PS3017 Psychology of Music

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PS3017 Psychology of Music

• Liking for music
• The problem music debate
• Music and commerce
• http//www.le.ac.uk/pc/acn5/acn.html

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WARNING!!!

• Course changed in 2005-6
• Ignore questions on earlier past papers set by
  Mike Beauvois about auditory stream segregation
  etc.
• You can trust questions on past papers about
  musical preference, music and commerce, and the
  problem music debate
• Questions this year will all be on these topics

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Examples of typical exam questions

• Questions as per past papers still very likely
• Evaluation of Berlynes theory as a complete
  theory of musical preference, what are the
  effects of music in shops, does problem music
  pose a problem for society?
• Newer, more detailed, questions now possible also
• What factors specific to the individual can
  explain responses to music?
• How is a listeners age and / or personality
  related to his / her musical preference?
• What have economics and business studies
  contributed to our understanding of what music
  becomes popular?
• How does music affect customers in commercial
  environments?
• Discuss whether musical behaviour is a product of
  intra- and inter-group processes
• Is the idolisation of musicians a good or a bad
  thing for the fans concerned?
• Should pop music be subject to censorship?
• No nasty surprises
• i.e. no questions based on one or two slides only
• Only big topics lead to questions

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How to get high marks

• Lots of extra reading
• i.e. not just book chapters but LOTS of papers
  (and demonstrate that youve read them)
• Read up to date material (so use Psyc-info)
• Dip into other subjects (since much of the
  material can be found on ASSIA, Business Source
  Premier, Medline, Econlit etc.)
• Think
• How do different theories relate to each other,
  what are the limitations of existing areas of
  research, how can the findings be applied in the
  real world (e.g. policy, commerce, therapy etc.)
• Demonstrate it in the exam
• Dont worry too much about names and dates of
  minor studies
• You should know names and dates for big theories
• Spend revision time thinking and reading and NOT
  learning names and publication dates of minor
  studies
• Its safe to criticise my research
• But only if you must!

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Plan of the module

• Three big topics spread over the lectures
• Liking for music
• Problem music, censorship, and subculture
• Music and commerce

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Liking for music
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What music do you like?

• Who is your favourite musician and why?
• Many different reasons

8
What music do you like?

• Who is your favourite musician and why?
• Many different reasons
• North and Hargreaves (2002)
• Channel 4 Television, The Guardian, and HMV
• Who are the three best pop groups / musicians?
• 12502 people responded leading to over 37,000
  nominations
• The Beatles (2289), Bob Dylan (1038), Oasis
  (937), Radiohead (921), Pink Floyd (718), David
  Bowie (571), Van Morrison (523), Stone Roses
  (475), U2 (444), Nirvana (437)
• Same top 10 when divided into two random piles or
  by region

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What music do you like? (cont.)

• Farnsworth (1969) and classical music fashions
• Broad agreement on the greatest shows there
  must be rules governing reactions to music
• Massive disagreement between individuals shows
  that these rules must be complicated!

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Liking for music

• The music
• Berlyne
• Preference for prototypes
• Berlyne vs. prototypes
• The situation
• Konecnis work
• Prototypicality and appropriateness
• The individual
• Age
• Non-human animals
• Gender
• Social class
• Personality

• Extra-musical information
• Conformity effects
• Informational influence
• Physical attractiveness
• Music in everyday life

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The music
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Berlynes theory

• Inverted-U between liking and arousal potential
• Three aspects of music mediate arousal
• Psychophysical (e.g. tempo), ecological (e.g.
  memories), collative (e.g. familiarity,
  complexity)
• Why?
• On way to cortex the fibres of the RAS pass
  through pleasure and displeasure centres
• Pleasure centre has lower threshold and
  asymptotic level
• Makes adaptive sense something very arousing
  could be dangerous
• Try it for yourself

13
Evidence for Berlynes theory

• Several lab studies support Berlynes theory
• Real world evidence
• Unfamiliar music is often derided at first
• Classical, jazz, and pop
• Erdelyi (1940)
• Sales of sheet music (i.e. liking) and radio
  plugging (i.e. familiarity)
• Inverted-U relationship
• Plugging (i.e. changes in familiarity) preceded
  sales (i.e. changes in liking) by 13 days
• Jakobovits (1966)
• Inverted-U between sales and plugging
• Frequency of plugging predicted the speed of rise
  and fall in popularity
• Simonton (1987)
• Inverted-U in Beethovens work between popularity
  (e.g. concert performances) and two-note
  transition probabilities
• Simonton (1980 1986)
• String quartet music is most complex, operas are
  least complex
• Composers compensate for arousal from the number
  of instruments by writing different types of
  melody

