Cross-Cultural Comparisons in the Affective Response to Music

Subjects from European and Asian cultural backgrounds listened to a variety of excerpts of western classical, Indian classical and New Age music. They were asked to choose appropriate adjectives to describe the mood of the excerpts, and also to identify the correct title of the New Age excerpts and to identify the seasons denoted by musical excerpts portraying different seasons of the year. Comparisons between European and Asian subjects revealed many subtle differences in affective response in the adjectival choice task, but cultural differences were not so marked in the choice of title and seasons. The results generally suggest that the affective response to music is determined more by cultural tradition than by the inherent qualities of the music.