A comprehensive investigation into music and emotion/mood research models (Eerola limitations of testing conditions (clinical, theoretical, or self-reporting); opportunistic choice of test participants (selected out of convenience); and research practice following historical models (scientific or sociological methodologies). This paper sought to address these issues and presented a considered approach to sourcing music stimuli; identified a wider participant cross-section and testing options; and pinpointed the need for the application of a unified, interdisciplinary research method - a model that can integrate music’s disciplines, forms, and types of engagement (ie. systematic musicology)2 with a human’s neural, physiological, behavioural, and expressive elements (ie. psychophysiology): (Systematic) Musicology today covers all disciplinary approaches to the study of all music in all its manifestations and all its contexts, whether they be physical, acoustic, digital, multimedia, social, sociological, cultural, historical, geographical, ethnological, psychological, physiological, medicinal, pedagogical, therapeutic, or in relation to any other musically relevant discipline or context. (Parncutt, 2007. Ibid.). Scientific methodologies (biological/neurological) measure physiological responses at the expense of psychoacoustic responses - an assumption that clinical measurement techniques and algorithmic solutions present an efficient model to classify or explain the relationship between music and emotion/mood. Sociological methodologies (psychological/theoretical) suppose that symbolic interactionism or structural functionalism in music drives an emotional response and affects mood - an assumption that music is a semiotic system, and its constructs are either reflections of the cultural genre around which that music grew or inherent personality traits - and are imbued with messages and meaning. Therefore, this paper proposed a mixed method analysis to measure the true effect of music manifestations on emotion/mood. Outlined in this document are four aspects central to performing a critical investigation into music vs emotion/mood: a) the need for clear principles and criteria in the curation of test instruments and test subjects, b) the importance of the listening context (profile, orientation, and acrophase) of respondents, c) the significance of the listening mode (cause-based, semantic-focus, or ambient-type) of respondents in the research process, and d) the recognition of music-induced emotions and their physiological/psychological triggers on respondents is temporal, as music means different things to different people at different times. This paper annotated key musical stimuli (music elements/genres), examined listening contexts (situational macro-variables), and explored listening modes (cognition/appreciation factors) that impact upon listening experiences using a 5W+1Hi inquiry method for compilation. Selected historical cases of claimed music-induced emotional responses or behavioural modification, as well as consciously constructed works by composers to elicit emotional responses, were presented side-by-side with theoretical templates used to map emotion/mood. As music-listening experiences today integrate a substantial visual/interactive component in their consumption, via a proliferation of audio-visual device options (screen music, music video, promotional/commercial contents), a diverse range of samples were also included in the paper’s discussion. The general recommendations and conclusions of this paper were that: i) in the development-stage of the music/emotion/mood research plan, it is paramount that a curated menu of test instruments, applicable across a representative spectrum of listeners, and measurable in varying listening environments, be created prior to undertaking research. ii) using test instruments without a qualifying listening context template, and using test procedures without distinguishing listening mode foci, will diminish research results. Participant-profiling will determine listening backgrounds/purposes and fine-tune testing. iii) via the lens of systematic musicology which encompasses all music disciplines, and an integrated quantitative/qualitative data collection and analysis or mixed method research model (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011)3, this will address shortcomings of prior research. 1 Eerola, T., and Vuoskoski, J. (2013, February). A Review of Music and Emotion Studies: Approaches, Emotion Models, and Stimuli. In Music Perception. An interdisciplinary Journal. Volume 30. Issue 3. pp. 307-340. 2 Parncutt, R. (2007, Spring). Systematic musicology and the history and future of western musical scholarship. In Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies. Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 1-32. 3 Creswell, J. and Plano Clark, V. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Sage.
Michael J. DI STASIO (Wed,) studied this question.