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The relationship between liking, familiarity and
complexity

• Familiarity reduces subjective complexity
• As you know a piece better its easier to predict
  what it will do next
• Increasing familiarity pushes a song left-wards
  on the inverted-U
• Might explain
• Slower sales charts for classical than pop
• Why people hate modern classical music
• Why musically trained people like classical music
  more

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Familiarity, complexity, and The Beatles
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Berlyne and emotional responses to music
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Preference for prototypes

• Prototypicality is the extent to which a given
  stimulus is typical of its class
• People classify things more easily if they
  correspond with a prototype
• Prototypical things should be preferred because
  they are classified more easily
• Try it for yourself
• Prototypicality explains preference better than
  does Berlyne
• Martindale and Moore (1989) found 4 complexity
  and 51 prototypicality
• Seven other studies found the same

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Berlyne versus prototypes?

• BUT just because prototypicality explains more we
  shouldnt discard Berlynes theory
• Importance of typicality and Berlynian factors
  in preference depends on the extent to which the
  music varies in these
• E.g. different dance music tracks vary little in
  arousal (i.e. gt90 bpm, simple melody etc.)
• Prototypicality has to explain more of variance
  in liking between the different tracks than does
  complexity
• Variations in arousal are also variations in
  prototypicality
• E.g. dance is usually fast tempo so any variation
  in this Berlynian factor (i.e. tempo) also
  influences the extent to which any given track is
  typical of dance music
• Variations in any factor are also variations in
  prototypicality
• E.g. the music you listen to has a typical level
  of arousal, typical frequency of mentioning dog
  in the lyrics etc.
• Prototypicality is a broader-ranging variable
  than arousal so it has to explain more

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The listening situation
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Konecnis theory

• Berlyne said we prefer music that causes moderate
  arousal
• Konecni (1982) said that we prefer music that
  moderates arousal evoked by the situation
• Arousing situations simple music
• Dull situations arousing music
• Insulted subjects prefer simple music
• Works in reverse also
• People played arousing (i.e. loud, complex) music
  are more aggressive
• They use the situation to moderate arousal caused
  by the music

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Prototypicality and appropriateness

• Is arousal moderation everything?
• Appropriateness typical of music usually heard
  in a given place
• Positive relationship between liking and
  appropriateness
• Arousal goals rather than moderation in the
  listening situation
• North and Hargreaves (2000)
• People either ride an exercise bike or relax and
  then select music
• Arousal moderation strategy as per Konecni
• People either ride an exercise bike or relax
  while selecting music
• Arousal polarising strategy
• Situational arousal-based goal determines
  preference
• Explains why we like loud music in a gym but turn
  down car radio in heavy traffic

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The individual

• Age
• Open-earedness
• Critical periods
• The unborn
• Non-human animals
• Animal welfare
• Musical preferences
• Gender
• Attitudes towards music
• Preferences
• Uses of music
• Social class
• Personality
• Introversion / extraversion
• Sensation-seeking
• Conservatism
• Rebelliousness

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Age

• LeBlanc and open-earedness
• Tolerance for a range of styles
• (a) younger children are more open-eared, (b)
  open-earedness declines as the child enters
  adolescence, (c) there is a partial rebound of
  open-earedness as the listener matures from
  adolescence to young adulthood, and (d)
  open-earedness declines as the listener matures
  to old age (LeBlanc, 1991, p.2)
• LeBlanc, Sims, Siivola, and Obert (1993)
• Preference judgements from 2262 6-91 year olds
  for 30-second recordings of art music, trad
  jazz, and rock
• Generally conformed the model for overall
  responses, and within each of the three styles
• There was an adolescent dip in preference,
  followed by an increase towards adulthood, and a
  final decrease in preference in old age

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Age

• Two problems
• Why should there be an adolescent dip?
• Is there only an adolescent dip for music
  chosen by researchers?
• North and Hargreaves (1999)
• Five age groups nominate and rate liking for as
  many types of a) rock and pop b) classical music
  and c) jazz as possible
• Unsurprisingly, younger people liked rock and
  pop, older people preferred classical and jazz
• BUT mean liking was consistent across all age
  groups
• When people select their own music to respond to
  the adolescent (and any other) dip disappears
• Rather different age groups simply have their own
  musical preferences
• Leads onto the next age-related influence on
  musical preference

