Music as an accompaniment to everyday activities
Conference Contribution ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Background Music listening is embedded into everyday life and often accompanies other activities. Yet, understanding the factors that influence contextual listening choices still requires research (Krause & North, 2017). Knowledge is particularly needed concerning the activities that are accompanied by listening and how the intention of the listening relates to the listener’s experience. Aim(s) This study was guided by asking: RQ1: What are the common everyday activities that are accompanied by listening to music, and common is music listening as an accompaniment for these activities? RQ2: What are people’s intentions for the inclusion of music as an activity accompaniment, and how successful are people regarding their intentions? Methods A sample of 358 participants from Australia, Singapore, and the USA (17-71 years old) completed an online questionnaire. Drawing on the Day Reconstruction Method, they detailed three recent experiences of listening to music while engaged in another activity: for each, they reported where they were, what they were doing, the device involved, rated their perceived agency over, and intention for, the music, and completed Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance measure. Additionally, participants rated the frequency of including music (7-point scale) when experiencing 41 everyday activities. Results In general, people reported that music most commonly accompanied driving, dancing and other physical activity, travelling, and doing household chores. An examination of 1037 recent listening experiences indicated that music was streamed 83% of the time, and 52% of the episodes took place at home. People really liked what they heard (M = 6.16 of 7) and intentionally included the music in what they were doing (M = 6.34 of 7). When on public transport (10% of the total episodes), 61.6% of the listening was completely intentional: and intentionality was significantly associated with liking and being familiar with the music. Preliminary analyses indicate intentionality is positively associated with feeling more successful at what people were trying to achieve and perceiving the music to be helpful and appropriate for the situation. Additional multi-level analyses are underway. Discussion and conclusion This study adds to wider commentary on contextual music listening, with implications for music streaming platforms and individuals seeking to optimise their daily listening experiences.
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ESCOM 12: 12th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
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2
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Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM)
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York, UK
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