Albert LeBlanc

Effects of Style, Tempo, and Performing Medium on Children's Music Preference.

The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of style, tempo, and performing medium on fifth-rade students expressed music listening preference. A listening test was administered to 107 students in four classes in central Michigan. Test reliability was evaluated in terms of common factor concentration and stability across time, and behavior observation was used to help interpret results. A preference hierarchy emerged in which the popular styles were most favored and correlation analysis indicated that style was most strongly related to preference. A three-way repeated measures analysis of variance disclosed a significant three-way interaction. An examination of charted cell means indicated a strong effect for style, which was notice ably suppressed by performance in the instrumental medium. Across pooled styles there was a slight preference for faster tempos and the instrumental medium.

Music Style Preferences of Different Age Listeners

We measured the music preference opinions of 2,262 listeners for examples of art musk, traditional jazz, and rock. Our subjects were enrolled in Grades 1 through college, and we also tested adults who were not college students. Participants ranged in age from 6 to 91 years. We found that music preference means for the different styles were comparatively similar across grade levels, and when style subtest scores were pooled to make a general index of music preference, a characteristic pattern of responding across grade levels emerged. Listeners in Grade 1 had a high level of preference, but preference levels then declined to a low point at Grade 6. From that point, preference steadily rose into the high school years, reaching its highest point at college level. Preference declined again for our adult group, which included a good representation of senior citizens. However, adult preference was higher than that of any other grade levels except Grade 1 and college.

Tempo Preferences of Different Age Music Listeners

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of four levels of tempo on the self-reported preferences of six different age-groups for traditional jazz music listening examples. The authors administered a listening test to 926 students in 45 classrooms from third grade through college level in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Test reliability was evaluated in terms of internal consistency, student behavior was observed during the test, and free-response feedback was solicited from the students at the end of the measurement procedure as an additional check on the validity of results. A Friedman analysis of variance disclosed a significant preference for increasingly faster tempi at every age level. These results confirm and extend those LeBlanc and McCrary obtained in a 1983 study that was limited to fifth- and sixth-grade students. Listener age exerted a strong influence on overall preference scores, which were highest with the youngest listeners (third grade), declined steadily to a low point at seventh grade, then rose again as age increased to the college level.

Effect of Tempo on Children's Music Preference.

This study measured the effect of four levels of tempo on the expressed preference of fifth and sixth grade students for traditional jazz music listening examples. A listening test was administered to 163 students in seven classrooms in south central Michigan. Test reliability was evaluated in terms of common factor concentration, student behavior was observed during the test, and free response data were solicited from students at the end of the measurement procedure as an additional check on results. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance disclosed a significant effect for tempo, and a priori comparisons showed significant differences between the slowest tempo level and each increasingly faster level of tempo. Students rated each faster level of tempo higher than slower levels. There was a strong positive correlation between increases of tempo and higher preference ratings. This study confirms the effect of tempo suggested in previous studies in the series, which were inconclusive because of interaction between independent variables.

Effect of Audience on Music Performance Anxiety

We tested 27 male and female high school band members performing solos under three levels of audience presence. Participants performed alone in a practice room, in a practice room with one researcher present, and in the rehearsal room with all researchers, a peer group, and a tape recording being made. Dependent measures were an analog scale self-report of perceived anxiety, heart rate recorded during performance, judges rating of the final performance, and an exit interview. Self-reported anxiety rose with each succeeding performance condition, and each reported increase was significant. Heart rate was steady across the first two performance conditions, but rose significantly at the third. Female participants presented better performances, reported significantly higher anxiety levels than did males in the third performance condition, and attained significantly higher heart rates than did males in the first and third conditions. Gender emerged as a significant predictor of heart rate during performance, with female performers attaining higher heart rates.

Generic Style Music Preferences of Fifth-Grade Students

The primary intent of this study was to find fifth-graders most preferred generic music style and identify the critical competitors of that style, if any existed. A short listening test was developed to measure preference for different generic styles of music. Ambient sound was employed as a reference point to anchor the response scale. The test was administered to 278 students of varying socioeconomic status and ethnic background in 11 fifth-grade classrooms in the greater St. Louis area. Test reliability was evaluated in terms of stability of preference responses over time. Naturalistic behavioral observation was employed during test administration to secure a rough confirmation or denial of the truthfulness of student preference responses. Easy-listening pop music was the most preferred generic style and five other generic styles earned preference ratings that would qualify them as critical competitors. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on preference responses and four factors were obtained and interpreted in an oblique solution.

Effect of Vocal Vibrato and Performer's Sex on Children's Music Preference

This study measured the effect of low and high levels of vocal vibrato, employed by male and female performers, on the self-reported music listening preferences of upper elementary school children. A listening test was administered to 127 children from grades 4, 5, and 6 drawn from five classrooms in Lansing, Michigan. Test reliability was evaluated in terms of stability across time and internal consistency, and student behavior was observed during the test as an additional check on the validity of results. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks tests disclosed a significant preference for low levels of vibrato and for male singers, expressed by both sexes. Both male and female listeners associated “strong” performances with male rather than female performers. The preference for low levels of vibrato and male singers was weaker in the case of female listeners, indicating an interaction between listener sex and the vocal vibrato and performer sex variables.

Relationship between Humor Perceived in Music and Preferences of Different-Age Listeners

The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between humor perceived in music and the self reported music preference opinions of subjects representing four different age levels. We administered a listening test composed of humorous and nonhumorous song excerpts in three popular music styles to 445 subjects in Michigan, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. Male and female listeners in Grades 3, 7, and 11 as well as college undergraduates participated in the study. Perception of humor was largely a function of age, with younger listeners perceiving significantly more humor than older ones until age levels began to approach adulthood in the upper grades. Higher levels of perceived humor were significantly associated with higher levels of preference. Listener age exerted a distinct influence on overall preference scores, which were highest with the youngest listeners, were lower in the middle age-groups, and rose again at the college level. Listener gender was influential in the case of some music examples.

The Development of Music Preference in Children

Music preference, often called “musical taste” in the older research literature, has long held the interest of researchers in aesthetics, philosophy, psychology, and music. Kate Hevner (1930, 1935a, 1935b, 1936, 1937a, 1937b) is responsible for much of the early experimental work in music preference, although it should be noted that she was by no means the first person to conduct experiments involving preference. To her great credit, she conducted enough sequential studies to derive benefit from her own earlier work. Farnsworth (1950) summarized in his monograph much of the experimental work undertaken to that date.

Pictorial versus Verbal Rating Scales in Music Preference Measurement

Participants from Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 (N = 238) rated selections on an 18-item music listening tape four consecutive times at 2-week intervals, alternately using pictorial and verbal Likert-type response scales. The order of response scale administration was counterbalanced among the classrooms involved. There was no significant difference between preference scores generated by participants using either form of response scale. Test-retest reliabilities ranged from .65 to .88 using a 4-week time interval, with higher grade levels associated with higher reliabilities and the pictorial scale generally associated with higher reliabilities. Internal consistency reliabilities measured by coefficient alpha ranged from .90 to .93 for the verbal scale and .92 to .93 for the pictorial scale. A large and statistically significant majority of participants (84%) expressed a preference for using the pictorial scale to record their music listening preferences.