Public Servant Lifestyle

Are music fans becoming so used to downloading massed tracks that they're losing the 'thrill' of discovering new songs, one at a time? New research thinks so...

Are music downloaders - carrying whole collections on laptops and iPods losing out on the value of musical discovery - as quantity outstrips quality? New research thinks they might be - as music itself becomes more of a commodity - and ever more accessible, are listeners becoming more passive and less appreciative?

The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation, say researchers from Leicester University, Surrey and York.

It could account for the popularity of television shows like The X Factor where viewers can watch performers and engage with the programme - rather than simply download a track.

Music psychologists monitored 346 people over a two week period to evaluate how they related to music and came to the conclusion that people were now more passive than ever before in their consumption of music.

Composers

This compares to earlier times, for example the 19th century, when the only music you could hear was live music - leading it to be more highly valued and prized than today. The composer took pride of place as the generator of the music while the performer was the 'middle man' who conveyed the music to the audience.

But the development of the mass media in the twentieth century meant that music became much more widely and readily available, and so arguably lost its aura of automatic aesthetic value. It became viewed as a commodity that was produced, distributed and consumed just like any other.

The study was carried out by Dr Adrian North, of the School of Psychology at the University of Leicester, Professor David Hargreaves, Centre for International Research on Creativity and Learning in Education, University of Roehampton, and Jon Hargreaves, now a graduate of the University of York.

Dr North said: "Very few studies have investigated people's experiences of music in naturalistic, everyday circumstances, and this exploratory study provides some initial normative data on who people listen with, what they listen to - and what their emotional responses to this music are - when they listen, where they listen, and why they listen.

"346 people who owned a mobile phone were sent one text message per day over 14 days. On receiving this message, participants were required to complete a questionnaire about any music they could hear, or had heard since their previous message."

Responses indicated:

a high compliance rate

a high incidence of exposure to music

that the greatest number of musical episodes occurred while participants were on their own

that pop music was heard most frequently

that liking for the music varied depending on who the participant was with, where they were, and whether they had chosen to be able to hear music

that music was usually experienced during the course of some activity other than deliberate music listening

that exposure to music occurred most frequently in the evening, particularly between 10pm and 11pm, and at weekends

that music was heard most frequently at home, with only a small number of incidences occurring in public places

that the importance of several functions of music varied according to temporal factors, the place where the music was heard, and the person/people the participant was with

Commodity

"Music can now be seen as a resource rather than merely as a commodity. People might consciously and actively use it in different situations at different levels of engagement, such that listening contexts ultimately determine the value of the musical experience to the individual listener.

"However the degree of accessibility and choice has arguably led to a rather passive attitude towards music heard in everyday life: The present results indicate that music was rarely the focus of participants' concerns and was instead something that seemed to be taken rather for granted, a product that was to be consumed during the achievement of other goals. In short, our relationship to music in everyday life may well be complex and sophisticated, but it is not necessarily characterised by deep emotional investment."

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