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2010

Can Music Change or


Influence Human
Behavior?
A look into personal consumption patterns
of music relative to behavior and
preference
Music and its use, Music Preferences, Music and Behavior, Effect of music of
mood and emotion and its application on Music marketing and selection of
Genres. Artist Preference and Audience perception of genres. Rise of Hip Hop
and Rap. Rise of Internet as music source, Relevance to our ventures………

Koustubh Bhattacharya and Hiral Ravatia


MICA-EDC PGPCME
9/11/2010
Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Literature review..................................................................................................................................... 4
Hypothesis: ............................................................................................................................................. 5
The need and application of the research in the Venture. ................................................................. 5
Methodology and Design ........................................................................................................................ 7
Findings and Discussion from the research and its relevance to our respective ventures: ................... 8
An Argument ......................................................................................................................................... 14
Discussion and Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 17
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 20
Transcripts of subjective questions. ................................................................................................. 20
Sources .................................................................................................................................................. 23
Introduction

Out of all the prehistoric discoveries such as fire and the ability to speak there is also

something that is equally important.It is our ability to make music. Ever since our

ancestors played the first few intended set of melodic notes, music has played an

important role in the evolution of human beings. As the cranial volumes of the early man

increased and our capabilities to comprehend, appreciate and produce music has

improved, music has influenced our thoughts, emotions and at some points even our

beliefs. The purpose of this research is to observe and to find out the factors within music

and its applications that influence people and also to determine the extent of the influence

on human behaviour. As for the present project the scope of research is limited to the

influence of popular music in general environments like work space, recreation space and

some other cases. The research is focused to explain the preference of popular music and

its effects on youth in these environments. To establish the effect of preference of music

on the music-market and consumption of music some part of the research is directed

towards music aggregators and their role in defining preferences. Also the research tries to

find out the needs and gratifications of youth aged 20 to 30 years as compared to five

years ago through music. The effect of music on emotions and its relevance on preference

and especially the rise of hip-hop and rap music is the second finding that is established.
Literature review

There are many aspects of music that might influence a person and change in behaviour.

on a more external note the music is surely found to alter mood (Alpert & Alpert, 1990,

Bruner, 1990) and hence the presence of background music is found to alter the way

people perceive a message, for example an ad (Gorn, 1982; Bruner, 1990; Alpert & Alpert,

1991; Kellaris, Cox & Cox, 1993; Roehm, 2001). Apart from mood studies on music there

are various researches establishing the effect of tonal and compositional factors of music

on consumer behaviour such as factors like timber(the texture and feel of the music),

rhythm (the note progression and pattern) and tempo (the rate of the progression) Bruner

(1990). There are evidences about the relationship of tempo of the music with the

consumption pattern of service environments (Kellaris and Kent, 1991; Roballey, McGreen,

Rongo, Schwantio, and Stiger, 1985). Research by Herrington (1996) tried to establish the

connection between time spent by supermarket consumer and the tempo and volume of

music and found that there was not a significant relation, rather the preference of music

played an important role. In some researches the influence on behaviour is categorised

under high-arousal music (loud, erratic and tough to predict) and low arousal (soft,

monotonous, and predictable) (Berlyne, 1971). Berlyne (1967) had tried to find a

relationship between arousal and pleasure while proposing the optimal stimulation level

(OSL). The research on the consumer behaviour of restaurant patrons one observation

came out quite unexpectedly that although the tempo of the music influenced some overt

change in mood when considered individually but was insignificant when taken into

account along with the preference of the consumer (Caldwell, Clare, Hibbert, Sally A.
2002). As such the only emergent factor for bringing change in behaviour is found to be

the music preference of a consumer.

Hypothesis:
The need and application of the research in the Venture.

