Music listening preferences of Macau students

Abstract

This is a pioneer study of Macau's music education focusing on music listening preference. Adopting models from Western cultures, the study, launched in 2006, aimed to explore the factors of age and gender in regard to music preference. The subjects ranged from fourth-graders to university students (N=2495) (15 missing). Participants rated their degree of preference on a five-point Likert scale after listening to each of the 20 music excerpts representing five selected genres including: Western Pop/Rock, Western Classical, non-Western, traditional Chinese and Cantopop (Hong Kong pop music sung in Cantonese). Results indicated that the most preferred genre was Cantopop, followed by Western Pop/Rock, Western Classical, non-Western and the most disliked was traditional Chinese music. Age was a significant factor for all genres in Macau students’ listening preference and genre differences, though small, were found in three genres, namely, Cantopop, non-Western and traditional Chinese music. Overall, male students expressed more interest in music listening than female counterparts.