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Age

• Here is a list of pop musicians who have all had
  a British number 1 single between 1955 and 1994.
  Pick a few that you like best

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Perry Como, The Dave Clarke Five, Mud, Wham,
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Searchers, The
Rubettes, Frankie Laine, The Bachelors, The Three
Degrees, A-Ha, Guy Mitchell, Cilla Black, David
Essex, George Michael, Peter Gordon, Status
Quo, Rosemary Clooney, U2, Bill Haley His
Comets, The Animals, Steve Harley Cockney
Rebel, Chaka Khan, Pat Boone, The Rolling Stones,
Slik, Sister Sledge, B-52s, Tommy Steele, Manfred
Mann, The Bay City Rollers, TPau, Frankie
Vaughan, Lonnie Donegan, The Kinks, David Bowie,
Eurythmics, Hermans Hermits, Elvis Presley, The
Supremes, The Four Seasons, Madonna, Jerry Lee
Lewis, The Moody Blues, Whitney Houston, Leo
Sayer, Pet Shop Boys, Paul Anka, The Righteous
Brothers, Hot Chocolate, The Everly Brothers,
Wings, The Hollies, Mel Kim, Kate Bush, Conway
Twitty, Sandie Shaw, The Commodores, M/A/R/R/S,
The Byrds, Shirley Bassey, Russ Conway, KLF,
Walker Brothers, The Spencer Davis Group, Boney
M, Dusty Springfield, Wet Wet Wet, Buddy Holly,
Georgie Fame, 2 Unlimited, Cliff Richard, The
Small Faces, Whigfield, Blondie, The Boomtown
Rats, Bobby Darin, The Troggs, Gary Numan, Adam
Faith, The Shadows, The Four Tops, Take That, Joe
Cocker, Marvin Gaye, The Police, Anthony Newley,
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ace Of Base, Johnny
Preston, The Beach Boys, Eddie Cochran, Bryan
Adams, Mungo Jerry, The Wonder Stuff, Jimmy
Jones, Simon Garfunkel, Snap, Ricky Valance,
The Monkees, Dr. Hook, The Specials, Dr. Alban,
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick Tich, The Jam,
Seal, Roy Orbison, Smokey Robinson, Dexys
Midnight Runners, Petula Clark, Jimi Hendrix,
Aswad, Roxy Music, The Marcels, Black Box, T-Rex,
Floyd Cramer, Rod Stewart, Bros, Slade, The
Temperance Seven, Adam The Ants, Enya, Kylie
Minogue, Del Shannon, Don McLean, Donny Osmond,
Michael Jackson, Soft Cell, Simple Minds, The
Bangles, Helen Shapiro, Human League, Kraftwerk,
David Cassidy, Ray Charles, Sinead OConnor,
Madness, The Tornados, Lisa Stansfield, Frank
Ifield, Culture Club, Kajagoogoo, The Searchers,
Sweet, Vanilla Ice, The Stylistics, Gerry The
Pacemakers, Enigma, The Beatles, James, Duran
Duran, The Waterboys, 10cc, Brian Poole The
Tremeloes, Terry Jacks, Roxette, Billy Joel,
Wizzard, Danny Williams, Eden Kane, Spandau
Ballet, Paul Young, Craig Douglas, Men At Work,
Mariah Carey, Bucks Fizz, Erasure, Boyz II Men,
Peters Lee, The Platters, Shakin Stevens,
Brian Michael, Tasmin Archer, Gary Glitter,
Tommy Edwards, Chicory Tip, Brotherhood Of Man,
Gabrielle , David Soul, Vic Damone, Thunderclap
Newman, Culture Beat, Harry Belafonte, Manhattan
Transfer, Jazzy Jeff Fresh Prince, Haddaway,
John Denver, Andy Williams, Marmalade, Janet
Jackson, The Teenagers, Alvin Stardust, Dickie
Valentine, Engelbert Humperdinck, Chaka Demus
Pliers, Sonny Cher, Jason Donovan, Glenn
Medeiros, Rick Astley
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Age and critical periods

• North and Hargreaves (1995)
• 9-10 years, 14-15 years, 18-24 years, 25-49
  years, and 50 years
• All shown the same list of 200 pop groups and
  singers who had all enjoyed a number 1 single in
  the United Kingdom charts
• 50 had had their first number 1 between 1955 and
  1964, 50 had had their first number 1 between
  1965 and 1974 etc.
• Choose up to 30 from the list who in your own
  personal opinion have performed music that
  deserves to be called to the attention of others