In this age of communication the preferences of music have started changing rapidly. In a

constant quest for finding new music internet has become an unavoidable tool. With the

advent of i-tunes and internet radio the mode of transaction is shifting to online. People

are searching, listening, reviewing, recommending and sharing music online way more that

they used to do five years back. Clearly the music industry is changing alongside the

technology. Today’s audience is both aware and concerned about their favourite music

and musicians and the digital medium is making them like that. Online social media has

taken music to a very personal level. Myspace and Youtube which primarily deals with the

content has made possible to share music legally free while engaging the audience through

subscription base and podcasts. Textual Social media networks like Facebook and twitter

have a different purpose. They are used more to establish a continuous and more personal

two way communication between audience and artist through discussions, opinion polls,

and insights behind their music and personal lives. But as the volume of music increases

presence of music becomes scattered so does the information about the music. On an

average a person has to go through several review sites searching through keywords for

their favourite music and musicians. Most of the times these review sites have only stand

alone descriptions rather than reviews. The reviews are almost never backed up by expert
critics, there are no discussions or mass participation and charts are always missing. With

the rise of electronic and hip hop music alongside alternative and independent artists the

availability of music has exceeded the capacity of people to follow and thus needs an

aggregator in the form of a review engine that can provide clear cut reviews, ratings and

Charts. Well the focus here is the non bollywood/film music audience of south-east Asia.

The need is to identify the genres, preferences and the listening patterns of people to

determine the nature of the proposed aggregator website. We also have to determine the

way people explore and discover new kind of music so that it can be designed to act like

that channel. Above all it is required to understand the affinity of different people and

groups towards different music so that the music genres can be better classified and

segmented on an aggregator site. One important intention behind this research is to

indirectly find out the extent of influence that can be exercised through an aggregator site

on the music preference of people.

Although the influence of music on behaviour and its effect on people’s preference of

music is said to be related but it is quite difficult to quantify this and clearly describe the

mechanism that how it happens and to what extent it is possible is debatable. The study

on this research took us to the area of mood, emotions and experience. The change in

music preference over a long period of time, in this case 5 years is something that can be

explored to establish a correlation between temporary mood shift and long term

behaviour.
Methodology and Design

The research was intended for a target of age 20 to 30. Sample was chosen randomly and

size was taken as 34. The respondents were casually asked to answer the questions in a

way they thought about music to keep it simple. The responses were promised to be kept

concealed. The questionnaire was created on Google Docs and was mailed to each

respondent separately. Every response was recorded on the spreadsheet and the data was

turned into graphs on Google Docs.

As per the objectives of the research and the literature review, a questionnaire was

designed. The questionnaire included 14 Questions. 12 questions were objective and were

mandatory. 2 questions were subjective but were to be answered only if respondents

agreed on certain beliefs which were very personal in nature. Out of 12 objective

questions 3 were on likert Scale. 8 were multiple choice checkbox type questions Q3 and

Q4 were designed to find out the respondents music exposure pattern. Q6 is designed in a

manner so as to find the nature in which the respondents were affected from their

preference of music. The spectrum of emotions was formed in clusters to broadly classify

the effect of music on the respondents. Q7 was a Grid type question trying to define

personality traits of respondents 5 years ago compared to now Q5 and Q12 are specifically

designed to quantize the change in preferences over last 5 years.


Findings and Discussion from the research and its relevance to our
respective ventures:

Places where people most likely listen to music for personal consumption are mainly in a

Car, while travelling,partying, and excercising, (For Koustubh: since these are the broad

categories in an agregator categories can be created for Car, travel, party , workout, other

than regular genre reviews. Creation of these categories will make browsing , selecting and

reviewing music very easy as it will be categorically organized accordingly. Which will

make the website user friendly and easy to browse.) (For Hiral : The venture is all about

creating music, musicians, Branding musicians, developing new genres and finally

marketing them to the right audience. Hence, it is first important to know where does

“youth” essentially listen to music and what medium they prefer to listen to music?)

