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CollegeStudents'AttitudesToward Music
The purpaes ol this sludy were to examine relaliotships between three listener
clnracteristics (college major, sex,school music perforntance experience) and college students'
(1r = 300) attitudes toward nine types and styles of music. SigriJicant dilferences @ < .05) were
loutrd inlavor of music mojors @ = 100) towmd classical and contenpora4t clasical mwic,
ard infovor of non-mrcic majors (r = 200) tan'ard ruk nnaic. Females expressedsigttificantly
more favorable attitudes lhan nnles tovyard cotuttry and spirinal nutsic. Rap received
sigtrtfcanlly higher ralirp lrom male music najors than fron lenrale nusic majors. and music
major atd nor-music nnjor males gave signifcantly higher ratings to rek than did their lemale
counlerparls. Subjects with high levels of schml nntsic ensemble expeilence exhibiled
significantly morc posilive altitudes tavord ja:z than those with less experience. In odditiott,
females with high levels of schnl nwic perlornance experience expressed sigruficantly less
lnorable atlittdes loward rap lhan less experienced fennles, and fenale non-nntsic majors
expressed sigrificantly n orc positive atritudes than nale ,ron-nrusic nnjors lantard classical,
spiritual, and country music.
Introduction
Attitude-preference of listenersshowthatAmerican
studieson characteristics
collegenon-musicmajorsand youngerstudentsprefercunent popularcomposers
(Geringer,1982:Geringer& McManus,1979:Jellison& Flowers,l99l; May,
f 985: Pantfe197711978).Similarly,high schoolstudentsin Macedoniaclaim to
preferrock overothertypesof music(Buzarovski,1989).
2l
Shenill (1992) suggeststhat females,especiailythoseof collegeage, pay much
moreattentionto lyricsthando males.2
\
Music attitudesand preferences havealso beenfoundto be relatedto prior
instructionand experiences (Brittin, l99l; Danow, Haack,& Kuribayashi,l9g7;
Price & Yarbrough,t987; Rubin-Rabson,1940), includinghigh school music
experiences (Birch, 1962;Emeston,l96l/1962; Frakes,l9g4/19g5;Humphreys,
May, & Nelson,1992;Little, t979l1980,Long t97t; Noble, 1977). Hor""u!r,
thereappearsto be no signrficantdifferencebetweenmusicmajors'and non-music
majors'attitudestoward popular music (palmquist,1990). Finalty, a unique
comparativestudy of Japaneseand American studentsshowed preference
differencesseeminglyattributableto nationality(Darrow, Haach & Kuribayashi,
1987), although another researcherreported preferencedifferencesbetween
Japarese studentsliving in Japanand thoseliving in the UnitedStates(Nakazawa,
l e88).
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students'attitudestoward severaltypes and styles of music, and to examine
relationshipsbetweenthoseattitudesand tlueelistenercharacteristics
(sex,college
major,schoolensembleexperience).
Method
24
'l
Results
.
Reliabilitycoefficients(coefficientalphas)
were .57 for the nine-itemmusic
attitudesubscare, .43.fortheschoormusicperformance
experience subscare,
and .53
for the overa[ questionnaire.Reriabirity
coefficients
'-- "r
"' ir,lr'r"gitude
""u "ru5' i are typical
for measuresof demographic andattitudinaldata.
of theninetypesof music,crassicalmusic
receivedthe highestoverailmean
rating,fotlowedin descending order uy ..i-i.o;;;;;il;
country,spiriruar.forh andrap (Tabrei;. ctassical,wortd,
Not surprisingry, rrrrJ'n"io* expressed
significantlymorepositiveattitudestoward
musicoveraiiih"n non-rrsic majors,
can be seenfrom the means(Tabre r) as
and the multivarirt. "i"lyri, of variance
(MANovA)resutrs
shown
in iabtez (wttrt L.;bd; = .il51:
However'univariateanaryses 4.04,ps 0s).
revealedih.t ,ignifi."nt aine.en"esby
non-music)occunedfor onry threeof major(music,
the niie rvp"r "ir"ri.io
majorshad significantryhighermeansfor = .orl . Music
crassicar andcontemporary crassicar,
non-music
majorshadsignificantlyhighermeansfor and
rock.
