This study evaluated the Use of Music Inventory (UMI) in three national samples from Slovakia ( N = 1,097), Serbia ( N = 700), and Croatia ( N = 473). Confirmatory factor analyses did not support the original item set in any country. Alternative models yielded improved fit and internal consistency while retaining the three intended dimensions (Emotional, Cognitive, Background). Item-level analyses revealed recurrent instabilities for Items 2 and 8 in Slovakia and Serbia, with additional problems for Items 4 and 12 in Croatia, indicating that nostalgia-laden, affect-specific, and genre-evaluative wordings are vulnerable to cultural/developmental variation. Convergent validity patterns were observed across countries: women scored higher on Emotional and Background use, men scored higher on Cognitive use, and respondents with formal music education scored higher on Cognitive use. Cross-country comparisons showed higher Cognitive use in Slovakia and higher Background use in Serbia. Overall, results support cautious cross-cultural use of the UMI and motivate targeted item revision (e.g., rewording or replacing retrospective and genre-specific statements) and routine tests of measurement invariance by country, gender, and education. Findings also highlight the value of complementing attitudinal UMI scales with behavioural indices of music regulation in future research.
This research investigated the cognitive processes involved in classifying the cultural origin of music and how various musical features influence these processes. One hundred White-European (Western) listeners from the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia listened to 48 ten-second music excerpts, comprising Western classical and Chinese traditional bowed-string music conveying happiness, sadness, calmness, and agitation. Western listeners classified each music excerpt as either Western or Chinese in a forced-choice task and rated their familiarity with the music. Measures of accuracy, sensitivity, response bias, and response time were obtained, while musical features were extracted for subsequent regression analyses. Listeners were more accurate in classifying Western music than Chinese music but responded more quickly when attempting to classify Chinese music than Western music. Listeners also demonstrated high sensitivity in distinguishing between Western and Chinese music, but with a liberal response bias to classify music as Western. Listeners exhibited reduced ability to distinguish between Western and Chinese music (low sensitivity) that was happy or agitated, with a strong response bias to classify such excerpts as Western. Musical features and culture-specific factors significantly predicted classification accuracy and response time for both Western and Chinese music. We discuss the roles of decision-making processes in the cultural classification of music, proposing that both heuristic (automatic) and reflective processes are involved. We also discuss potential mechanisms through which the emotional connotations of music impact upon its perceived cultural origins.
Understanding the key determinants of lifelong music learning intentions (LMLI) is critical for promoting sustainable music education and long-term learner engagement. Grounded in the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and extended with additional psychosocial constructs, this study examined the effects of past behavior and parenting styles (authoritative and authoritarian) on students’ intentions to pursue lifelong music learning, mediated by cognitive factors including attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between October 2024 and January 2025 among 617 university students from three government-funded universities located in Fujian Province, China. The sample was selected using convenience sampling. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. According to the results, total effects analyses indicated that past behavior had the largest effect on LMLI, primarily through its influence on cognitive mediators. Next are subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and attitude. Although neither authoritative nor authoritarian parenting styles had a direct effect on willingness, both showed significant indirect effects through cognitive factors. These findings provide empirical support for the expanded TPB model and highlight the importance of early musical experiences and family socialization processes in shaping college students’ long-term engagement in music learning. The results provide practical insights for educators and policymakers seeking to develop targeted interventions, such as music programs that foster early engagement and family-based support structures, to enhance students’ lifelong engagement in music education.
Research examining participation in community choirs suggests that group singing provides choir members with benefits including emotion-regulation, increased positive affect, and reduced stress, as well as social benefits like feelings of support, trust, safety, and connection. During the COVID-19 pandemic community choirs were forced to discontinue in-person rehearsals to avoid spread of the virus. The current study focuses on one such community choir in London, UK, which moved from an in-person format to an online format during the pandemic. Interviews were conducted with ten members of the choir, five of whom continued participating in online rehearsals and five of whom did not. Interviews were analyzed using Thematic Analysis to explore the aspects of in-person choir participation that were most missed as well as the aspects that could not be satisfactorily replicated online. Participants explicitly mentioned that they missed being able to blend their voices with others and reported that singing in the physical presence of the rest of the choir had more emotional impact than what they experienced online. While some participants continued with these online rehearsals, others did not because they missed in-person elements of the choir enough that they lost motivation to take part online. The results of this study highlight the psychological, emotional, and social benefits of choir rehearsals taking place in person and suggest that there are fundamental aspects of group singing that cannot be reproduced in an online context.
