Music Psychology: The Factors that Influence Music Perception - Research Paper Example

Music Psychology: Experiment Report This study seeksto get information on the different aspects that influence the type of music that people listen to, the likeability of Lo-fi music and the main sources primary music for respondents. In this case, aspects such as friends, radio, the internet, and other forms of media will be the focus of the inquiry and the discussion thereafter. The quality of recorded music and the gender of an individual are also factors under investigation. People choose to listen to certain music because of the influence from some of these factors. The quality of music recorded, the source, the genre, the age of an individual actually influence the music they listen to. Questions to the respondents will substantively attempt to answer all of these questions. For the purposes of this investigation, to define musical fidelity musical instruments also needs explanation. Ability of an individual to process dealings and musical framework functions of social interaction human -made systems in relation to the user’s point of view. Expression is not a vigorous activity, but conceived as a communication aspect. For an individual to possess the aptitude to pass a message musically depends on a number of communicative factors and the options available to a performer affect performance practice. Ease of passing a message and capturing the attention of a listener depends on accuracy and method used. Introduction In the music field fidelity means, the sound of stereo equipment is above level, nearly just right, and high quality the degree to which an electronic device accurately produces desired output. Fidelity implies that the sound produced is almost like the original band sound. Musical fidelity is accomplished by accuracy of an electronic system reproducing the sound or image of the input signal. When taking into consideration and categorizing devices that create sound differentiation of musical toys, instruments, and installations is difficult. New musical devices are differently successful in incisive the theoretical margin between instrument and non-instrument. Method The research considered questionnaires as the best method to collect data from the respondents. Respondents were guided through all the questions on the questionnaire. Some questions were not compulsory to answer e.g. the one asking respondents to disclose their age. The questionnaires were collected after the respondents completed filling in, and the data was processed before analysis. Participants The participants were 27 respondents that were expected to answer different questions in regard to music. The response they gave helped in determining their opinions about different aspects of the music they listen. Materials The study used questionnaires with six questions. The respondents provided their response through filling in the questionnaires. The advantage about the study exercise was that every respondent was literate could provide their response as required. Procedure Information was collected through analyzing the questionnaires distributed to the students. The number of respondents who responded in the affirmative or negatively of the questions was recorded. Graphs were used as the method of presenting the data. Considering that the sampled respondents were few, the procedure was simple and not tedious. Results The studies involved different questions that 27 respondents were expected to answer. 7 of the respondents were female, and 20 were male. The results of the questions according to the percentage of respondents that gave various responses are shown as below. 27 respondents gave responses in regarding listening music that is considered as Lo-Fi. As the graphs,indicate,23 of them affirmed while 4 of them declined. The numbers of people who disclosed their age decreased with increase in age. The second study asked respondents to disclose their age. After the study, the results were quite interesting. The age groups were divided into seven groups that gave results that came out in descending order: from 18-24, 25-34, 35-44,45-54, 55-64, 65-74, and lastly 74 and above. Of the 27 respondents, only 16 respondents disclosed their age and were the majority falling between 18-24 years. The second group which is 25-34 had only 7 respondents that agreed to disclose their age. The remaining two groups had only 2 respondents each. The study had to establish the extent to which the quality of recorded music affected the pleasance of music to the listeners. The sampled group had different responses as shown in the diagram below. 2 of the respondents strongly agreed with the statement, 15 of then agreed with the statement, 5 of them neither agreed nor disagreed, 3 of them disagreed, and 2 strong disagreed. Most respondents agreed that the taste of music they listen to had much to do with what their friends considers as a good taste of music. 2 respondents strongly agreed, 14 agreed, 10 neither agreed nor disagreed, 1 disagreed while none of them strongly disagreed. Finally, the study sought to establish the main sources of music among respondents. Among the sources presented to them was radio, friends, iTunes, record store, YouTube, blogs television, and spotty. Friends and radio were the primary sources of music for most respondents. Discussion Many respondents refuse to disclose making age be categorized in the LGBT category. This could be a problem of the perceived stigma that respondents are always wary of. It, therefore, becomes quite difficult of the research to extract and analyze a variance based on gender. Though other variances are explicit from the responses, they cannot be linked to age as a variance. Younger people are likely to disclose their age than older people for certain reasons (Hallam 2006, pp100). This explains the outcome in which only the respondents of age 18-24 disclosed their age in the questionnaires. Many respondents admitted listening to Lo-fi music. Its popularity arises from the common belief that it represents the actual experience of the artist rather than contemporary high-tech stereo incorporated music. According to Hallam et al,.(2009), the Lo-fi genre represents the generation of limitations that most respondents are part of. Most young people believe that Lo-fi music is not the choice of artists. It actually represents talent that can use the materials and resources at their disposal to produce and record high quality music. Lo-fi music comes in the form of room tone, tape his, bleeding tracks, in-the-red levels, and incidental sounds. They convey the musical reality that seems to override the fantasies, which are normally presented by commercial-pop. Possibly, the sound quality of Lo-fi music enlivens the music. Listeners hardly pay attention to the technical aspects of the music such as the recording quality. As long as the music is appealing to the ear, it is bound to impress the masses. The quality of recorded music has an effect on the listening pleasure. People are likely to like high quality sounds that are appealing to them. Most of the respondents agree that they listen to recorded music and that the quality affects their rating of such music. Friends greatly influence the music genre due to issues such as taste, generational relevance, and the need to match with contemporaries. This issue stems on the fact that most people believe in the autonomy of choice. However, as people make the choice based on their individual tastes, they still struggle to be relevant with their peers. This probably explains why the influence of friends on the choice of music genres was quite controversial based on the responses from the respondents. Considering that those who agreed on the possibility of peer influence and those who neither agree nor disagree represent the most respondents, the influence of friends is, therefore, a very vital factor in the psychology of music. Most respondents cited radio and friends as the main source from which they discover new music. Radio launches new music before even videos are short, and friends disseminate it to peers who may not have heard about it. This is true because radio talk shows play a very important role in marketing particular music genres they play. After learning about new tracks, they would then rush to You-Tube to watch the new video. Other music sources are just secondary, and they are used after the music is recorded from other devices. Conclusion The research seeks to get information on the different aspects that influence the type of music that people listen to, the likeability of Lo-fi music and the main sources primary music for respondents. Furthermore, the study sought to establish the main sources of music among respondents. Among the sources presented to them was radio, friends, iTunes, record store, YouTube, blogs television, and spotty. Friends and radio were the primary sources of music for most respondents. Most respondents agreed that the taste of music they listen to had much to do with what their friends considers as a good taste of music. This brings about the aspect of how friends greatly influence the music genre due to issues such as taste, generational relevance, and the need to match with contemporaries. This issue stems on the fact that most people believe in the autonomy of choice. However, as people make the choice based on their individual tastes, they still struggle to be relevant with their peers. This probably explains why the influence of friends on the choice of music genres was quite controversial based on the responses from the respondents. List of references Deutsch, D. (2013). The psychology of music. London, Academic. Hallam et al. (2009)The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hallam, S. (2006). Music psychology in education.London, Institute of Education, University of London. Read More