Enjoyment Of Music Research Articles

Novas articulações no mercado de música digital a partir da cultura do streaming

A circulação da música digital nas plataformas de streaming é considerada a principal
 forma de fruição musical na atualidade pela fácil usabilidade e acesso por meio da internet
 em dispositivos móveis. Constituído a partir das transformações causadas pela
 digitalização de processos tecnológicos, o streaming tem modificado o mercado musical
 trazendo novas relações entre gravadoras, plataformas digitais, artistas e consumidores.
 Neste artigo serão analisadas duas delas: a atuação do Spotify como uma gravadora e a
 inserção das empresas agregadoras como mediadoras de artistas e dos serviços de
 streaming, com o objetivo de apresentar novas possibilidades da produção de música no
 meio digital.

Interactive Evaluation of a Music Preprocessing Scheme for Cochlear Implants Based on Spectral Complexity Reduction.

Music is difficult to access for the majority of CI users as the reduced dynamic range and poor spectral resolution in cochlear implants (CI), amongst others constraints, severely impair their auditory perception. The reduction of spectral complexity is therefore a promising means to facilitate music enjoyment for CI listeners. We evaluate a spectral complexity reduction method for music signals based on principal component analysis that enforces spectral sparsity, emphasizes the melody contour and attenuates interfering accompanying voices. To cover a wide range of spectral complexity reduction levels a new experimental design for listening experiments was introduced. It allows CI users to select the preferred level of spectral complexity reduction interactively and in real-time. Ten adult CI recipients with post-lingual bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss and CI experience of at least 6 months were enrolled in the study. In eight consecutive sessions over a period of 4 weeks they were asked to choose their preferred version out of 10 different complexity settings for a total number of 16 recordings of classical western chamber music. As the experiments were performed in consecutive sessions we also studied a potential long term effect. Therefore, we investigated the hypothesis that repeated engagement with music signals of reduced spectral complexity leads to a habituation effect which allows CI users to deal with music signals of increasing complexity. Questionnaires and tests about music listening habits and musical abilities complemented these experiments. The participants significantly preferred signals with high spectral complexity reduction levels over the unprocessed versions. While the results of earlier studies comprising only two preselected complexity levels were generally confirmed, this study revealed a tendency toward a selection of even higher spectral complexity reduction levels. Therefore, spectral complexity reduction for music signals is a useful strategy to enhance music enjoyment for CI users. Although there is evidence for a habituation effect in some subjects, such an effect has not been significant in general.

The Role of Music in Families of Children With Hearing Loss and Normal Hearing in Australia, Finland, and the UK.

The primary aim of this current study was to compare the role, importance and value placed on music by families with normally hearing (NH) children, to those who had a child with a hearing loss (HL) who wore either hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. A secondary aim was to see whether this differed between the countries. Parents of children aged 2–6 years living in Australia, Finland, and the United Kingdom were invited to complete the Role of Music in Families Questionnaire (RMFQ). Two groups of participants were recruited from each country: (i) parents of NH children, and (ii) parents of children with a HL. The RMFQ had seven subsections covering topics such as music participation, attitudes to music, importance of music in the family, and future perspectives on music. Three hundred and twenty-two families of NH children, and 56 families of children with HL completed the questionnaire (Australia: 50 NH, 25 HL; Finland: 242 NH, 21 HL; United Kingdom: 30 NH, 10 HL). Analyses compared between NH and HL groups within each country, and between the three countries for the NH group, and the HL group, independently. Overall, there were few significant differences between the participation levels, role, or importance of music in families with NH children compared to those with a child who had a HL, regardless of whether the families lived in Australia, Finland or the United Kingdom. Children first started to respond to music at similar ages, and overall music participation frequency, and music enjoyment were relatively similar. The importance of music in the family was also similar between the NH and HL groups. In comparing between the countries, Finnish children had a tendency to have higher participation rates in musical activities, with few other differences noted. Overall, the results of this study indicate that children, regardless of hearing levels or country of residence, have similar levels of music engagement and enjoyment, and HL is not seen as a contraindication to music participation and involvement by the parents involved in this study.

