This scoping review enlightens the current state of the relationship between music and fear by presenting findings from the last twenty years, analyzing how they frame music-related fear as a phenomenon, viewing the existing theoretical and conceptual bases critically, and finally, pointing out directions for future research. With qualitative analysis we have identified three main categories of music-related fear: 1) Expressed fear , 2) Perceived fear , and 3) Evoked and experienced fear . Each main category contains sub-categories explaining the phenomena more specifically. In the light of our findings, the relationship between music and fear is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, ranging from neurological and embodied levels to musical features, and cultural and multimodal contexts. However, the previous scientific understanding has mainly focused on the perception of fear from music, and conceptual and terminological inconsistencies exist within the field.
Henttonen et al. (2026) studied this question.