Effect of strength of rhythmic beat on preferences of young music listeners in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Portugal, and the United States

Albert LeBlanc, C. Victor Fung, Graça M. Boal-Palheiros, Allison J. Burt-Rider, Yoko Ogawa, Alda De Jesus Oliviera, Lelouda Stamou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In a series of two experiments we tested music listening preference opinions of 1093 participants in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Portugal and the United States using a listening test composed of jazz, popular, and art music excerpts that represented stronger or weaker presentations of rhythmic beat. Listener ages ranged from 9 to 13 years, and sex was fairly evenly distributed in each country. Effect of beat strength was a highly significant influence on music listening preference, with music that had a stronger rhythmic beat receiving consistently higher preference ratings. There were significant interactions between beat strength and country, beat strength and sex, and country and sex. Among the main effects, beat strength accounted for 34% and country accounted for 2% of preference variation in this study. Interactions of beat strength and country, beat strength and sex, and country and sex accounted for 12%, 9%, and 2% of preference variation respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)36-41
Number of pages6
JournalBulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education
Issue number153-154
Publication statusPublished - 2002

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Effect of strength of rhythmic beat on preferences of young music listeners in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Portugal, and the United States'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this