Effects of Chinese popular music familiarity on preference for traditional Chinese music: Research and applications

Abstract

Teaching and learning popular music and world musics are prominent topics in music education but often play a supplement role in the classroom. The main purpose of this quantitative experimental study was to investigate the effects of Chinese popular music on students’ familiarity and preference for its traditional version. Participants were undergraduate students from a university in the northeastern United States who completed a pre-test, minimum four weekly treatments and post-test. Results suggest participation in a world music course may contribute to preference for Chinese traditional music, but short-term exposure to popular versions of Chinese traditional music does not seem to contribute to preference for Chinese traditional music. A reason for this may be that popular music has its own cultures and characteristics that are not necessarily transferable to music from other music genres. In addition, the personality traits of open-mindedness or closed-mindedness showed significant influence over preference for traditional or popular music, respectively.