Relationship of Personal Characteristics to Mood and Enjoyment after Hearing Live and Recorded Music and to Musical Taste

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of mood, personality characteristics, musical taste, musical training, college major, gender, and age, plus hearing music live or recorded, on listeners' moods after hearing music and on their enjoyment of the music. It also looked at the influence of the above listener characteristics on musical taste. Subjects were 101 undergraduate students, and the Personality Research Form served as the personality measure. Students took the personality test, answered a question describing their moods, heard either a live or a recorded musical perform- ance, again described their moods, and answered other questions about themselves and their responses to the music. Mood follow- ing the music was found to be predicted by mood prior to the music, enjoyment of the music, the Change scale of the PRF, and negatively by the Understanding scale. An interaction between mood prior to the music and enjoyment of the music was also found to be significant in predicting mood following the music. Significant predictors of enjoyment following the music and of taste for each of the seven types of music were also found. Implications of the findings for those who need to understand how music affects people, and needs for further research, are discussed.