Century of the Angklung Journey and Its Establishment in Thailand

Both Thai and Javanese have been with lifelong cultural friendship for over 250 years. Thai people enjoyed the Panji storytelling since the late 1700’s andhave been using Panji as written Thai poetic literature and for court theatre over2 centuries. We shared the same brass knobbed gong culture with its pentatonic(Slendro) and septatonic (Pelog) equidistance scales. The angklung, bambooshaking instrument, were brought as a gift to royal children by HM King Rama the V to Siam since 1871 but the ensemble were not set up until our great court musician named Jangwang Sorn Silapa-banleng, took the instruments from Sunda West Java to Bangkok in 1908, later, he established the very first ThaiAngklung Ensemble played several songs he composed in pentatonic scalesame way he heard in the Javanese Islands. Since then, the bamboo angklungwere made with the Thai native bamboo followed by the nationwide uses. Thispaper describes the Angklung Journey from West Java to Thailand showing thehistoric photographs of Thai Angklung music teachers, their houses ofAngklungs and the music they composed. Today, Thai Angklung were used forchildren classroom music. DVD and Musical Disc of Thai Angklung will bedemonstrated, bringing both music knowledge and enjoyment to show thecross cultural examples of the two nations.

Low detail future variety: Providing affective relief during repetitive music consumption

AbstractConsumers have access to vast libraries of online music, which they often choose to consume repetitively. Given that enjoyment often declines with recurrent consumption (satiation), music streaming services face a unique challenge; providing customers access to the content that they want, without devaluing their experience when customers repetitively consume the available content. The present research demonstrates that providing consumers with a low detail description (e.g., providing a customer a general idea of the genre of music that will be played, but not the exact artist and song) of future variety can extend their present music enjoyment during repetitive consumption episodes. Mediation results indicate that low detail future variety slows satiation by reducing the amount of negative affect consumers experience in the present, which functions to extend their music enjoyment. Moderation results indicate the main effect of low detail descriptions future variety on consumers’ satiation response is magnified for consumers high in emotional intelligence, providing additional evidence of the proposed affective process mechanism and identifying an important individual difference as a boundary condition.

Aesthetic empowerment through music

This article describes how aesthetic enjoyment accompanying musical activities can empower individuals in health and disease. First, we explain the biological determinants of music enjoyment and how they can be studied. In doing so, we distinguish between core sensory pleasure and conscious liking, and we illustrate their respective contributions to aesthetic appreciation and expressive interaction with music. Second, we review findings illustrating the long-term impact of listening to favourite music on the brains of healthy musicians as well as on the brains and behaviour of individuals with pathological symptoms. Based on these findings, we propose a set of putative neural mechanisms underlying aesthetic empowerment through music. We also emphasize the importance of considering individual differences in sensitivity to aesthetic experiences of music, as evidenced, for instance, by neuroimaging and imaging genetics studies, drawing the connections between dopamine neurotransmission and dopaminergic genes with the reactivity of music–brain functions.

Music discovery and revisiting behaviors of individuals with different preference characteristics: An experience sampling approach

A mobile device‐enabled experience sampling study was conducted in which 44 participants answered questions about their music experiences 5 times a day for 2 weeks. Data regarding 4 aspects of their music‐related psychological traits—“music involvement,” “musical identity,” “preference diversity,” and “preference openness”—were also collected through a background questionnaire. A classification of music access modes was proposed based on the circumstances that lead to a music listening experience. A mixed regression analysis revealed several significant interaction effects between psychological traits and the mode of music access on music enjoyment. Foremost among these was a positive interaction effect between preference openness and the playing of a known track triggered by musical cues, and that between preference diversity and exposure to new music played by others. Individuals with a strong musical identity tended to enjoy music played of their own volition without any apparent triggers. Furthermore, a multimodal logistic regression analysis also revealed the relationships between these psychological traits and the likelihood of different music access modes. Preference diversity significantly increased the likelihood of music listening triggered by need arousal. The results support the proposition that users' music‐related psychological traits should be considered in personalized recommendation strategies.

