The measurement of meaning

The power of music to influence mood, create scenes, routines and occasions is widely recognised and this is reflected in a strand of social theory from Plato to Adorno that portrays music as an influence on character, social structure and action. There have, however, been few attempts to specify this power empirically and to provide theoretically grounded accounts of music's structuring properties in everyday experience. Music in Everyday Life uses a series of ethnographic studies - an aerobics class, karaoke evenings, music therapy sessions and the use of background music in the retail sector - as well as in-depth interviews to show how music is a constitutive feature of human agency. Drawing together concepts from psychology, sociology and socio-linguistics it develops a theory of music's active role in the construction of personal and social life and highlights the aesthetic dimension of social order and organisation in late modern societies.

/pdf/music-in-everyday-life-2nn7zuld26.pdf

Music in Everyday Life

Research indicates that people value music primarily because of the emotions it evokes. Yet, the notion of musical emotions remains controversial, and researchers have so far been unable to offer a satisfactory account of such emotions. We argue that the study of musical emotions has suffered from a neglect of underlying mechanisms. Specifically, researchers have studied musical emotions without regard to how they were evoked, or have assumed that the emotions must be based on the "default" mechanism for emotion induction, a cognitive appraisal. Here, we present a novel theoretical framework featuring six additional mechanisms through which music listening may induce emotions: (1) brain stem reflexes, (2) evaluative conditioning, (3) emotional contagion, (4) visual imagery, (5) episodic memory, and (6) musical expectancy. We propose that these mechanisms differ regarding such characteristics as their information focus, ontogenetic development, key brain regions, cultural impact, induction speed, degree of volitional influence, modularity, and dependence on musical structure. By synthesizing theory and findings from different domains, we are able to provide the first set of hypotheses that can help researchers to distinguish among the mechanisms. We show that failure to control for the underlying mechanism may lead to inconsistent or non-interpretable findings. Thus, we argue that the new framework may guide future research and help to resolve previous disagreements in the field. We conclude that music evokes emotions through mechanisms that are not unique to music, and that the study of musical emotions could benefit the emotion field as a whole by providing novel paradigms for emotion induction.

/pdf/emotional-responses-to-music-the-need-to-consider-underlying-592kszluvl.pdf

Emotional responses to music: The need to consider underlying mechanisms

The present research examined individual differences in music preferences. A series of 6 studies investigated lay beliefs about music, the structure underlying music preferences, and the links between music preferences and personality. The data indicated that people consider music an important aspect of their lives and listening to music an activity they engaged in frequently. Using multiple samples, methods, and geographic regions, analyses of the music preferences of over 3,500 individuals converged to reveal 4 music-preference dimensions: Reflective and Complex, Intense and Rebellious, Upbeat and Conventional, and Energetic and Rhythmic. Preferences for these music dimensions were related to a wide array of personality dimensions (e.g., Openness), self-views (e.g., political orientation), and cognitive abilities (e.g., verbal IQ).

The do re mi's of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences.

A theory of expectations is used to explain how music evokes various emotions for readers interested in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology as well as music. The psychological theory of expectation that David Huron proposes in "Sweet Anticipation" grew out of experimental efforts to understand how music evokes emotions. These efforts evolved into a general theory of expectation that will prove informative to readers interested in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology as well as those interested in music. The book describes a set of psychological mechanisms and illustrates how these mechanisms work in the case of music. All examples of notated music can be heard on the Web. Huron proposes that emotions evoked by expectation involve five functionally distinct response systems: reactive responses (which engage defensive reflexes); tension responses (where uncertainty leads to stress); predictive responses (which reward accurate prediction); imaginative responses (which facilitate deferred gratification); and appraisal responses (which occur after conscious thought is engaged). For real-world events, these five response systems typically produce a complex mixture of feelings. The book identifies some of the aesthetic possibilities afforded by expectation, and shows how common musical devices (such as syncopation, cadence, meter, tonality, and climax) exploit the psychological opportunities. The theory also provides new insights into the physiological psychology of awe, laughter, and "spine-tingling chills." Huron traces the psychology of expectations from the patterns of the physical/cultural world through imperfectly learned heuristics used to predict that world to the phenomenal qualia experienced by those who apprehend the world.

Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation

Aims. The study aims to determine the importance of music to adolescents in England, and investigates why they listen to and perform music. Sample. A total of 2465 adolescents (1149 males; 1266 females; 50 participants did not state their sex) between 13 and 14 years of age who were attending Year 9 at one of 22 secondary schools in the North Staffordshire region of England. Method. A questionnaire asked participants (a) about their degree of involvement with musical activities; (b) to rate the importance of music relative to other activities; and (c) to rate the importance of several factors that might determine why they and other people of their age and sex might listen to/perform pop and classical music. Results. Responses indicated that i) over 50% of respondents either played an instrument currently or had played regularly before giving up, and the sample listened to music for an average of 2.45 hours per day; ii) listening to music was preferred to other indoor activities but not to outdoor activities; iii) listening to/playing pop music has different perceived benefits to listening to/ playing classical music; iv) responses to suggested reasons for listening to music could be grouped into three factors; and v) responses to suggested reasons for playing music could be grouped into four factors. Conclusions. These results indicate that music is important to adolescents, and that this is because it allows them to (a) portray an ‘ image’ to the outside world and (b) satisfy their emotional needs.

The importance of music to adolescents

The value of music in people9s everyday lives depends on the uses they make of it and the degree to which they engage with it, which are in turn dependent on the contexts in which they hear it. Very few studies have investigated people9s experiences of music in naturalistic, everyday circumstances, and this exploratory study provides some initial normative data on who people listen with, what they listen to (and what their emotional responses to this music are), when they listen, where they listen, and why they listen. A total of 346 people who owned a mobile phone were sent one text message per day for 14 days. On receiving this message, participants were required to complete a questionnaire about any music they could hear, or had heard since their previous message. Responses indicated a high compliance rate; a high incidence of exposure to music; that the greatest number of musical episodes occurred while participants were on their own; that pop music was heard most frequently; that liking for the music varied depending on who the participant was with, where they were, and whether they had chosen to be able to hear music; that music was usually experienced during the course of some activity other than deliberate music listening; that exposure to music occurred most frequently in the evening, particularly between 10 pm and 11 pm, and on weekends; that music was heard most frequently at home, with only a small number of incidences occurring in public places; that the importance of several functions of music varied according to temporal factors, the place where the music was heard, and the person or people the participant was with. Further research should include participants from a greater range of sociodemographic backgrounds and should develop context-specific theoretical explanations of the different ways in which people use music as a resource.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.1525/mp.2004.22.1.41

Uses of Music in Everyday Life

This field study investigated the extent to which stereotypically French and German music could influence supermarket customers' selections of French and German wines. Music with strong national associations should activate related knowledge and be linked with customers buying wine from the respective country. Over a 2-week period, French and German music was played on alternate days from an in-store display of French and German wines. French music led to French wines outselling German ones, whereas German music led to the opposite effect on sales of French wine. Responses to a questionnaire suggested that customers were unaware of these effects of music on their product choices. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for research on music and consumer behavior and their ethical implications for the use of in-store music.

The influence of in-store music on wine selections.

What psychological functions does music serve in everyday life? In this paper we argue that the answer to this question is changing as a result of current social and technological changes in music ...

The Functions of Music in Everyday Life: Redefining the Social in Music Psychology:

This paper reports four studies which investigated the function of musical preference as an identifying ‘badge’ by which adolescents express their own self‐concepts and make judgements of others. Studies 1 and 2 indicated that older and younger adolescents, respectively, hold normative expectations about the values and characteristics of fans of particular musical styles. Study 3 showed that 13‐14‐ and 18‐19‐year‐olds hold normative expectations which influence their perception of the likely social consequences (e.g. having fewer friends) of being a fan of particular musical styles. The final study investigated hypotheses generated by the results of Studies 1‐3. It demonstrated a positive relationship between adolescents’ musical preference, self‐concept, self‐esteem, and normative expectations of the ‘typical’ fans of musical styles. This study also indicated that adolescents favour people who like the same musical style as they do, without necessarily denigrating those who do not. In conjunctio...

Adrian C. North

Papers

The importance of music to adolescents

Uses of Music in Everyday Life

The influence of in-store music on wine selections.

The Functions of Music in Everyday Life: Redefining the Social in Music Psychology:

Music and Adolescent Identity