When live music paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, people looked for other opportunities to engage with music. The present case study explored a group of cycling enthusiasts who engaged in a collaborative playlist-making activity during COVID-19, called "Song of the Day." Our two research questions asked: (1) What does the group's collaborative playlisting process entail? and (2) What were the outcomes of engaging in collaborative playlist-making during the COVID-19 pandemic? Using an exploratory, qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with group members (N = 4 Australian residents; M-age = 63). Five overarching themes were identified via Thematic Analysis: inspiration and ongoing participation, promoting emotional well-being, bonding, shared and expanded musical engagement, and song selection. Although initially motivated by a simple premise of sharing one song a day to lighten the mood and keep in touch during lockdowns, the playlisting activity guidelines evolved over time. A shift to selecting songs that met stated thematic parameters made the activity challenging and elicited competitiveness and conversation, which fostered continued participation and deepened existing friendships. Engaging in this form of collaborative playlisting sparked enjoyment and nostalgia, fostered group conversation, created opportunities for bonding, and prompted the exploration and discovery of new music and artists. As lockdowns ended, the activity continued, and group members also began attending live, in-person music events together. The group's use of multiple technologies to share, listen, and discuss extend previous research on collaborative playlist-making and further our understanding of how creative music engagement promotes social connection and well-being.
This study investigated physiological manifestations and self-perceived trait levels of performance anxiety for higher education contemporary commercial music vocalists undertaking tasks of increasing difficulty in a studio setting. Research has documented the prevalence of performance anxiety across musical genres generally, but understanding of how individual trait levels of performance anxiety affect physiological indicators across a range of task difficulty is limited. Studies measuring physiological manifestations of anxiety among instrumentalists, woodwind players and singers have reported varying results regarding heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activation (EDA) in high-stress settings and when performing challenging musical tasks. In this study, contemporary commercial music singers completed 10 different vocal tasks while wearing a device that measured their HR and EDA (physiological stress). Participants also reported their trait level of music performance anxiety in a survey (K-MPAI measure). The results show that electrodermal activation increased with task difficulty, but the results for HR were less clear, with average levels not consistently related to task difficulty in a linear fashion. This study demonstrated that when performing increasingly challenging singing tasks, contemporary commercial music vocalists with higher trait levels of music performance anxiety experienced elevated levels of EDA. Those with low levels of trait music performance anxiety did not experience higher levels of EDA with increasing task difficulty. The results provide new insights to contemporary commercial music vocalists regarding non-invasive ways of monitoring anxiety levels during individual practice and lessons that could lead to targeted interventions to address performance anxiety triggers in their individual systems.
As the result of the musician's repeated experiences of feeling merged with their instrument, it disappears from their consciousness, like an unnoticed body part. This research investigated the phenomenon of merging with the instrument among professional classical musicians, aiming to understand how these musicians experience their relationship with their instrument, including the relationship's impact on their self-identity. Six musicians took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore participants' lived embodied experiences. Four themes emerged from the data: Intertwined identity, Personifying and nurturing the instrument, Monogamous relationship, and Transcending intimacy. In conclusion, musicians' self-identity relies heavily on their instruments, which they often humanize. Their embodied relationships are characterized by experiences ranging from out-of-body states when playing the instrument, to mistakes in performance, and responses to the endangerment of the instrument.
As populations age globally, there is increasing recognition of the need for accessible and effective interventions to support well-being among older adults. This study explores the status of musical leisure activities, their perceived benefits, and their association with life satisfaction among community-dwelling older adults in South Korea. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 117 older adults (aged 65 years or above) recruited from community institutions in Seoul. The survey included items on sociodemographic characteristics, engagement in music-related leisure activities (such as singing and listening to music), perceived benefits of these activities, and life satisfaction as measured by the Life Satisfaction Scale for the Elderly (LSSE). Results revealed that the majority of participants engaged in music-related leisure activities, with singing and listening to music being the most popular forms. Older women participated more frequently in music activities, and their primary motivations were emotional relaxation and social interaction. The benefits of music activities were diverse, spanning personal, relational, and psychosocial domains. A positive correlation between musical benefits and life satisfaction revealed that music participation in older age contributes to life satisfaction, with emotional benefits being the strongest predictor of this benefit. Together, these findings highlight the role of music participation in supporting well-being in later life. Music-related leisure activities appear to function as a culturally meaningful and accessible resource for older adults in South Korea and point to the need for inclusive and culturally responsive programs that reflect the characteristics and needs of this population.