Technology has provided the consumers today with enumorous mediums to listen to

music. Our findings reveal that majority of the people today listens to music on Desktops

and laptops, cell phones, i-pod and portable music devices, respecively.(Relevancefor

Koustubh: with these findings it can be said that an agregator should also look at
developing mobile phone applications, desktop and laptop widgets, applications for i-pod

and other portable devices to generate an auto review of any track which is being

downloaded onto these gadgets. Relevancefor Hiral : these findings reveal that cell phone,

i-pods & portable music devices, and internet radio & websites can be treated and

developed as a new channels for distribution of new content, marketing tie ups and as

awarness platform in case of a new genre, artist or band)

Can music preferences change over a period of time? to understand the same we divided

music genres into 14 different categories which consisted from Indian classical to Electronic

music according to our findings maximum respondants were listening to recent bollywood,

Indian pop, POP and 60’s bollywood while very few preferred listening to rock n roll,

electronic, heavy metal and folk music five years ago.


we are aware that personal music consumption is more relevant with individual

preferences. Hence, we tried to explore if the respondants preferences have changed in

due course of time or does it remain stagnant? As per the our research we found out that

there was a significant rise in consumption of electronic music which stands as the most

consumed and emerging music genre amongst the respondants at 47%, second highest

being world music/recreation/spiritual category at 44% and third most popular and rapidly

growing genre is considered to be Hip-Hop/Rap/Urban music at 41%. Every other genre

showed substantial to marginal increase in consumptiom. However , 60’s bollywood music

, Indian POP, recent bollywood and POP music showed sharp decline in personal

consumption as compared to what respondants used to listen to five years ago.

(Relevance for Koustubh : As it is already established that Electronic, Hip-Hop, World

Music and every other genre are on the rise amongst indian audience so the positioning of

the agregator can be done accordingly making it one of the few in the country whose core
focus will be on genre other than bollywood and its sub branches. Relevance for Hiral :

After observing the the shift in the trend of the consumption pattern of the various genres

focus will be on discovering, developing and marketing artists in the Electronic, Hip-Hop

and world music category.)

As we already know though music industry reports of many countries that Hip-hop has

become a truly global cultural phenomenon and has already shown a remarkable longevity

as a musical genre. Hip-hop is increasingly pervasive and is probably the best selling music in

the world – the biggest purveyors of rap music are young white men. Like many genres Hip-

Hop too has evolved and continues to provoke debate, not just over its subject content, but

what is real hip hop, about over-commercialization. Hip-hop as a genre has always been

socio-political, hip hop has addressed social deprivation and sought to reflect the harsh

realties of urban America and it continues to be rife with contradictions and many of these

are referred to throughout the encyclopedia. Hip-hop remains highly sexist, misogynistic

and homophobic despite the efforts of De La Soul, West and others. Criminality, drugs,
materialism, gangsterism, cars, anti-Semitism, the culture of bragging and violence remain

recurring themes and sit side-by-side with more positive subject matter such as humor,

ethnicity, the role of the “mother”, fashion, the family, the neighborhood, community

values and entrepreneurialism. The question here is the relationship between preference

for rap music and involvement in a culture of crime and their perceptions of social injustice

and inequity. Do rap orurban music enthusiasts report significantly more delinquent

behavior and stronger feelings of inequity and injustice than listeners with other musical

tastes? One of the aspects of this survey was done amongst youth of Indian origin to

understand how they described themselves as. Amongst all the behavioural traits discussed

most people tend to believe that they were on the positive spectrum five years ago. Do our

respondents too feel that they have a strong liking for rap music because it is valuing the

fact that it spoke to their everyday concerns about growing up in a poorly resourced

community?
The only behavioural traits where a majority of respondents agreed that they were not sure

or were more on the negative spectrum of behaviour were Demanding, Patient, Calm, and

Even-Tempered.