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50 year olds

• 10. Petula Clarke
• 9. The Bachelors
• 8. The Shadows

• 3. Perry Como / Shirley Bassey / Cliff Richard
  / Harry Belafonte / Andy Williams
• 2. Simon Garfunkel
• 1. The Beatles

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25-49 year olds

• 10. U2
• 9. The Beach Boys
• 8. Jimi Hendrix
• 7. The Police

• 5. Eurythmics / Rolling Stones
• 4. Elvis Presley
• 3. Simon Garfunkel
• 2. David Bowie
• 1. The Beatles

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18-24 year olds

• 10. Rolling Stones
• 9. George Michael
• 8. The Police
• 7. Jimi Hendrix
• 6. Madonna

• 5. Eurythmics
• 4. Elvis Presley
• 3. Madness
• 2. U2
• 1. The Beatles

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14-15 year olds

• 9. U2 / Take That
• 8. Haddaway
• 7. Whitney Houston

• 5. Bryan Adams
• 4. Elvis Presley
• 1. Madonna / Wet Wet Wet / The Beatles

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9-10 year olds

• 10. Take That / Janet Jackson
• 9. Jazzy Jeff The Fresh Prince
• 8. Ace of Base
• 6. Madonna / Michael Jackson

• 5. Pet Shop Boys
• 3. The Beatles / Elvis Presley
• 2. Wet Wet Wet
• 1. 2 Unlimited

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34
Age

• Golden greats always do well but late
  adolescence / early adulthood critical period
• Further evidence from North and Hargreaves (2002)
• 12502 people nominated the greatest musician
  (from HMV, The Guardian, and Channel 4)
• Calculated the mean year in which peoples
  nominated musicians achieved their first top 10
  UK album
• Late adolescence / early adulthood critical
  period
• Under 19 year olds 1990, 19-34 year olds 1983,
  35-54 year olds 1975, 55 year olds 1971

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Age

• Holbrook and Schindler agree
• Preferences toward popular music appear to
  reflect tastes acquired during late adolescence
  or early adulthood. (Holbrook and Schindler,
  1989, p.119)
• They find the same for preferences for movies
  (Holbrook and Schindler, 1996), the appearances
  of male and female movie stars (Holbrook and
  Schindler, 1994), males preferences for
  automobile styles (Schindler and Holbrook, 2003),
  mens tastes in female fashion models personal
  appearance (Schindler and Holbrook, 1993), and
  among 21 other categories such as novels,
  talk-show hosts, soft drinks, cereals, and
  toothpastes (Holbrook, 1995).
• Haacks (1988) nominations of the top 10 songs of
  all time (1945-1982) showed preference for music
  that was popular while participants were in their
  mid-20s

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Age

• Why? At least three possibilities
• 1. Analogous to imprinting
• Young animals at a critical stage in their
  development form a strong and irreversible
  attachment to a parent
• Late adolescence / early adulthood period
  represents a time of maximal sensitivity toward
  and liking for any music that we might hear
• 2. Peer influences or associations with certain
  rites of passage
• 3. Nostalgia
• Holbrooks notion of nostalgia-proness (e.g.
  Things used to be better in the old days,
  Things are getting worse all the time)
• Preferences for movie stars and movies both
  showed an earlier age-related peak among
  nostalgia-prone participants than among those
  scoring lower on this variable

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Age

• Two final points about critical periods
• Peak liking may be not for music released at this
  time but instead for music we first became aware
  of during late adolescence / early adulthood
• May explain enduring popularity of Elvis and The
  Beatles - their music was present during
  everyones critical period
• Only way for critical periods research to explain
  how we like music released before we were
  adolescent (e.g. most classical music!)
• Certainly explains the common observation that
  todays pop music is rubbish compared with that
  of insert year of your choice

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Age

• Music in the womb
• Hepper (1991)
• Experiment 1 - newborns
• Newborns exposed to the theme of a popular TV
  programme (e.g. Neighbours) during gestation
  exhibited changes in heart rate, number of
  movements, and behavioural state two to four days
  after birth (although these effects disappeared
  by 21 days of age)
• Experiment 2 third trimester foetuses
• Foetuses between 29 and 37 weeks of gestational
  age exhibited changes in their movements when
  they were played a tune they had already heard
  earlier during pregnancy
• Effects in both experiments were specific to the
  music heard previously rather than to any music
• Foetus is not simply responding to an external
  stimulant, but has instead learnt the specific
  music

