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[Moogmodule]

Interesting study I saw. Measures preference for various musical factors and how they change with age. No surprises that interest in contemporary music drops off pretty quickly past your thirties. Most of the factors show a pretty clear trend with age either up or down. But liking mellow music waxes and wanes a bit.

[Normandie]

Fascinating! I'm going to do some digging. I would LOVE to work with material like this.

[nimrod]

What happens after 65 ? 

[Moogmodule]

You tell us 

[nimrod]

You tell us 

 

[Normandie]

Interesting study I saw. Measures preference for various musical factors and how they change with age.

This is an intersection of two of my favorite topics: social psychology and music. I'm very curious to learn how the authors operationally defined sophisticated and unpretentious in particular. I've printed the article out but haven't yet had a chance to read it carefully.

Maybe I'll bring the printout to my coffee with my friends on Friday and try to start a discussion and watch their eyes glaze over. Then they might have a better appreciation for my ocean liner chatter. 

So glad you posted this, Moogmodule.

[Moogmodule]

This is an intersection of two of my favorite topics: social psychology and music. I'm very curious to learn how the authors operationally defined sophisticated and unpretentious in particular. I've printed the article out but haven't yet had a chance to read it carefully.

Maybe I'll bring the printout to my coffee with my friends on Friday and try to start a discussion and watch their eyes glaze over. Then they might have a better appreciation for my ocean liner chatter. 

So glad you posted this, Moogmodule.

I had the same questions. Defining the categories. Even intense is a bit hard to pin down.

Interested to hear once you’ve read it. I don’t think I could download the whole study. Only the abstract. I thought it was behind a paywall.

[Normandie]

I don’t think I could download the whole study. Only the abstract. I thought it was behind a paywall.

I assumed it was, too—I was surprised to be able to access the entire article. Usually one has to pay something in the area of USD40. There's been an increasing push toward open access, though, so perhaps APA is loosening up a bit, as some other publishers have. I'm looking forward to settling down for a good read tomorrow or the next day.

[Normandie]

I had the same questions. Defining the categories. Even intense is a bit hard to pin down.

I finally got around to reading this and ended up only skimming it (for now, anyway) because I've been swamped. I was a bit disappointed to see that the authors didn't provide a clear operational definition of the various music styles. This was as specific as they got (boldface added by me):

The factor loadings in the first data column of Table 1 show large loadings for electronica/dance, world, and new age, styles that are perceived as relaxing, unaggressive, and atmospheric, qualities consistent with the Mellow preference dimension. Genres with large loadings on the second factor were pop,
country, and religious, styles that typically have vocals and are perceived as uncomplicated, unaggressive, and simple, consistent with the Unpretentious dimension. The third factor included blues, jazz, bluegrass, folk, classical, opera, and gospel, styles that generally use acoustical instruments; are clear sounding; and are perceived as intelligent, deep, inspiring, and complex, consistent with the Sophisticated dimension. The fourth factor included rock, punk, alternative, and heavy metal, genres characterized by electric, loud, and distorted instruments, and perceived as aggressive, tense, and unromantic, consistent with the Intense dimension. And the fifth factor included rap, soul/R&B, funk, and reggae, styles that are percussive and electric and perceived as upbeat, danceable, and not sad, consistent with the Contemporary dimension.

I kind of question the category labels because they very conveniently lend themselves to the acronym MUSIC.

A couple of other interesting things. My own experience and characteristics don't match up with this; for example, I love classical music, but I don't hold liberal values, and my artistic expression is basically nil:

For example, preferences for sophisticated musical styles (classical, opera, and jazz) are positively related to Openness, imagination, liberal values, artistic expression, and verbal ability. Preferences for intense music (heavy metal and punk) are positively related to Openness, sensation seeking, and impulsivity. Also, preferences for contemporary music (pop, rap, and dance) are positively associated with sociability, status orientation, and physical attractiveness.

Openness is part of the five-factor model of personality (the others being Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness), on which the research was based.

One other thing that doesn't fit with my own experience is the finding that degree of importance attributed to music declines with age. If anything, I attribute more importance to it now, if that's even possible.

Again, I'm so glad you flagged this Moogmodule. It was interesting.

[Moogmodule]

I kind of question the category labels because they very conveniently lend themselves to the acronym MUSIC.

Ha ha I hadn't noticed that. It does make it sound a little frivolous.

That is the trouble with a lot of research in all fields. The classifications/definitions can make huge differences to the results so it does make you wonder when distinctions seem somewhat arbitrary.

A couple of other interesting things. My own experience and characteristics don't match up with this; for example, I love classical music, but I don't hold liberal values, and my artistic expression is basically nil:

I suppose, like all these studies, it's only describing a tendency not an iron clad rule. This suggests you'd find more lovers of classical music in liberal than conservative circles but doesn't mean you won't find a lot in both. It would be two overlapping bell curves with a lot of crossover. I have found that, in pop/rock musical circles, the musos I've known have almost all held progressive views. Where I did find the last bastion of conservatives in musical fields was in opera and classical music. Still a lot of progressives but you'd find more people willing to class themselves as conservative. I'm wondering what the correlation with education level would be.

One other thing that doesn't fit with my own experience is the finding that degree of importance attributed to music declines with age. If anything, I attribute more importance to it now, if that's even possible.

Yes I wondered what they meant about that too. I suppose it is more important in some ways to me too. I now read a lot of books on theory analysing songs and on recording practices. Certainly much more than I used to. But maybe that's just the old muso in me getting vicarious thrills rather than actually doing music.

Perhaps what they're describing is that thing when you're younger you're more likely to make the effort to really get to know an artist and study their catalogue and read up on their history etc. I know that artists Ive got to know in the last ten or twenty years I don't really care about them or what they're musical background is etc. I just enjoy the music on its own. When you're younger music might be proportionally more important because you have more space for it in your life. Lots of other things to worry us as adults.

Glad you liked the article Normandie. Thanks for reading it and for your interesting thoughts.

[Normandie]

Ha ha I hadn't noticed that. It does make it sound a little frivolous.

There's a tendency in the humanities to force the names of theories, and especially assessment instruments, into acronyms that one can pronounce as a word. I was a little frustrated to note that in this particular article because I was so interested in their definitions of the music styles.

I'm wondering what the correlation with education level would be.

I would be very interested to know that. I know I'll end up doing a search at some point. I must say, I find the topic of music and psychology far more interesting than what's stacked on my desk right now, part of which involves combining 14 tables into 1 because an author apparently thought 14 separate tables for a 4-page article was a good idea. But I digress. . .

When you're younger music might be proportionally more important because you have more space for it in your life. Lots of other things to worry us as adults.

Ain't that the truth.    Same goes for reading. I'm still catching up on my ocean liner reading after years of having the books locked away from little hands.

Glad you liked the article Normandie. Thanks for reading it and for your interesting thoughts.

Same! Thanks for your response. I could go on and on and on about this topic, but I'll spare you and the others. 

[Normandie]

This topic brings to mind some music and parenthood memories. When I was a senior in college I'd "measure" my drives to my sister's house by Beatles music. It took about one Sgt. Pepper to get to her house. Ten years later, with both of us in new states, and me with 3 little ones in the car with me, it would take about one viewing of "Lilo and Stitch" to get to her house.   

Several years later came the time for carpooling and driving them to and from school and their various activities, and it was straight Beatles for a long time. I eventually mixed in other artists, but boy was I happy to not have to listen to SpongeBob episodes!