Religious and demographic indicators of music preference in a Turkish sample

Abstract

The attitude of people with various religious and faith orientations towards music is likely to be influenced by the teaching of their religion and the way they hold their faith. In this study, the connections of music preference with religiosity and with the way faith was held by participants were surveyed. The sample consisted of 259 university students (140 men [54%] and 119 women [46%], M age = 20.29 years). Participants listened to 10 pieces from different music genres. Next, their music preference was measured using music feeling scales and single-item music-liking questions. In addition, participants also completed the scales of religious attitude and faith development. Demographic variables included gender, age, income, residency type, and frequency of listening to music. Factor analyses determined 5 music types from 10 musical genres, including Western sophisticated (jazz and classical), Western energetic (rock and metal), Western pop, traditional (Turkish folk, Turkish classical, religious music), and melancholic-rebellious (arabesk and rap). It was found that religious attitude correlated positively with traditional music and negatively with some of the Western music, including rock-metal and jazz. It revealed no correlation with Western classical music. In contrast, faith development correlated positively with Western classical, jazz, and rock-metal music but negatively with religious music, Turkish folk, and arabesk music. It was found that religiosity had an effect on music preference. In terms of demographic variables, women tended to prefer pop and rock-metal more than men, and men tended to prefer Turkish folk, arabesk, and rap more than women. More sophisticated musical genres were favoured more by somewhat older participants. In addition, whereas Western classical, Turkish classical, and jazz music tended to be preferred by participants from urban areas, arabesk and rap music tended to be liked more by participants from rural areas.

Musical preferences of Brazilian high school students

“…Why do people prefer one music style to another? This question has guided a number of recent studies [18][19][20] in which authors contended that certain elements can foster peoples' inclination towards a determined musical style. For example, Jungaberle, Verres, and DuBois [21] argued that there is a generalized preference for music played at a comfortable volume level, in moderate time, and with a balance between simplicity and complexity.…”

“…For example, Jungaberle, Verres, and DuBois [ 21 ] argued that there is a generalized preference for music played at a comfortable volume level, in moderate time, and with a balance between simplicity and complexity. Other authors contended that music preferences are usually associated with: (a) familiarity with and repetitive hearing of music [ 22 ]; (b) social and cultural influences [ 23 , 24 ]; (c) personality [ 9 , 25 , 26 ]; (d) music’s function and uses [ 27 – 29 ]; (e) the listener’s social class [ 5 , 30 ]; and (f) the listener’s religious beliefs [ 19 , 31 , 32 ].…”

“…Studies on music preference have also considered gender as an analytical dimension [ 18 , 35 ], but have not shown conclusive results of gender associated with music preferences. Nevertheless, there is some evidence which indicates that women have a preference for “softer” musical styles such as pop, whereas men prefer “heavier” styles such as rock [ 19 ]. Accordingly, Soares-Quadros Jr, Lorenzo-Quiles, Herrera, and Santos [ 36 ] conducted a study in Brazil with adolescents in which male participants showed greater preference towards “exciting music” (hip-hop and rap).…”

Gender and religion as factors of individual differences in musical preference

“…Until the end of the 18th century, the most prestigious classical music composers were responsible for the creation and presentation of music within churches, thereby generating musical productions that had a great impact on religious ideas and precepts (Burkholder, Grout, & Palisca, 2014). Ok and Erdal (2015) emphasized that religions use their normative and guiding characteristics of behavioural conduct to legitimize or prohibit listening to certain types of music. This relationship was also demonstrated by Soares-Quadros Jr. and Lorenzo (2013), who identified low listening levels for styles such as heavy metal, hardcore, punk and reggae in places where people listened to considerable amounts of gospel music, a musical style preferred among Protestant church members in Brazil (Neder et al, 2016).…”

Music as a trigger of religious experience: What role does culture play?

“…However, the underlying processes and conditions under which music triggers strong emotions and religious experience remain unclear. For example, whether the music must be religious music, and whether it must belong to the cultural-religious background of the listener in order to trigger religious experience, has hitherto not been explained empirically (Belzen, 2013; Ok & Erdal, 2015).…”