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Age

• Shahidullah and Hepper (1993)
• foetus will first respond to acoustic stimulation
  at 20 weeks of gestational age
• Lecanuet, Graniere-Deferre, Jacquet, and DeCasper
  (2000)
• foetuses at 36-39 weeks could distinguish
  different piano notes
• Responses to music develop while in the womb
• Shahidullah and Hepper (1994)
• foetuses at 35 weeks could better distinguish
  pure tone frequencies than could foetuses at 27
  weeks
• Kisilevsky, Hains, Jacquet, Granier-Deferre, and
  Lecanuet (2004)
• Foetuses at 28-32 weeks showed an increase in
  heart rate to Brahms Lullaby played at 105 or
  110 decibels
• Over time the foetuses reacted to quieter music
• Older foetuses are better able to pay attention
  to music

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Age

• Implications of music in the womb
• Development post-birth (Lafuente, Grifol,
  Segarra, Soriano, Gorba, and Montesinos, 1998)
• Pre-natal music can have a positive impact on a
  childs post-natal development.
• Women in the last third of their pregnancy wore a
  waistband containing loudspeakers connected to a
  tape recorder
• After birth the mothers then noted the age at
  which their babies developed a range of
  behaviours (e.g. gross and fine motor activities,
  linguistic development)
• Those exposed to the music developed earlier
• We need a broad definition of music listening
  and musical preference
• Not just teenagers listening to iPods in their
  bedrooms
• Medical implications
• Understanding of the development of hearing and
  the early detection of deafness
• Hepper and Shahidullah (1992) - the rate of
  habituation to a foetal auditory stimulus may
  discriminate children who will from those who
  will not be born with Downs syndrome
• If music learning occurs mid-pregnancy then
  implications for abortion law?

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Non-human animals

• Well-known ethological research on birdsong
• i.e. functions (e.g. territory marking) and
  learning (e.g. regional accents)
• Research aimed at understanding human perception
  of music has considered how animals use and
  perceive music
• Growing evidence concerning specifically how
  non-human animals react to music
• impact of music on animal welfare
• the existence and modification of musical
  preferences in non-human animals

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Non-human animals

• Animal welfare
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/466525
  2.stm
• Consistent with Konecnis arousal moderation
• Calming music may counteract the stress of
  captivity
• Wells, Graham, and Hepper (2002)
• Human conversation, classical music (most
  soothing), heavy metal music (least soothing),
  pop music, and a control to 50 dogs in an animal
  rescue shelter
• Classical music led to the dogs spending more
  time resting, more time quiet, and less time
  standing - behaviours suggestive of relaxation
  (p.385)
• Heavy metal led to the dogs spending more time
  barking

43
Non-human animals

• North, MacKenzie, and Hargreaves (unpublished)
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1408434.stm
• Fast and slow tempo music to dairy cows in
  crowded winter shelters
• Milk yield indicates well-being
• 3 higher yield in the slow than the fast music
  condition
• McCarthy, Ouimet, and Daun (1992)
• Exposing rats to stimulating rock music reduced
  ability to heal wounds
• Peretto and Kippschull (1991)
• Played music to mice over two weeks
• (1) classical music produced more interaction
  (4) easy listening increased huddling and (5)
  rock tended to increase aggression but decrease
  sexual activity (p.51)

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Non-human animals

• Two other studies harder to explain in terms of
  Konecni still show welfare effects
• Uetakea, Hurnika, and Johnson (1997)
• 19 cows over a 69 day period
• The number of cows accessing milking compartments
  of an automatic milking machine increased from
  22.3 in the absence of music up to 45.0 when
  music was played
• Line, Markowitz, Morgan, and Strong (1991)
• Increasing the cage size of macaques was
  ineffective for welfare relative to the provision
  of music under their control
• Many captive animals now given artistic
  activities
• Henley (1992) talks about captive apes,
  elephants, and dolphins
• BUT
• Cloutier, Weary, and Fraser (2000, p.107)
• Music did not improve condition of piglets during
  handling and weaning

45
Non-human animals

• Musical preferences exist in non-humans
• McDermott and Hauser (2004)
• Tamarin monkeys have sound preferences
• Different to those of humans exposed to the same
  materials
• King, West, and White (2003)
• Adult and juvenile female cowbirds preferences
  for different types of birdsong could be modified
• Okaichi and Okaichi (2001)
• Rats could discriminate the original from a
  version of Yesterday performed by one of the
  experimenters
• Could distinguish the music of Mozart
• Could distinguish music and white noise

