Situational influences on reported musical preference.

This study investigated the ways in which musical preferences might vary with the listening situation. Independent groups of subjects were presented with a verbal description of 1 of 17 different music listening situations and asked to rate the importance of 27 musical descriptors, if they were to like the music experienced in that situation. Although ratings were consistent within situations, the results showed that different musical descriptors were preferred for different proposed listening situations, with some indication that preference for specific musical descriptors is positively related to the degree to which they augmented the affective qualities of the listening situation. A factor analysis yielded several factors which underlay responses to the musical descriptors; these might be interpreted as representing arousal, sensuality, melancholia, spirituality, nostalgia, and sophistication. A second factor analysis of ratings assigned between the 17 situations yielded situational factors that were salient in subjects' ratings; these might be interpreted as representing activity, localized subdued behavior, spirituality, and social constraint. These results indicate that musical preferences are associated with the listening environment.