No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Re-Performing Everyday Life Through Music
Abstract
Mobile music listening is a popular research topic and has been studied from various different angles. Drawing on interviews and shadowing sessions with 11 participants this paper seeks to show how mobile music listening behaviour helps to re-perform everyday life. The focus here is on three different definitions of performance: as self-presentation, as a Musical Event, and as self-management. Through examples from the study it will be demonstrated that mobile music listening can be understood as performance according to all these definitions. It gives support in everyday life, thereby re-performing it.
... This is especially likely in the case of vinyl, where, as noted earlier, it appears that much vinyl purchased is not in fact listened to (Savage, 2016). Further, Schurig (2017) found that wearing headphones communicates ever-changing impressions to others (i.e., not solely the message to be left alone). Accordingly, the hardware associated with preference for specific formats may communicate social cues to others. ...
With so many formats available for individuals to use to listen to music, the present research adopted a uses and gratifications approach to investigate why people prefer particular formats. Specifically, the present study considered six formats: physical, digital file, free-streaming, paid-for streaming, radio, and live music. A sample of 396 people (Mage = 34.53) completed an online survey, detailing the reasoning for their favorite format via a free-text response. Live music and digital files were the most popular formats. A thematic analysis of the uses and gratifications pertaining to each format highlighted how participants were attuned to the advantages (and disadvantages) of different formats, demonstrating an awareness of, and consideration relative to, rival formats. Findings suggest that choosing to listen to music across different formats may satisfy different needs and that people demonstrate an awareness of their preference relative to the other available options.
The PhD study "A technology of well-being" takes on a positive, resource-oriented approach to the research on use of MP3 players. The aim of the study is to explore whether and how the use of MP3 players can function as a medium of musical self-care, subjective well-being, and positive health. Exploring the possible role of MP3 players in individuals' self-care, the study focuses on self-regulation and coping. The research questions are examined implementing a qualitative, empirical study. Interviews with adult urban users of MP3 players are carried out, focusing on their experiences of this use. The interviews are analysed within a theoretical framework based on health theories and positive psychology. Although there seem to be several risks related to the use of MP3 players - hearing damage, concern about traffic safety, and issues concerning isolation and the social environment - it appears that use of MP3 players also has positive consequences for users, which are presented in this thesis.
Two studies considered whether psychological variables could predict everyday music listening practices more than those demographic and technology-related variables studied predominantly hitherto. Study 1 focused on music-listening devices, while Study 2 focused on music selection strategies (e.g. playlists). Study 1 indicated the existence of a one-dimensional identity based on music technology. Further, psychological variables (such as innovativeness and self-efficacy) predicted whether individuals possess such an identity. Moreover, while psychological variables predicted whether individuals preferred ‘familiarized’ advantages inherent to listening devices, a preference for ‘progressive’ advantages was predicted by technological behaviors. Study 2 supported the first study in terms of identity, and demonstrated that a different pattern of variables predicted playlist listening from listening to music via shuffle. More generally, the findings suggest the utility of applying constructs from consumer psychology to everyday music-listening behaviors.
Utilizing the Experience Sampling Method, this research investigated how individuals encounter music in everyday life. Responding to two text messages sent at random times between 8:00 and 23:00 daily for one week, 177 participants completed self-reports online regarding their experience with any music heard within a two-hour period prior to receipt of the message. Overall, the radio, mobile MP3 players, and computers featured prominently. Detailed analyses revealed significant patterns in device usage based on time of day; ratings of the music in terms of choice, liking, arousal, and attention; mood; and the perceived consequences of the music. While feeling lethargic associated with recorded music broadcasted in public, in contrast personal music collections promoted contentment. Similarly, devices allowing for personal input were met with positive consequences, like motivation. The current findings imply that the greater control that technology affords leads to complex patterns of everyday music usage, and that listeners are active consumers rather than passive listeners.