46
Non-human animals

• Payne (2000)
• Songs of humpback whales arise through
  improvisation rather than by accident or as
  conveyors of information
• Clear musical thematic structure
• McAdie, Foster, Temple, and Matthews (1993)
• Hens could distinguish between music, and the
  sounds of a water-hose, poultry, and a train
• Porter, Reed, and Neuringer (1984)
• Pigeons could discriminate between Bach flute
  music and Hindemith viola music, and between
  Stravinskys Rite of Spring and a Bach organ
  piece amongst others
• College students responded similarly
• The pigeons response to complex auditory events
  may be more like the human's than is often
  assumed (p.138).

47
Non-human animals

• Non-humans have responses to music that are not
  very dissimilar from those of humans
• Implications
• For music psychology
• How and why do these apparent preferences emerge?
• Does music help welfare because of aesthetic
  effects or simply by masking background noise?
• For research on animals
• Are we really experimenting on inferior dumb
  animals?
• For the food business
• Happy animals taste better if music does help
  then what music is best?
• But non-vegetarians may be eating a Coldplay fan
  for dinner tonight

48
Gender

• Evidence on three aspects
• Attitudes, preferences, uses of music
• Females have more positive attitudes and
  participate more
• North, Hargreaves, and ONeill (2000)
• 2465 13-14 year olds asked do you play an
  instrument
• 64.7 of the musicians were female, 35.3 were
  male
• Eccles, Wigfield, Harold, and Blumenfeld (1993)
• Girls regard themselves as more
  musically-competent than do boys
• Colley, Comber, and Hargreaves (1994)
• Liking for school music lessons in 11-13 year
  olds was associated with higher Femininity scores
  on Boldizars Childrens Sex Role Inventory
• Comber, Hargreaves, and Colley (1993)
• This pattern may be changing
• Boys are more positive than girls in their
  attitudes towards music technology
• More music technology in National Curriculum

49
Gender

• No short-term differences in preference for
  individual pieces of music
• Sopchack (1955) - men and women were equally
  responsive to music
• Over the long-term, females prefer softer
  musical styles
• North and Hargreaves (2005)
• Survey of 2532 people aged 12-85 years
• Females disproportionately liked chart pop,
  disco, musicals
• Males disproportionately liked rock and rap
• Same results from other studies (e.g. Robinson,
  Weaver, and Zillmann, 1996 Took and Weiss, 1994)
• Why the long-term difference?

50
Gender

• Is this a reason why you like your favourite
  music? Please answer yes or no
• To enjoy the music
• To help me get through difficult times
• To be trendy or cool
• To create an image for myself
• To express my feelings / emotions
• To please or impress my friends
• To reduce loneliness

51
Gender

• Gender differences in uses of music
• North, Hargreaves, ONeill (2000)
• Why do you listen to music?
• Males create an impression to others (e.g. to
  be cool, create an image for myself)
• Females satisfy emotional needs (e.g. express
  my emotions, get through difficult times,
  reduce tension and stress)
• Generally, gender is studied little in its own
  right
• Usually only in terms of interaction with other
  factors
• Gender is a red herring
• Other factors explain much more
• E.g. the situation even though theyre female,
  women in the gym listen to loud, fast music not
  slow, quiet music
• E.g. age even though a male, my Dad hated heavy
  rock

52
Social class

• Sociologists in 1960s and 1970s argued for
  massification
• Homogeneity reduces financial risk to music
  industry
• Others (e.g. Bourdieu, 1971 1984) argued for
  diversification
• Upper social classes control means of cultural
  production
• They legitimise some art and not other art
• They preserve legitimised art for themselves
  (e.g. classical music)
• In practical terms
• Upper social classes should like classical music
  and opera more
• Musical taste in determined by your position in
  society
• Led to research on taste publics
• A socioeconomic sub-group of the population who
  share particular tastes

53
Social class

• Taste publics defined by social class (e.g.
  income) are linked to musical preference
• Fox and Wince (1975)
• Jazz-blues taste public related positively to
  hometown size, fathers education and occupation,
  and being atheist, agnostic, or Jewish
• Dimaggio and Useem (1978)
• In past 12 months 18 of professionals had
  attended a symphony concert versus 4 of manual
  workers
• North and Hargreaves (2005) lifestyle survey
  found day-to-day evidence for this
• e.g. access to financial resources (e.g. credit
  cards), spending on food, drinking wine (rather
  than beer etc.), education (e.g. PhDs), choice of
  radio stations, choice of TV programmes etc.

