Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model

The present research considered everyday music listening in the context of eight situations, classified as high or low on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) dimensions. Completing a questionnaire, 344 participants considered the music they would select and created a play...

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Main Authors: Krause, Amanda, North, Adrian
Format: Journal Article
Published: Springer 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58759
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author Krause, Amanda
North, Adrian
author_facet Krause, Amanda
North, Adrian
author_sort Krause, Amanda
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The present research considered everyday music listening in the context of eight situations, classified as high or low on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) dimensions. Completing a questionnaire, 344 participants considered the music they would select and created a playlist for a given situation. The music selected by participants (as playlists) for these eight situations differed along two dimensions, namely arousing and aesthetic. Rather than selecting music that would moderate arousal (Berlyne, 1971), results indicated that participants employed an arousal-optimization strategy. There were also differences in the music selected across situations on the aesthetic dimension. The findings also suggest that music chosen for situations is subject to injunctive norms, such that there was considerable variation between the music chosen for listening to on public transport or when washing dishes, whereas music selected for a wedding was perceived as more homogeneous. While previous research has considered music preference in terms of pleasure and arousal, the apparent role of injunctive norms may be related to dominance and requires additional research. More generally, the results indicate that Mehrabian and Russell’s PAD dimensions offer a useful framework for considering the relationship between music and the environmental context in which it is experienced.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-587592017-12-07T08:33:02Z Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model Krause, Amanda North, Adrian Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance model Everyday Music preference Playlists Contextualized listening The present research considered everyday music listening in the context of eight situations, classified as high or low on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) dimensions. Completing a questionnaire, 344 participants considered the music they would select and created a playlist for a given situation. The music selected by participants (as playlists) for these eight situations differed along two dimensions, namely arousing and aesthetic. Rather than selecting music that would moderate arousal (Berlyne, 1971), results indicated that participants employed an arousal-optimization strategy. There were also differences in the music selected across situations on the aesthetic dimension. The findings also suggest that music chosen for situations is subject to injunctive norms, such that there was considerable variation between the music chosen for listening to on public transport or when washing dishes, whereas music selected for a wedding was perceived as more homogeneous. While previous research has considered music preference in terms of pleasure and arousal, the apparent role of injunctive norms may be related to dominance and requires additional research. More generally, the results indicate that Mehrabian and Russell’s PAD dimensions offer a useful framework for considering the relationship between music and the environmental context in which it is experienced. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58759 10.1186/s13612-014-0022-7 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Springer fulltext
spellingShingle Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance model
Everyday
Music preference
Playlists
Contextualized listening
Krause, Amanda
North, Adrian
Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model
title Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model
title_full Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model
title_fullStr Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model
title_full_unstemmed Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model
title_short Contextualized music listening: playlists and the Mehrabian and Russell model
title_sort contextualized music listening: playlists and the mehrabian and russell model
topic Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance model
Everyday
Music preference
Playlists
Contextualized listening
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58759