(Note: published online first in 2013; available for download at: http://pom.sagepub.com/content/43/2/155)
The recent proliferation of Apple iPods begs the question: what effect does iPod use have on society and social interaction? An experimental research design was utilised to examine iPod use and degree of extroversion on the perception social interaction. At a small Christian university in the south, 105 college students participated in this study, first completing a personality inventory and then answering questions based on one of two scenarios. The first hypothesis was that participants would view iPod users as less likely to engage in social interaction. The second hypothesis was that extroverted participants would perceive iPod users as less socially engaging than would introverted participants. The results support the hypothesis that people view iPod users as less likely to engage in social interaction than non-iPod users. Participants rated iPod users as less likely to engage in social behaviours such as making eye contact. The results did not support the hypothesis that extroverted participants would view iPod users differently than introverted participants. However, this may merely illustrate that the perception of iPod users is more universal than previously thought and transcends personality characteristics.
Sound provides an often-ignored element of our conceptualisation of the urban fabric. The power of music, sound and noise to denote place and demarcate space is used here to develop the idea of a sonic ecology. The paper attempts to map the relative order of this unseen city and to theorise its spatial and temporal patterning. The sonic ecology, a relatively persistent and chronologically ordered quality to sound in urban space, is used as a means of examining the distribution of sound and to weigh the broader social impact of these qualities. The ambient soundscape of the street is made up of a shifting aural terrain, a resonant metropolitan fabric, which may exclude or subtly guide us in our experience of the city, thus highlighting an invisible yet highly affecting and socially relevant area of urban enquiry.
Recent qualitative research has shown that less musically engaged listeners are less aware of the ways in which they use music than highly engaged listeners (Greasley & Lamont, 2006). Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) is a valuable tool for studying music in everyday contexts, and has been shown to increase people's conscious awareness of the role of music in their lives (Sloboda et al., 2001). Using ESM, the present study explored differences in awareness by recruiting three different types of listener: those identified as having a low, moderate and high engagement with music. Quantitative data was collected on what participants were doing whilst hearing music alongside qualitative data on other factors that contributed to each experience. Post-study interviews then generated retrospective accounts about specific musical experiences. Analysis revealed two broad types of listener: the less engaged, who listened for fewer hours a week, were less likely to be hearing self-chosen music, and were more likely to listen to hear music to pass time; and highly engaged, who listened to music for up to 40 hours a week; were more likely to be hearing self-chosen music; and were more likely to use music to evoke specific moods. The study confirmed the usefulness of ESM for investigating the complex (and interacting) factors involved in people's daily musical choices, and highlighted ways in which music can fulfill different functions concurrently.
Theodor W. Adorno placed music at the centre of his critique of modernity and broached some of the most important questions about the role of music in contemporary society. One of his central arguments was that music, through the manner of its composition, affected consciousness and was a means of social management and control. His work was primarily theoretical however, and because these issues were never explored empirically his work has become sidelined in current music sociology. This book argues that music sociology can be greatly enriched by a return to Adorno's concerns, in particular his focus on music as a dynamic medium of social life. Intended as a guide to 'how to do music sociology' this book deals with critical topics too often sidelined such as aesthetic ordering, cognition, the emotions and music as a management device and reworks Adorno's focus through a series of grounded examples.
In this paper I investigate the manner in which Apple iPod users re‐inscribe their experiences of commuting through the use of music. I argue that the new technology of MP3 players gives users unprecedented power of control over their experience of time and space. They do so by managing their mood and orientation to space through the micro‐management of personalised music. The paper analyses iPod users’ management of daily urban experience through the use of empirical examples, locating the impulse to use mobile media such as the iPod in patterns of domestic media consumption. It draws upon a variety of urban and social theorists ranging from Sennett, Adorno and Lefebvre.
