Students musical preferences for classical music, 20th century music, and world music - the open-earedness hypothesis

Abstract

The paper explores students’ preferences for classical music, 20th century music, and world music, as well as the influence of student age, gender, and previous familiarity with the piece of music on the preferences for 20th century music and world music. As a part of the research, a general data ques[1]tionnaire and an assessment scale for testing preferences for musical fragments were administered to the sample of 183 students in fourth and eighth grades of primary school and senior students attending grammar school. Students gener[1]ally show greatest preferences for world music. The influence of age on the pref[1]erences for 20th century music and world music has been confirmed. Female students, compared to male students, show greater preferences for 20th century music, while in the case of world music, no statistically significant differences were observed with respect to gender. It has been confirmed that students show greater preferences for familiar music, compared to unfamiliar music. The fact that younger students are more open to different musical styles can have significant implications for designing musical activities for children of preschool and early school age