An Argument

During the literature review done before setting up this survey we found that Examinations

of audience receptions of rap are not numerous and have been of two main kinds: a few

studies have explored how young people perceive and evaluate the music, while others

have studied the harmful effects of rap by trying to link consumption of the music with

various negative consequences. An early study by Kuwahara (1992) finds rap to be more

popular with black than white college students, and more popular among males than

females. However, reasons for liking the music varied little by race, with both black and

white audience members prioritizing the beat over the message. A more recent study by

Sullivan (2003) reports few racial differences in liking the music, although black teenagers

were more committed to the genre and more likely to view rap as life affirming (Berry 1994)

than those from other racial backgrounds.In a small but important study conducted in

California, Mahiri and Connor (2003) investigated 41 black middle school students'

perceptions of violence and thoughts about rap music. In focus group sessions and personal

interviews, informants revealed a strong liking for rap music, valuing the fact that it spoke to

their everyday concerns about growing up in a poorly resourced community. They did not,

however, like the way that rap music on occasion (mis) represented the experiences of black

people in the United States. They challenged the misogyny evident in some rap videos and
rejected what they saw as the glamorization of violence. Overall, their critical and nuanced

engagement with rap music fitted poorly with depictions of media audiences as easily

swayed by popular culture (Sacco 2005).The search for the harmful effects of rap music has

yielded no more definitive results than earlier quests for media effects. While some studies

report evidence of increased violence, delinquency, substance use, and unsafe sexual

activity resulting from young people's exposure to rap music (Wingood et al. 2003; Chen et

al. 2006), other researchers have failed to find such a link or have exercised extreme caution

when interpreting apparent links. One review of the literature, conducted in the 1990s,

could find a total of only nine investigations-all of themsmall-scale, none involving the

general adolescent population-and concluded that there was an even split between those

that found some sort of an association between exposure to the music and various deviant

or undesirable outcomes, and those that could find no connection at all Moreover, in those

studies where the music and the wrongdoing were linked, investigators were very

circumspect about whether or not they were observing a causal relationship, and if so,

which came first, the music or the violent dispositions (Tatum 1999). A mote recent

investigation conducted in Montreal is illustrative of such interpretative problems. While a

preference for rap was found to predict deviant behavior among 348 French- speaking

adolescents, causal ordering could not be established, nor an additional possibility ruled

out: that other factors might be responsible for both the musical taste and the deviant

behavior (Miranda and Claes 2004).The notion that rap is or can be represented as cultural

resistance-the counter frame identified by Binder-has become increasingly prominent in the

rap litera- ture over the past 20 years (Rose 1994; Krims 2000; Keyes 2002; Quinn 2005). In

his influential book,Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the

new Reality ofRace in America, Kitwana (2005) expounds at length on his emancipatory view
of rap's history and development. Kitwana sees hip-hop as a form of protest music, offering

its listeners a message ofresistance. He also makes the additional claim that the resistive

appeal of hip-hop is not restricted to black youth.Indeed, as the tide of his book suggests, he

is particularly interested in the patronage of rap music by white youth, those young people

who might be seen as the contemporary equivalents of Mailer's "White Negro" or Keys'

"Negro Wannabes."(Keyes 2002:250) In his view, the global diffusion of rap rests on the

music's capacity for resonating with the experiences ofthe downtrodden and marginalized

in a variety of cultural contexts. Quinn (2005) similarly explains the crossover appeal of

gang-sta rap in the United States in terms ofthe "common sensibilities and insecurities

shared by post Fordist youth." She continues: "many young whites, facing bleak labor

market prospects, were also eager for stories about fast money and authentic belonging to

ward off a creeping sense of placelessness and dispossession."(Quinn2005:85-86) Thus,

rap's appeal is as much about class as it is about race. Nor is the resistive view of rap

restricted to the North American continent. At least one French study-conducted in advance

ofthe riots in the fall of 2005 –hasnoted how French Rap has become the music of choice for

young people of visible minority descent who have grown up in the suburban ghettos (Les

Cities) of major cities. They have been routinely exposed to police harassment on the

streets, subjected to prejudice and discrimination at school, and struggled to find decent

housing and appropriate jobs (Bouchier 1999, cited in Miranda and Claes 2004).The idea

that popular music might serve as an important reference point for rebellious or resistive

adolescents is not a new one.