Music is present in many sport and exercise situations, but empirical investigations on the motives for listening to music in sports remain scarce. In this study, Swedish elite athletes (N = 252) answered a questionnaire that focused on the emotional and motivational uses of music in sports and exercise. The questionnaire contained both quantitative items that assessed the prevalence of various uses of music, and open-ended items that targeted specific emotional episodes in relation to music in sports. Results showed that the athletes most often reported listening to music during pre-event preparations, warm-up, and training sessions; and the most common motives for listening to music were to increase pre-event activation, positive affect, motivation, performance levels and to experience flow. The athletes further reported that they mainly experienced positive affective states (e.g., happiness, alertness, confidence, relaxation) in relation to music in sports, and also reported on their beliefs about the causes of the musical emotion episodes in sports. In general, the results suggest that the athletes used music in purposeful ways in order to facilitate their training and performance.
This innovative study opens up a new area in sociological and urban studies: the aural experience of the social, mediated through mobile technologies of communication. Whilst we live in a world dominated by visual epistemologies of urban experience, Michael Bull argues thatit is not surprising that the Apple iPod, a sound based technology, is the first consumer cultural icon of the twenty-first century. This book, in using the example of the Apple iPod, investigates the way in which we use sound to construct key areas of our daily lives. The author argues that the Apple iPod acts as an urban Sherpa for many of its users and in doing so joins the mobile army of technologies that many of us habitually use to accompany our daily lives. Through our use of such mobile and largely sound based devices, the book demonstrates how and why the spaces of the city are being transformed right in front of our ears.
The mobility of human activities entails intrinsic parameters such as the mobility of tasks and technologies, as well as changing conditions underlying mobile computing. The interactions between these parameters bear directly on the appropriation of mobile technologies deployed in these activities. In this paper, I analyze the appropriation of mobile technologies as a function of motives, conditions of use, and technology design properties. The analysis explains the flexibility of mobile computing as a direct function of the appropriation process. The paper contributes to understanding mobile technology use and improving user acceptance by extending existing conceptualizations of technology use. Technology personalization and use in non-organizational contexts are the essentials of the extension, suggesting that mobile computing is a function of use for serving both organizationally-sanctioned and personal motives. Implications for researching mobile technology use and for designing mobile technologies are drawn.
In the Netherlands, a survey was set up to monitor the extent of the use of portable, electronic devices while cycling amongst different age groups of cyclists and to estimate the possible consequences for safety.
The main research questions concerned age differences in the self-reported use of electronic devices while cycling, self-reported crash involvement and risk, and self-reported compensatory behaviour. Teen cyclists (12-17 years) and young adult cyclists (18-34 years) were more frequent users, and also more indiscriminate users of portable devices while cycling than middle-aged and older adult cyclists (35-49 years; 50+ years).
After statistical correction for influences on crash risk of urbanization level, weekly time spent cycling, and cycling in more demanding traffic situations, the odds of being involved in a bicycle crash were estimated to be higher for teen cyclists and young adult cyclists who used electronic devices on every trip compared to same age groups cyclists who never used these devices. For middle-aged and older adult cyclists, the use of portable electronic devices was not a significant predictor of bicycle crashes, but frequency of cycling in demanding traffic situations was. Possible implications for education or legal measures are discussed.
Results may inform researchers, policy makers, and cyclists themselves. Educational campaigns may use risk information to warn young cyclists about risk of device use while cycling.
Music, sound and space. Transformations of public and private experience
- N Dibben
- A B Haake
Dibben, N. and Haake, A. B. (2013). Music and the construction of
space in office-based work settings. In G. Born (Ed.), Music,
sound and space. Transformations of public and private
experience (pp. 151-168). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
The walkman effect, Popular Music, 4
- S Hosokawa
Hosokawa, S. (1984). The walkman effect, Popular Music, 4, pp.
165-180.
The MP3 Experiment Available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVuVhcdQs0k
- Improv Everywhere
Improv Everywhere (2010). The MP3 Experiment. Available online
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVuVhcdQs0k, checked on
6/02/2016.