Music can evoke and enable emotional expression. Yet few studies have investigated which aspects of music preference are universal, and which aspects vary geographically and culturally. To investigate, we used a large, ecological dataset to assess the valence and arousal of songs in music charts from 64 countries. Furthermore, we explored how differences between music charts were predicted by income inequality, GDP, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and tightness-looseness. First, we used a top-down approach whereby we grouped countries into five global regions-Western and North-West Europe, Eastern and Southern Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and North Africa and The Middle East. Second, we used a bottom-up approach where we grouped countries through the unsupervised learning algorithm, k-means clustering. Using both approaches, we found that, broadly, Central and South American countries preferred more positive and arousing music than countries from other global regions. However, some countries (e.g., Japan, Chile, Switzerland, and Spain) showed music preferences that did not align with other countries in their geographic region. Furthermore, we found that uncertainty avoidance, cultural tightness, and income inequality were the strongest predictors for regional differences in music preferences. This study provides robust evidence for both the universality and diversity of preferences for valence and arousal in music across geographic and cultural groups.
Works of Western art music have been addressed in writing for centuries by different listeners, including critics and music theorists. The question arises, whether today's listeners still ascribe expressive connotations made in the past to music excerpts with similar features, which might indicate a stability of these connotations over time. To test this idea, we used historic descriptions of the "Glorifying Hymnic" as identified in a previous study on expressive connotations of 19th-century music in a new music-listening experiment. A total of 120 participants completed an online listening study in which they were asked to first read one of a set of historical descriptions and then listen to an excerpt that could either be a passage from (a) a piece of music with similar characteristics as the originally described excerpt or (b) a piece of music with different characteristics. Participants were asked to rate the match between the description and the passage. Participants were also asked about their familiarity with music that they heard, their interest in Western classical music and their musical sophistication. Participants' performance indicates that present-day listeners do indeed recognize the expressive connotations of the Glorifying Hymnic that were described by 19th-century listeners. Moreover, performance in the listening task was significantly different between participants with different levels of interest in Western classical music, that is, listeners with interest in this kind of music made a correct assignment more often; however, the performance in the listening task did not correlate significantly with measures of musical sophistication. The results show that the connotations of music can still be recognized after a long period of time, at least 150 years, especially among listeners who have an interest in the music in question.
This study focuses on the mediating role of self-efficacy and the moderating effect of teacher-student relationships in the relationship between music performance anxiety (MPA) and psychological flourishing among Chinese college music students. A total of 685 Chinese undergraduate music majors with a mean age of 19.95 years completed self-report questionnaires regarding psychological flourishing, the teacher-student relationship, self-efficacy, and MPA. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to ascertain the relationship between MPA and psychological flourishing, as well as to establish a moderated mediation model. The findings indicate that self-efficacy serves as a partial mediator in the relationship between MPA and psychological flourishing. In addition, the teacher-student relationship moderates the effects between MPA and self-efficacy, and between MPA and psychological flourishing. Specifically, stronger teacher-student relationships buffer the negative impact of MPA on self-efficacy and reduce its adverse effects on psychological well-being. These findings highlight the importance of enhancing students' self-efficacy and fostering strong teacher-student relationships to mitigate the negative effects of MPA on students' well-being. Future research and educational practices should focus on effectively enhancing self-efficacy and strengthening teacher-student relationships in music education contexts.
While much research focuses on single-instrument performance, less is known about the unique challenges faced by multi-instrumentalists. This study examined the relationship between music performance anxiety (MPA), perfectionism, flow experiences, resilience, and trait anxiety among musicians who play both a primary and a secondary instrument. A sample of 91 musicians (60% female, M = 35.2 years, SD = 12.6) completed the MPA and flow questionnaires for both the primary and secondary instruments, while the measures for trait anxiety, resilience, and perfectionism were administered only once. Females reported higher levels of trait anxiety and MPA related to their secondary instrument. Interestingly, while flow experiences were negatively correlated with MPA for both instruments, resilience was linked, weakly, only to flow on the primary instrument. In multiple regression analysis, primary instrument MPA and primary instrument flow positively predicted secondary instrument MPA, while secondary instrument flow was a negative predictor. These findings reveal the complex dynamics of MPA in multi-instrumentalists, emphasizing how individual traits shape the musical experience.
The study aims to test the contribution of goal-directed cognitive evaluation on emotional episodes induced by music. Specifically, it will explore the role of two goal-directed mechanisms: goal relevance and goal congruence. This study consists of two experiments. The first experiment gathers a collection of highly familiar musical functions (goal relevance) for UK participants (N = 39) and musical stimuli that can be experienced as either well suited or poorly suited to a specific musical function (goal congruence). The second experiment, involving different participants (N = 117), uses a vignette methodology to explore the effect of goal-directed evaluations on the induced subjective experience (valence, arousal and intensity) of an emotional episode. In addition, it collects highly goal-congruent (self-selected) music for different musical functions and measures its impact on subjective experience. The results are analysed using linear mixed models. The findings suggest that goal relevance, operationalised as the different functions music has, can influence emotional episodes induced by music in some contexts. In conclusion, this article provides initial support for further testing of goal-directed mechanisms in emotional episodes induced by music, bringing the study of musical emotions closer to the broader field of the affective sciences.