Discussion and Conclusion

Based on the above mentioned agrument we were curious to know how Indian Youth feel

after consuming popular music that according to media and few researcher is agrressive and

provocative in a negative way.

To our susprise and contrary to the litreture review we found out that majority of our

respondants i.e. 85% who now consume popular music like Hip-Hop/Rap/ Electronica feel

happy, ecstatic, euphoric and humorous. Subsequently the second majority felt powerful/in-

control/energetic.

Further to our findings it was established through this survey that 44% of our respondents

agreed and 35 % strongly agreed that popular music does influence their behaviour

temporarily as compared to only a 3% who did not agree to the same.

The larger part of respondents said that they started listening to new music and new

artists as referred to them by their friends. That is about 85% of the whole sample and
thus music still is a point of discussion and a lot of music is shared amongst the peers. This

is especially relevant to the ventures as it is obvious that both the aggregator and the

artists have to approach music consumers in a more personal way so that the propagation

of a genre and music happens through friend networks. Word of mouth will happen only

when people find a deeper, friendlier connection to both the music and the artists. The

second large majority of people (68%) sited internet as their source to new music. Hence

internet is surely the next big venue for artists. Now using internet to create an

engagement with the audience on a close level is something that the artists will have to

look into. Amazingly the TV audience does not seem to find much new music which is

alarming. Only 26% people say that TV is a source of new music. It is either that people

don’t watch TV music channels or the TV music channels are only playing limited set of

syndicated music while audience is shifting to more indie music available elsewhere. In

both the cases it is alarming for music channels. While a higher preference of Radio (about

32%) seems promising for this media.

Finally we wanted to know if our respondents too believed if music can change or

influence behaviour to which majority of the seemed to agree but how ever could not

explain how and in what way? All we can say is that this belief should come from personal

experience and how the respondents feel when they listen to music. Surely it is the

collective of the beliefs that music helps in suppressing negative emotions, creates positive
feelings, provides outlet, improves focus, reduces dullness in mundane tasks. This belief is

crucial in attracting the audience if only we can cater the right kind of music.

Attached in the excel sheet respondents have expressed which song brings about a certain

emotion in them.

Submitted by

Koustubh Bhattacharya/ roll # 17

Hiral Ravatia/ roll # 14


Appendix
Transcripts of subjective questions.

Immidiate after listening to music does its beat, rhythm, harmony or lyrics influence your
behaviour temporarily ?

If you agree to the above question please give an example


If I'm feeling low and listen to music, my spirits are lifted.
i feel elevated after i listen to rock music and am attracted to the lyrics to some extend.
I used to work hard on a subject immediately after listening to teen motivational songs like "jo jeeta
wahi sikander"
While listening to In Aakhon ki Masti, the lyrics made me think about deeper meanings and sent me
into a thinking state......
I get more emotional. MJ rules
NA
Disagree
Gazal make me to feel calm and compose.
my music lessons during my board exams was my only vent, and i had stopped all forms of recreation,
but not my music classes when the exams were on.
mood swings
NA
Last time when I was quiet disturbed about my job, music was a panacea
I am not sure.... Maybe some times but that is rarely....
I calm down if I am angry.
i tend to relate the genre of the music to some thing or the other in my personal life, like my relation,
friends, my feelings, sentiments etc.
i was listenin to happy songs....and suddenly some irritant friend came in...
and i dint get angry on her....i was calm and patient....

if i listen to inspiring songs or patriotic songs.....i feel like doing somethin inspiring as well....i get
goosebumps....

it definately does effect a person...


