Musical tastes of secondary school students' with different cultural backgrounds: A study in the spanish north african city of Melilla

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the musical tastes of secondayr school students in terms of cultural origin, in the Spanish city of Melilla, a North African enclave bordered by Morocco and characterized by its cultural diversity. The study also examines the musical environment of the students since, as different studies have shown (Frith, 2004; Hargreaves, Marshall & North, 2003; Lundquist, 2002; Pitts, 2007), there is no direct relationship between music studied formally in school and the music listened to in daily life. Some 667 students from first to fourth year in compulsory secondary education level (334 females and 323 males), between the ages of 12 and 16 participated, of which 55.9% were of Berber origin, 39.1% of European origin, and 4.9% of mixed origin. The results that were derived from the Questionnaire on Preferences of Musical Styles prepared by Lorenzo, Herrera & Cremades (2008) reflect that the musical tastes of students are oriented towards popular music (Reggaeton, Pop, Hip-Hop or Rap, amongst others) and, on the other hand, they differ according to the cultural group of origin. These musical preferences are clearly influenced by several agents of socialization that are part of informal education (principally peer groups, TV, radio, and the Internet), that shape the cultural and musical consumption habits of young people. Finally, a number of proposals are made for the integration of formal and informal musical education.

Musical preferences of Brazilian high school students

“…For this study, we implemented an adapted version of the Questionnaire on Musical Style Preferences [38]. A pilot study conducted with 89 students from high schools in Vitória informed the development of the adapted questionnaire and the selection of musical styles.…”

Gender and religion as factors of individual differences in musical preference

“…First, the musical styles typical of Brazilian culture (e.g., forró and sertanejo) were more popular than were the more global styles related to Western tonal music (e.g., rap and classical music). It seems possible that the participants’ musical preferences were influenced by contemporary media culture since the styles they listened to most often coincided with those that traditionally receive the most media exposure (Cremades, Lorenzo, & Herrera, 2010; Pimentel et al, 2007; Pimentel, Gouveia, & Vasconcelos, 2005; Soares-Quadros Jr. & Lorenzo, 2013).…”

“…Music instruction is currently part of the arts component in the Brazilian high school curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2008), and it is a discipline that consumes far fewer class hours than do other subjects (e.g., mathematics, language, history; Araújo & Oliveira, 2015; Presidency of the Republic, 2017). Studies conducted in cultural contexts where music forms part of the core school curriculum note that classical is the musical style most present in the lessons and textbooks of this discipline (Cremades et al, 2010). Thus, it seems possible that the results obtained for classical music in this study may be related to the current positioning of music in Brazil’s educational system.…”

Music Preferences and Personality in Brazilians

“…An adaptation of the Questionnaire on Musical Style Preferences (Cremades et al, 2010) was used, specifically in the first part, the one concerning the frequency of listening to musical styles. In the initial questionnaire, this section included 49 different musical styles and participants needed to indicate their frequency of listening according to a five points Likert scale (1 = Never, 5 = Always).…”