listener tolerance?

Answer 20

Younger children are more open-eared; this declines in adolescence, rebounds at young adulthood, & declines as we enter old age

Question 21

Schwartz & Fouts examined the personality characteristics & developmental issues of 3 groups of adolescent music listeners. What was a preference for heavy music associated with?;
Those who preferred light music?;
Those with eclectic tastes?

Answer 21

Family conflict over independence issues, feeling rejected & misunderstood, & problems with intellectual pursuits;
Had concerns regarding sexuality & relationships;
Had less difficulty negotiating their adolescence

Question 22

What music do women tend to prefer over men?;

What factor regarding exposure influences our liking of music?

Answer 22

Light/popular music & are more likely to respond in an emotional way; no difference re heavy music;
Familiarity

Question 23

North & Hargreaves allocated 393 students to one of 17 music situations, & had them rate various music characteristics in regard to that situation. What were the results?;
What does this suggest?

Answer 23

The greater the similarity between emotional connotations of 2 situations (e.g. high vs. low arousal), the greater the similarity between the music they’d like to hear in that situation;
We choose music that compliments the emotional qualities of a situation