I feel much more calm and composed.... i can concentrate better....
Yes you feel upbeat...gyming is the best example....music is like water...it pumps in extra
energy...makes you run a mile longer
I get mad and start head banging when I listen to Linkin park, some heavy rock music, and I get equally
mad and start dancing when it comes to typical punjabi songs, I mean core punjabi, also mixed with the
hip hop.
wen am feeling low it peps me up
Piya re by nusrat fateh ali khan
come home by ari crest
it gets my mind to de stress and concentrate on happy feelings and emotions.
It elevates my mood everytime I am in the dumps
When I am in a sad or low mood, i listen to music to liven the mood.
That should not be a compulsory question! I disagree!!!
listening to fast music gave me the urge to go running...
feel better if im stressed
Listening to Aerosmith I some how let out my frustration about being a misfit
i do not remember
if i am angry or feeling low. listening to my favorite music helps me calm down and think with a clearer
head.. helps me sort out things better
Listening to Enya soothes you down and washes down all my blues and relieves me of stress.

If you agree in above question, with an example of your favourite song please tell us whether
music has influenced your behaviour in certain way
The song "Summer 0f 69" made me get in touch with my friends
after i got introduced to electronic music by a few friends a whole new dimension opened for me..
professionally i stumbled upon a world of opportunities and lifestyle. This music has brought about a very
futuristic approach in my way of thinking.
I have grown to love rock music and like the song 'stairway to heaven". I think I have become more
tolerant of people the way they are.
Whenever mettalica is playing in my vicinity i tend to get a headache and hence have to leave the
room.......creating friction in my relationships.....
Heal the world, makes me want to do more for people and calms me down, makes me forgive people
Na
Not Sure.
Yaro dosti badi hi hasin hai reminds me about my frds.

Woh purani jeans and Guitar- brings smile over my face and reminds me my past student life.
song dedications over email are the best way to make up after a fight, as far as i am concerned
8 mile - eminem,,,competitive spirit
NA
Yes. "Yellow" by coldplay always makes me believe in love whenever I am insecure about it
Some of the bollywood songs make sense and I have started appreciating Pakistan as a country for the
kind of music sense they have and I admire them.
It is now a famous therapy and it's advantages are proven beyond doubt.
they tend to influence my mood swings
ek din aap - yes boss: it makes you fall in love
saiyan - kailash kher: if you replace the word saiyan with god.....then u fall in love with god...
actually there a lot...but cant remember exact perfect one
sorry
infected mashrooms... any track... awesome concentration....
zombie... cranberries... sense of humanity and answers to many questions about self...
Music is very powerful....one of my friend seemed very upset n in utter depression....he claimed he did a
music therapy and recovered like anything....dont hav much details on dis...but music rocks...it can do
wonders...
Well yes, I listen to songs from lakshya, iqbaal and lagaan when I am depressed and I get over my
depression and feel motivated, i listen to Linkin park when I get back from playing TT and it suits my mood
because I am all fired up at that point of time.

When I am emotionally hurt or had a quarrel with some one I hear some very aggressive songs, some
hard core metal to channelize my frustration out.

songs help me get over my bad mood


The chants of krishna: The expressionism in dance
ever since i started listening to sufi music by nusrat fateh ali khan has made me even more calm and
composed. i have started feeling sensitive abt few things that i never considered thinking abt.
Songs about struggle like some of the Rap songs i listen to inspire me to try harder to achieve in my life.
See response above
NA
same as above
I care less about trivial issues in life
It helps me relax and brings down the anxiety levels
Leaving on a jet plane song always reminds me of the agony of departing from your loved ones.
Sources

Audience Personality and the Selection of Media and Media Genres - Alice Hall, MEDIA
PSYCHOLOGY 2005,Vol. 7, 377–398

The Influence of Music Tempo and Musical Preference on Restaurant Patrons' Behavior -
Clare Caldwell and Sally A. Hibbert; Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 19( 11): 895-917
(November 2002)

Music, Mood, and Marketing - Gordon C. Bruner II; Journal of Marketing, October 1990

Rock Music Videos and Antisocial Behavior - Christine Hall Hansen and Ranald D. Hansen;
BASIC AND AJf'PLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, 1990, 77(4), 357-369

Budd, Malcolm (1985), Music and the Emotions. London: Routledge and Kegan-Paul

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