Music is a widely used tool for stress reduction and mood regulation, but its effectiveness may differ depending on individual characteristics and the emotion regulation strategies employed. In the present study, we investigated the association between (un)healthy music use and attachment style, a factor that shapes not only interpersonal behavior but also emotion regulation tendencies. Using a sample of 224 participants, we administered questionnaires assessing attachment styles, general emotion regulation tendencies, attitudes toward emotions, and patterns of healthy and unhealthy music use. Our results showed that insecure attachment styles are associated with unhealthy music use, mediated by general emotion regulation tendencies. Specifically, anxious attachment was linked to ruminative music listening, mediated by a broader tendency to use rumination as an emotion regulation strategy. In contrast, avoidant attachment was linked to avoidant music use, mediated by a general tendency to avoid emotions. In conclusion, attachment style plays an important role in shaping how individuals engage with music, with anxious and avoidant styles being associated with unhealthy patterns of music use. This study makes a significant conceptual contribution by laying the groundwork for a new area of research that focuses on how attachment styles influence music use and related emotional outcomes.
Research has explored how musical timing, tempo, and complexity influence experiences of groove in listeners. Musical complexity and tempo have also been associated with distortions in time perception, likely due to their demand on attentional resources within working memory. Individual factors such as arousal or age typically shape time perception in addition. The present study aimed at investigating how both groove and time perception are modulated by varying levels of complexity and tempo. Using short percussion patterns rooted in the funk tradition and performed by a professional drummer, a pilot study tested three levels of complexity - operationalized as degrees of syncopation - at two tempi (110 and 130 BPM). In the main study, a total of 192 participants rated the stimuli with the Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ), and judged both the duration and subjective passage of time (PoT) during listening. Results indicate that low and medium complexity versions were experienced higher in the groove dimensions of Urge to Move and Pleasure, compared with the highly complex music. Medium complexity caused time to pass more quickly compared with the low or high complexity versions. Higher tempo resulted in time passing more quickly, as well as in higher groove ratings in terms of Urge to Move. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that PoT and participants' arousal predicted Urge to Move, and PoT also predicted the Pleasure dimension of groove. No significant effects were observed for age, musical training, or duration estimation. Taken together, this study demonstrates that only high levels of rhythmic complexity diminish groove experiences, contrasting with previous research proposing an inverted U-shaped relationship. Given that the perception of time often accelerates during pleasurable experiences, the current results provide additional support for the link between groove and affective enjoyment.
Both obsessive passion (OP) related to learning, from the Dualistic Model of Passion, and study addiction share the core component of internal compulsion to study. However, to date, no theoretical analyses or empirical data have elucidated their similarities and differences. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between OP and study addiction in the context of music academy students. Investigating this relationship is crucial for understanding how passion and study addiction influence students' educational and psychological experiences, especially in specialized fields such as music. In this domain, where the pressure for artistic achievements is particularly intense, understanding the impact of OP and harmonious passion and study addiction can provide valuable insights for psychological and educational practice. A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted among 213 music academy students in Poland. The results revealed that OP and study addiction were relatively weakly associated, and only study addiction was correlated with stress, general health, sleep quality and examination stress. Mediation models in which music performance anxiety (MPA) was a mediator revealed that study addiction had the most consistent negative effects on well-being, which were partially mediated by high MPA. This is the first study to show that OP and study addiction are different constructs and that study addiction is clearly a pathological phenomenon that is more consistently and strongly associated with impaired functioning than OP is. The implications for prevention and intervention programmes are discussed.