54
Social class

• Criticisms of research on taste publics
• They are poorly-defined and hypothetical
• Surely, nobody is able to stake out the actual
  taste publics of heavy metal, reggae, or folk
  music (Zillmann and Gan, 1997, p.172)
• Patterns of legitimation are changing constantly
• e.g. jazz used to be regarded as a type of pop
  music
• The research therefore gets outdated very quickly
• Hard to think of acclaimed music that does not
  satisfy both legitimate, high-brow aesthetic and
  non-legitimate, low brow aesthetic
• Great music tends to have artistic value and
  also to sell by the truckload

55
Personality

• Not researched much
• The role of music in personality has not been
  addressed
• i.e. we sometimes listen to a particular piece to
  express a trait and sometimes to compensate for
  that same trait (e.g. listen to aggressive music
  to pump us up further or as catharsis)
• Therefore some traits (e.g. extraversion) do not
  always lead reliably to particular musical
  preferences

56
Personality

• Other factors more clear-cut and imply reflection
  of personality rather than compensation
• Sensation-seeking
• The need for varied, novel, and complex
  experiences, and the willingness to take physical
  and social risks for the sake of obtaining such
  experiences
• Links to liking for heavy music
• Which tends to be loud and fast, to deal with
  risqué themes in its lyrics, and to be the
  subject of visually dynamic live performances
• e.g. Arnett, 1991, 1992 Kim, Kwak, and Chang,
  1998 McNamara and Ballard, 1999
• Litle and Zuckerman (1986)
• High sensation seekers also more likely to get
  emotionally involved with music

57
Personality

• Conservatism
• i.e. anti-abortion, death penalty etc.
• Another instance of reflection of personality
  rather than compensation for it
• People low on conservatism prefer problem music
  styles such as rock and rap
• McLeod, Detenber, and Eveland (2001)
• Participants with conservative attitudes were
  most likely to support music censorship
  participants who listened to problem music
  lyrics did not support their censorship
• Lynxwiler and Gay (2000)
• Participants who held conservative attitudes
  toward sexuality and those who attended religious
  services disliked heavy metal and rap
• Glasgow and Cartier (1985)
• Conservatives prefer simple, familiar, and safe
  artistic objects

58
Personality

• Rebelliousness and heavy metal / rap fans
• Another instance of reflection of personality
  rather than compensation for it
• Robinson, Weaver, and Zillmann (1996)
• Undergraduates who scored highly on measures of
  psychoticism and reactive rebelliousness enjoyed
  rebellious videos more than did participants who
  scored low on these factors
• Bleich, Zillmann, and Weaver (1991)
• Highly rebellious participants consumed less
  non-defiant rock music
• Dillmann-Carpentier, Knobloch, and Zillmann
  (2003)
• Liking for defiant music was related to forms of
  rebelliousness

59
Personality

• Factors indicative of rebelliousness give rise to
  similar results
• McCown, Keiser, Mulhearn, and Williamson (1997)
• Psychoticism related to a preference for music
  with exaggerated bass
• Hansen and Hansen (1991)
• Heavy metal fans were higher on
  Machiavellianism and machismo, and were lower
  on measures of need for cognition than were
  non-fans
• Hansen and Hansen (1990)
• Experimental exposure to antisocial music videos
  increased participants tolerance of antisocial
  behaviour (i.e. an obscene hand gesture) as
  compared with exposure to non-antisocial videos.
• Yee et al (1988)
• Heavy metal fans have positive attitudes to
  pre-marital sex, drug and alcohol use, and
  satanism
• Trostle (1986)
• Heavy metal fans have greater belief in
  witchcraft and the occult
• Arnett (1991)
• Heavy metal fans more prone to dangerous driving,
  shoplifting, and vandalism

60
Extra-musical information

• Compliance effects
• Informational influence effects

61
Compliance effects

• Some evidence that listeners will go along with
  the musical judgements of the majority
• Radocy (1975)
• Music students played a standard tone and then
  three comparisons
• Four confederates answer first (sometimes
  incorrectly)
• Conformity to incorrect confederates on 30 of
  trials involving pitch judgements and 49 of
  volume judgement trials
• Furman and Duke (1988)
• Similar method to Radocy
• No compliance in musical preferences when judging
  pop music
• Non-music students complied when judging
  orchestral (i.e. unfamiliar) music
• Inglefield (1968)
• School pupils compliance greatest in judgement
  of jazz (i.e. unfamiliar)
• Crowther (1985)
• Each person chooses continually between four
  channels (two liked, two disliked)
• (False) feedback on what others were listening to
• When person thinks the majority are listening to
  the disliked channel they tend to listen also