MANovA results(Table2) indicatesignificant
overaltattitudedifferences
betweenthe two sexes(wirk's Lambda=
.93g,F = 2.06, p s .05), with femares
having the higher mean (Tabre r).
Univariatean"rys.si.u""lra significant
differences
in favorof femares(Tabrer) for country
andspirituaronry(Tabre2).
In additionto significantMANovA
main effectsfor ma.jorand sex, there
wasa significantinteractionbetweenthe
two variabres (wirk,s I_"rua" = .930;F =
2'35;p < '05)(Table2). Thissignificant
interactionis aitributableio,*o significant
univariateinteractions:majorx sex for rock
music(F = g.65,;i= f , p .05)and
majorx sexfor r"p (f = = l, p S.05).'Contrast'an"lysis S
showedthatmaresrikedrock ?3?,df of the cells
significanti'morethanfemares in uoir,-*,.music(F =
4'12,df= l, p < .02)andnon-irusic (F = 423,df= r, p s .04)groups.
male musicmajorsfavored.rap sigrrificantry Simirarry,
more thanfemareriusic majors(F =
7'41,df = l, p < .007).,Th.erl.*ir. non.ig'ificant
difference betweenmareand
femalenon-musicmajors'attitudestowara
raj.
26
Table 2
MultivariateANOVA Resultsfor MusicAttitudeby Major,Se4
andSchoolMusic PerformanceExperience (N=369;
Source Wilk'sLambda SS df MS
27
Of the 36 possibleinteractions (four eachfor the ninedependent variables),
only threeweresignificant,possiblythe resultof Type I error. Two of these,major
x sex for rock and rap, contributedto the significantMANOVA interactionfor
major x sex"as describedabove.i The third, sex x schoolmusicperformance
experiencefor rap music (F = 4.48, df = 2, p < .05), occurreddespitethe
conesponding nonsignificant MANOVA interaction.Contrastanalysisshowedthat
femaleswith high levels of school music performanceexperienceexpressed
significantlylessliking for rap musicthanfemaleswith mediumand low levelsof
experience(F =1.29, df = l, p < .007). However,maleswith highlevelsof school
musicperformanceexperiencedid not exhibit significantlydifferent liking for rap
musicthan maleswith mediumor low levelsof experience.Neithermalesnor
femalesweresigrrificantly differentwhen the experience variablewas dividedinto
low versusmediumfrighlevels.
Discussion
i"-..
f"is;
1'f
significantdifferencebetweenmusic
majors,andnon_majors,
attitudestowardrock
appears to differfrom findingsof previousresearch
(palmquist,| 990).
The findingthat femaresexpressmorefavorabre
attitudesthanmarestoward
musicis simirarto that of Brittin (r99r),
who used, ,;r;;;;; differentmusical
classification
scheme. The overai sex'differenc.,
typesof music,but music major and non-major y;'r,;ii."nt ro, onry two
malestikei .oJL u"tt* thandid
femalesdividedrespectivery by major,
-The"na ,.p was favoredby musicmajormares
morethanby musicmajorfemales.
morepositiveattitudeson thepartof
andfemalestowardcertaintypesof music males
may reratemoreto tr,.-tyri", thanto
musicitself,especiailyamongcoilegestudents the
(LeBranc,sr,nr-rur"rin,andSheniil,
1992). The possibre.l[ecis of iyrics
on artitude-p*f.;;;;'*rrrants furrher
investigation(Bowers,| 9g9).
Conclusions
l
N
l The resurtsof this strdy "onnr,,, portions
{rl of LeBranc,s moder. Specifically,
listenersex doesseemto pray a part in
,l
1
attitudinardifferencesio*"ra music,but
probably only for certain types
of music. The findings that schoor
performance experiencereratis-positiveryto attitudesto*^rT music
{ and
t majorsand non-musicmajorsdiiTerin their 1^r:), that music
;p attitudestowardsometypesof music,
also confirm LeBlanc'sspeculationthat
,x listenercharacteristicsinfluenceattitudes
towardmusic' The findingsalso confirmprevious
researchon the minimaleflects
{.&r of schoolmusicparticipation on attitudestowardmosttypesof music.