Music listening can serve an affect-regulatory function. For instance, someone who feels anxious may listen to music with the goal of evoking a different, desired feeling (e.g., calmness), labelled 'compensatory' listening. However, music therapists recommend starting with music matching one's current feelings before gradually shifting to music that evokes desired feelings, following the 'iso principle'. Some evidence supports the effectiveness of the iso principle for affect regulation in clinical populations. However, randomised experiments comparing the iso principle with other music-listening interventions are rare, especially with non-clinical participants. To address this gap, the current study compared the effectiveness of iso-principle, compensatory-principle, and unguided music listening for modulating anxiety among healthy participants (N = 193) in a randomised experiment. Participants completed an anxiety induction before listening to a Spotify playlist in one of three randomly assigned conditions: participants in the iso and compensatory conditions listened to five-song iso- and compensatory-principle playlists respectively, curated by the researchers using participants' self-selected songs, whereas participants in the unguided condition self-ordered their songs. Participants rated their momentary affect at baseline, post-anxiety-induction, and post-listening. Our pre-registered analyses revealed no significant difference in the affect-regulatory consequences of iso versus compensatory listening. However, post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that participants in the guided (iso, compensatory) conditions reported significantly greater increases in calmness than unguided participants. Moreover, exploratory analyses of unguided listening sequences revealed seven distinct patterns of spontaneous music listening, which differed in perceived effectiveness. Findings from this study may inform the development of (digital) music interventions to improve well-being.
The evolution of digital listening technologies continues to impact the way we think about music consumption and music listening practices. Krause and North's (2016) findings suggest that, in addition to demographic characteristics, psychological constructs should be considered when investigating listening practices and technology use. The present study used latent profile analysis (LPA), a statistical technique that identifies latent subgroups within a population, to explore profiles of music listening in younger adults. We drew on data collected from 584 adults aged 17-35 (Mage = 19.61) residing in Australia (74.1% female and 23.3% male). Participants completed an online questionnaire that included demographics questions and established measures of musicianship, music engagement, music identity and format use. LPA identified four distinct profiles of listeners: disengaged consumers (5.8% of the sample), enthusiasts (14.2%) and two mainstream listening profiles differentiated by paid (52.6%) versus free streaming use (27.4%). Format use, music identity and music engagement were relevant differentiators of the listener profiles. Our findings indicate heterogeneity in young adult music listeners, pointing to how the constellation of these indicators shapes distinct patterns of engagement with music. Study findings further our theoretical understanding of how individuals consume music in everyday life with implications for future research aiming to unpack the distinct psychological and behavioural characteristics that shape different listeners.
Over the past decades, facilitators have increasingly engaged international migrants in a diverse array of participatory music activities, including composing, performing, and listening to music. This literature review offers a comprehensive analysis of the musical dimensions underpinning such practices. Drawing on Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) methodology, we examined 77 peer-reviewed studies published over the last 15 years, focusing on participatory music initiatives involving international migrants in Western contexts (Europe, the United Kingdom, North America, and Oceania). Our synthesis explores both the ways in which participants engage in musicking and the rationales behind facilitators' selection of musicking strategies. The analysis identifies four primary musicking strategies - musical reproduction, co-creation, co-composition, and participatory listening - each of which encompasses varying degrees of centralized and decentralized musical leadership. Facilitators' narratives for employing these strategies coalesce around six overarching narrative categories: personal development, social cohesion, inclusion, acculturation, aesthetics, and activism. Notably, the study finds no one-to-one correspondence between specific musicking strategies and facilitators' narratives. Instead, the findings underscore the need for critical awareness regarding the musical choices made in participatory contexts and highlight the dual function of participatory musicking as both a transformative and a reproductive practice. This review holds relevance for facilitators and researchers concerned with participatory music practices involving international migrants. It aims to support reflective practice and informed decision-making among all stakeholders engaged in this field.
Stress is an increasingly prevalent state experienced by many individuals, but mood regulation and relaxation can alleviate some of its associated symptoms. While music listening has generally been shown to support stress alleviation, less is known about how individual differences potentially guide the choice of music for this purpose. The present study focused on depression and anxiety as individual differences that might relate to the selection of relaxation music. Through an online questionnaire, 93 participants provided ~20 minutes (median number of tracks per participant = 6) of self-selected relaxation music and completed questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety and previous use of music for mood regulation and adaptive functions. We compared Spotify audio features of the relaxation music to general music and found that relaxation music had higher levels of Acousticness and lower levels of Speechiness, Energy, Valence, Liveness, Instrumentalness, Danceability and Loudness. Through clustering, we identified three subgroups of relaxation music (i.e., 'loud-energetic-danceable', 'neutral-acoustic' and 'mellow-instrumental'). Finally, results showed that higher depression scores increased the likelihood of selecting relaxation music from the 'loud-energetic-danceable' cluster over the remaining two, while higher anxiety scores increased the likelihood of selecting music from the 'mellow-instrumental' cluster over the 'loud-energetic-danceable' cluster. Previous use of music for mood regulation, but not adaptive functions, also predicted music selection for relaxation. This research advances our understanding of how different individuals use music to reduce stress and relax and provides guidance on how music can adaptively cater for these purposes.
