Rationales and Functions of Disliked Music: An In-Depth Interview Study

Abstract

Music serves to satisfy emotional and social needs. In its individual quality as liked or disliked music, it can also be used to create and affirm one’s own identity. While studies on musical preferences are abundant, dislikes have rarely been considered in musical taste research. The current study is centered on the rationales and functions of musical dislikes using semi-structured interviews with participants from different age groups (N = 21). The observed rationales for disliked music followed three main themes of (1) object-related reasons such as the composition, the lyrics, and aesthetic dichotomies, (2) subject-related reasons such as emotions evoked – or not evoked – in the listener, physical reactions, self-related and normative reasons such as a mismatch with the self-image, and (3) social reasons which reflect a rejection of the values presented by the music and its fans and therefore underlining the importance of social distinction as a function of musical dislikes. Other functions include identity expression, the avoidance of negative emotional and physical states, and the implicitly expressed demonstration of musical competence. The explanations for disliked music are based on both an excess or lack of certain qualities of the music or emotional reaction to the music, pointing to the idea of a missing ideal mean of music. Quantitatively, the rationales found relate to a combination of reference points which is mainly the music, but often in combination with the lyrics, the performance, the artist, and the fans. Further, the degree of dislike ranged from a slight dislike to strong hatred. To conclude, musical dislikes are a complex, multidimensional component of musical taste. Taking musical dislikes into account, the diversity and complexity of an everyday aesthetics of music can be captured, extending our understanding of attitudes toward music and the functions of music.

“Like static noise in a beautiful landscape”: A mixed-methods approach to rationales and features of disliked voices in popular music.

“…Much evidence was presented that the voice is clearly perceived separately from the song, also supported by the object-related reason, that the voice did not fit the song. Within the object-related reasons, the participants primarily described the lack of certain musical or sound qualities, in line with studies on music judgments (Ackermann, 2019; von Appen, 2007, p. 98).…”

“…Lastly, the chosen items were rated according to their importance in constituting the dislike on a 3-point scale ranging from 1 ( very important ) to 3 ( not important ). Evaluations reflected a so-called “Just-about-right scale” that is, a characteristic being present in a singer either “too much” or “too little,” which can be found in other judgments of sensory events in consumer research (Popper & Kroll, 2005), music and vocal performances (Kroger & Margulis, 2017; Merrill & Larrouy-Maestri, 2017), and reports on disliked music (Ackermann, 2019).…”

“…It could be seen that the vocal behavior of singers plays a role in the construction of musical taste (Ackermann, 2019, p. 93; Greasley et al, 2013, p. 414; von Appen, 2007, pp. 105–109).…”

Auditory perceptual assessment of voices: Examining perceptual ratings as a function of voice experience

“…Listeners are thus highly familiar with different kinds of musical styles and voices of different expressions. Furthermore, voices are able to express emotions (see Scherer, 1995, on vocal emotion expression in the context of music) and have an impact on the aesthetic judgments of music (see Ackermann, 2019;Ackermann & Merrill, 2021;Greasley et al, 2013;Merrill & Ackermann, 2020, in the context of disliked music). Nevertheless, the evaluation and description of voices has been restricted to trained listeners and to specific contexts.…”

“…This notion is of particular interest for research into the psychology of speech, where the focus is on relations between voice perception and evaluations and judgments, e.g., of which vocal features relate (acoustically and perceptually) to emotions (Banse & Scherer, 1996;Scherer, 1995), intentions (Hellbernd & Sammler, 2016), and aesthetic judgments, such as the ideal voice (Hollien, 2000) attractive voice (Babel et al, 2014;Zuckerman & Miyake, 1993), or (dis)liked voice in the context of music (Ackermann & Merrill, 2021;Greasley et al, 2013;Merrill & Ackermann, 2020). Here, judgments by untrained listeners can be helpful for extending research to a larger group of participants, but untrained listeners can use only a few of the existing assessments.…”