62
Informational influence

• Occur when we have little knowledge about the
  music and so base judgement on external sources
• Rigg (1948)
• Six pieces (three by Wagner) rated for enjoyment
• Played again one group told Wagner was a Hitler
  favourite, one told nothing, and one heard a
  description of the music
• Enjoyment ratings increased in all cases, but
  least in the Hitler group and most in the
  description group
• Alpert (1982)
• Approval of classical music by a teacher and a DJ
  increased liking for classical music
• Fiese (1990)
• Misattributing pieces to Bach and Beethoven
  influenced judgements of musical quality
• Geiger (1950)
• A programme of popular gramophone music
  received only half the radio audience when it was
  repeated a week later as a programme of
  classical music

63
Informational influence evaluation of music by
females

• Lists of the greats are male-dominated
• Farnsworths all-male top 10 classical composers
• One female (Annie Lennox) among 10 favourite pop
  musicians, and no female classical music composer
  received more than a single nomination (North and
  Hargreaves, 1996)
• A special case of informational influence?
• Goldberg (1968)
• Females read articles attributed to males or
  females
• Articles allegedly by males were given higher
  ratings on 44 of the 54 measures (e.g.
  competence)
• Colley, North, and Hargreaves (2003)
• Anti-female bias in new age music when people
  told composers (supposed) name
• North, Colley, and Hargreaves (2003)
• Specific reactions to the music (e.g. gentle or
  soothing) influenced by gender stereotypes

64
Informational influence evaluation of music by
attractive people

• What is beautiful is good
• North and Hargreaves (1997)
• 20 pieces of pop music and a picture of the
  performer
• Attractive performers more poised, sophisticated,
  emotionally warm, feminine, intelligent, and
  likely to be popular (rather than talentless
  idiots)
• Music by attractive performers liked more,
  perceived as possessing more artistic merit, and
  as being more sophisticated, intelligent, and
  likely to be popular
• Same effects for performers who were the same-sex
  as participant
• Wapnick, Darrow, Kovacs, and Dalrymple (1997)
• Evaluations of classical music singers higher
  when audiovisual (rather than audio-only)
  performance presented
• Attractive females were judged to perform better
  than unattractive females even when audio-only
  presented
• Several other studies repeat the latter
• Attractive performers must also receive better
  training

65
Music in everyday life
66
Music in everyday life

• Responses to music involve an interaction of four
  elements
• The music (e.g. arousal, prototypicality)
• The listening situation (e.g. arousal-evoking
  qualities, appropriateness)
• The listener (e.g. age, sex, personality)
• Extra-musical information (e.g. compliance,
  informational influence)
• We must study music in this complete context
• Cannot just isolate the music, listener, or
  listening situation
• Must study musical behaviour in everyday contexts
• Particularly important because of digital
  revolution
• Internet music retailers, high capacity portable
  music players, digital broadcasting
• Can listen to whatever, whenever, wherever we
  want
• Music may be worth less as it is less scarce
• High control over music means we might use music
  to achieve very specific ends in very specific
  circumstances

67
Music in everyday life

• North, Hargreaves, and Hargreaves (2004)
• 346 people sent one text per day over 14 days
• Questionnaire about who, what, when, where, and
  why
• Who?
• Only 26.3 of listening episodes occurred while
  participants were on their own
• What?
• Classical music accounted for only 3 of
  listening episodes
• When?
• Music more commonly experienced in the evening
  (esp. 22.00-22.59), and at weekends rather than
  weekdays
• Where?
• Only 50.1 of music listening episodes occurred
  within the home

68
Music in everyday life

• Why? Three predictions based on digital
  revolution
• Music is common
• Could be heard on 38.6 of those occasions on
  which participants received their text
• Music perceived as being worth little
• Music was the main thing they were doing in only
  26.4 of musical experiences
• Only 11.9 of episodes occurred while
  participants were deliberately listening to music
  either at home or in a concert
• Disinterested and passive attitude (e.g. It
  helped to create the right atmosphere rather
  that It aided my attempts to do what I was
  trying to do)
• Music used to achieve very specific goals in
  specific settings
• Participants thought that music had different
  functions depending on who they were with, what
  music they could hear, when they listened to it,
  and where they were listening