Music Preference Among Students at LLC LLC Conformity Project

Description of Project We (P-Webb and Propst) created a survey for our students to take about their music preferences. We tried to include clips of music from several different genres and ask them to rate the clips according to how much they enjoyed them, but found that downloading the clips was beyond our expertise and our time limits. Then we asked respondents to state which music genre(s) they prefer in general and which genre(s) they spend the most time listening to. We then asked several questions to get general demographic information We created graphs of the results of both parts of the survey and wrote summaries of the graphs using the LLC Guidelines for Summarizing Graphs.

Questions We started by asking ourselves some questions: Are students at LLC as conformist in their music listening preferences as they believe they are? If students are given a variety of unlabeled music to sample, will they conform to their own expectations of what music they enjoy? What appeals to students about the music they enjoy?

Methods We developed a survey to help answer our questions. We investigated two survey options, Google Apps and Survey Monkey. We were not able to find a way to embed music samples into either option, so we had to set that goal aside. Later, Ms. Donegan came up with a work-around for that, but it was too late to use with most of our respondents. We found that Survey Monkey would tabulate the answers for us in an easy to use format, so we decided to use Survey Monkey to conduct our survey.

Methods We researched genres of music to find which ones to include in our survey. We found a long list of musical genres on Wikipedia. It was too long to use, but we selected some more general genres from the list. We found another study that surveyed music preferences among teenagers and included the genres that were on that list so that we might later be able to compare our results with the other survey. We added musical genres that we enjoy that students don’t usually mention, just because we enjoy them. We made up a list of things people could like about music based on our own experience with listening to music, studying about music, making music, and things we like when we listen to music.

Methods Here is our list of musical genres: Alternative Barbershop Bluegrass Blues Classical Country Folk Light Rock Hard Rock Heavy Metal Hip-Hop Jazz Opera Pop Punk Rap Religious R&B Show Tunes

Methods Here is our list of factors that might be important when choosing music: lyrics beat or rhythm volume instruments heard artist popularity of the particular song melody or tune harmony

Methods We developed a survey to help answer our questions. We developed the following survey questions: – QUESTION 1: How much do you like to listen to the following types of music? – QUESTION 2: How often do you listen to the following types of music? – QUESTION 3: Please tell what is important to you as you listen to music – QUESTION 4: What is your age? – QUESTION 5: What is your gender?

Methods We asked students to take the survey. We had students take the survey during the week of 3/26/13 to 3/28/ students took the online survey before our deadline of 3/28/ males (82.3%) and 3 females (17.6%) took the survey.

Methods We made the survey open to anyone at LLC. These are the ages of people who took the survey. agenumberpercent other15.9

Methods We took the information from the survey and created graphs to make it easier to understand the results. We thought that the Survey Monkey would provide us with graphs and with different ways of arranging the survey results so that we could discover the answers to some of our questions. We found out, however, that Survey Monkey only allows this if you pay them money. So we took the information that they do provide without cost and made our own graphs. We were unable to answer some questions, such as being able to tell whether more males than females like a certain kind of music, or whether the age of students makes a difference in their listening habits. We were able to compare data for the group as a whole, though, and that gave us information to answer some of our questions.

Data What kinds of music do students like?

Data Here is another way to look at this same information.

Data What kinds of music do students listen to?

Data Here is another way to look at this same information.

Data Is there a difference between what students like and what they listen to?

Summary of Graph: The graph “Comparison of Stated Music Preferences to Stated Music Listening” was compiled from the results of our survey questions asking students to rate their levels of interest in 19 types of music ranging from “Alternative” to “Show Tunes”. Students also estimated the amount of time they actually spent listening to those types of music This virtually all African American and young student population generally conformed to expectation in the types of music they prefer.. The lowest ratings went to Alternative, Bluegrass, Folk, Light and Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Opera and Show Tunes They heavily prefer Hip-Hop and Rap music with the third highest preference being Rhythm and Blues, a more traditional form of African American music. There is some tendency to prefer the popular music of the larger youth culture in that Pop music ranks 4th. Religious music and blues, both long important in the African American community rank 5th and 6th respectively. The method that Monkey Survey uses to report the results and our method of questioning makes it impossible for us to identify any serious non-conformists in the group. In most cases the amount of time students choose to listen to a given type of music is a little less than their stated preference for the type. There isn’t a lot of variation in that. They tend to listen to what they like!

Data What do students find important when they listen to music?

Summary of Graph: The graph “What Is Important in Choosing Music?” was compiled from the answers to question 3. Students were asked to rate various aspects of music ranging from lyrics to harmony. Our students heavily preferred lyrics, beat and artist over other features listed. I was surprised that volume and harmony ranked fairly low. The lowest ranking was “popularity of the particular song” so our students self-identified as non- conformists in this case. Again we are unable to identify any non- conformists based on our the data available.

Results Here is what we found to answer our questions. Are students at LLC as conformist in their music listening preferences as they believe they are? The data showed a pretty close correlation between what students said they like and what they said they actually spend time listening to. If students are given a variety of unlabeled music to sample, will they conform to their own expectations of what music they enjoy? We were unable to have students listen to unlabeled music to see if they like other sorts of music than they are expecting to like. What appeals to students about the music they enjoy? Students said that they like lyrics, beat and artist over other features listed.

Questions Here are some questions we have about our results. Do students accurately report their listening habits? If students are given a number of unlabeled music selections of different genres that conform to their preference for lyrics, artist, and beat, would they find that they like the new genres as well as their already preferred genres? Do students say they like or dislike certain genres of music just because they perceive they are popular or unpopular with their peers? Do age and gender play any part in the music choices of students?

Suggestions for More Study This is what we would like to suggest that someone to do to find out more about our topic. To find out if students accurately report their listening habits, have a number of students keep logs of their music listening, and evaluate the logs. To find out if students might appreciate new genres, take a song and have it recorded in a number of genres, but with the same words, artist, and a beat as similar as possible. Have students listen and rate each selection. Compare the student reactions to the different selections. To find out if students say they like certain kinds of music just because they think that music is popular, download clips of actual recorded music so students could respond to the actual music rather than to their perceptions (possibly mistaken) or a particular music genre. To find out whether gender or age affected music preferences in any strong way, find a way to look at individual results to identify any trends and non-conformists in the group.

Sources Here is where we looked to find information. music-preferences-and-personality ences.htm (includes link to take STOMP test) full.pdf (links music preference to delinquency rates)