,S
\
f, 29
,tr
"l
Musicaland descriptivestimulihavebeenusedin variousstudies,and both
typeshavebeenfound to correlatewith behavioralmeasures.However,the two
typesof stimuli appearnot to havebeen correlatedwith eachother in the same
study. Futurestudiesshould comparethe two types of stimuli, in additionto
"compositeof indices" should probablybe
behavioralmeasures. In fact, a
employedas dependent variables(Kuhn, Sims,& Shehan,l98l). Futurestudies
shouldalso compareattitudesand preferences for non-Westemmusic,and more
comparative studiesshouldbe conductedon listenersof differentnationalities
and
culturalbackgrounds(Fung, I 993).
Notes
2
See Bo*ers (19S9) for a brief discussiooof musicologicalresearchon differencesin
men'sand women's lyrics, especiallyin blues, country and western, gospel, and selectedtlpes of
popularmusic.
30
I
See Kuhn (1980) for a discussionofapproaches employedby researchersto study
attitudes toward music, includirrg physiological (e.g., blood pr".ruri levels), verbal (i.e-
self-report,typically with Likert-type scales),behavioral(e.g., concert attendance,sheetmusic
sales, ownership of recordings), content analysis (e.g., of concert programs and radio
programming).and miscellaneousmeasures(e.g.. facial expressions). Beltavioralmeasures
becamepopularin the late 1960s(ttice & Yarbrough, 1987). CorrelationsbetweenselFreport
and behavioralmeasuresare higher for adults than for young children(Alpert, l9g2; Flowers,
l9El; Geringer,1982). Both Kuhn (1980) and Cutietta(1992) considerselpreportmeasures
rdequatefor this type ofresearch.
4
M.ny r"..rr.hers have limitedtheir investigations
to classicalmusic,althoughsomehave
examinedattitudesand preferencesfor other types of music (e.g.. Brittin, l99l; Kuhn, Sims.&
S h e h a nl .9 8 l : L e B l a n c l,9 8 l ) .
5
In selFreportsudies of music attirudeand preference,two types of simuli have been
usedlo representdi{Ierent musical syles: recordingsofmusical excerpts,and written descriprors
of the sryles,usually in the form of namesof the srylesfollowed by examples. At leastone music
educationresearcher(Cutietta, 1992)believesthat only musicalsrimulishouldbe employed,bur
Brittin (1991) noted that little research has been conducted on the effects of;srylisric
categorization"on listener preference,and that "most preferenceresearchimposesa sylisic
taxonomicalstructureon the subjectthat may or may not function as intended.',(p. 144) kuhn
(19E0)made a similar point e few yearsearlier. hice and Swanson(1990) distinguishberweea
attitude and ophion, with "attitude being a predispositionin the absenceof music. whereas
opinion is measuredin the presenceof the music being assessed." lndeed.vatidity miglrt be
questionedfor either tlpe of stimulus. Different subjectsundoubtedlyconstrue descriptors
(names)ofsyles to meandifferentthings. Orr the other hand.a few recordedexcerptscanhardly
representan entire style (Brittin, l99l: Hargreaves.1984:Kuhn, 1980).especiallyin the rapidly
changing world of popular music. In any event. the researchliterature on attitudes and
preferencesfor music, music activities, and instrumentsgenerally shows moderate to high
correlationsbetweenbehavioralmeasures(or behaviornlintentions)and attitudes,opinions"and
preferences expressed verbally through free response or following descriptor-tlpe simuli
(Charboneau, 1980/1981:Geringer,1977.1982:Pantle,197?/1978:ttice & yarbrough,1987;
Shehan,l98l). Flowers (1981) found low to moderatecorrelationsfor young children,but
highercorrelationsfor collegestudents.
t
Lirt"n., sex was includedbecauseboth Wapnick(1976) and LeBlanc(1980, 1982)
believeit may affect musicalpreference. lf they are correct.it could influenceattitudesalso.at
leas indirectly. As noted earlier. the two authorsdiffer over how to classis musicrl training.
Nevertheless. the work of both authors suggeststhat musicaltraining should be includedin a
model desigrredto account for musical preferences. Consequently.this sudy included an
examinationof attitude differencesbetween music majors and non-music majors, and the
relationshipbetween attitude and school music performanceexperience. As noted earlier,
comparativeattitude-preferenceresearchhas been conducted on college music majors and
non-majors,and Brittin (1991) has suggestedthe desirabilityof a more thorough invesigationof
performancebackgroundvariables.
3t
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