Music Appreciation of Adult Hearing Aid Users and the Impact of Different Levels of Hearing Loss

The main aim of this study was to collect information on music listening and music appreciation from postlingually deafened adults who use hearing aids (HAs). It also sought to investigate whether there were any differences in music ratings from HA users with different levels of hearing loss (HL; mild, versus moderate to moderately-severe, versus severe or worse. An existing published questionnaire developed for cochlear implant recipients was modified for this study. It had 51 questions divided into seven sections: (1) music listening and music background; (2) sound quality; (3) musical styles; (4) music preferences; (5) music recognition; (6) factors affecting music listening enjoyment; and (7) music training program. The questionnaire was posted out to adult HA users, who were subsequently divided into three groups: (i) HA users with a mild HL (Mild group); (ii) HA users with a moderate to moderately-severe HL (Moderate group); and (iii) HA users with a severe or worse (Severe group) HL. One hundred eleven questionnaires were completed; of these, 51 participants had a mild HL, 42 had a moderate to moderately-severe loss, and 18 a severe or worse loss. Overall, there were some significant differences noted, predominantly between the Mild and Severe groups, with fewer differences between the Mild and Moderate groups. The respondents with the greater levels of HL reported a greater reduction in their music enjoyment as a result of their HL and that HAs made music sound significantly less melodic for them. It was also observed that the Severe group's mean scores for both the pleasant rating as well as the combined rating for the six different musical styles were lower than both the Mild and Moderate groups' ratings for every style, with just one exception (pop/rock pleasantness rating). There were significant differences between the three groups for the styles of music that were reported to sound the best with HA(s), as well as differences between the ratings on more specific timbre rating scales used to rate different elements of each style. In rating the pleasantness and naturalness of different musical instruments or instrumental groups, there was no difference between the groups. There were also significant differences between the Mild and Severe groups in relation to musical preferences for the pitch range of music, with the Severe group significantly preferring male singers and lower pitched instruments. The overall results indicated little difference in music appreciation between those with a mild versus moderate loss. However, poorer appreciation scores were given by those with a severe or worse HL. This would suggest that HAs or HL have a negative impact on music listening, particularly when the HL becomes more significant. There was a large degree of variability in ratings, though, with music listening being satisfactory for some listeners and largely unsatisfactory for others, in all three groups. Music listening preferences also varied significantly, and the reported benefit (or otherwise) provided by the HA for music was also mixed. The overriding variability in listening preferences and ratings leads to the question as to the benefit and effectiveness of generic, manufacturer-derived music programs on HAs. Despite the heterogeneity in the listening habits, preferences, and ratings, it is clear that music appreciation and enjoyment is still challenging for many HA users and that level of HL is one, but not the only factor that impacts on music appreciation.

Making Music More Accessible for Cochlear Implant Listeners: Recent Developments

Cochlear implants (CIs) have become remarkably successful in restoring the hearing abilities of profoundly hearing-impaired or deaf people. Although in most cases the understanding of continuously spoken speech reaches around 90% after a training and adaptation time of two years, key musical features like pitch and timbre are poorly transmitted by CIs, leading to a severely distorted perception of music. Because music is a ubiquitous means of sociocultural interaction, this handicap significantly degrades the quality of life of CI users. Therefore, in this article, we present recent developments that enable CI users to access music. After a brief review of the state of the art of CIs, we point out the problems of inaccurate pitch and timbre transmission as well as its implications for music perception with CIs. The main part of this article encompasses different emerging strategies for improving CI users' music enjoyment, such as customized music compositions, music preprocessing methods for the reduction of signal complexity, and improved sound coding strategies, and we describe subjective and objective instrumental evaluation procedures.

Italian opera in Stalin’s Soviet Union

This article explores the role of Italian opera in Soviet musical life from the end of World War II through the beginning of the Cold War. Italian opera provided inspiration for Soviet musical careers, exemplars against which Soviet musical development was measured, and simple musical enjoyment for Soviet audiences. The article analyzes two archival source bases that shed light on these dynamics. One source is box office data from the opera and ballet theaters in Moscow, Leningrad, and the Soviet Union's national republics. Analysis of this data demonstrates that operas by Italian composers provided a solid backbone of consistency in opera programming against which the tumultuous pursuit of a distinctively Soviet, multinational opera played out. Some especially famous operas were also so popular that they kept audiences coming to the theaters. The other archival source is bureaucratic correspondence regarding an effort to recruit Italian opera pedagogues to visit the USSR’s conservatories. Analysis of the correspondence uncovers Soviet bureaucrats’ insecurity about cultural development just as Soviet influence was expanding into Eastern Europe. It also reveals Soviet perceptions of Italian musical elites facing the complexities of the Cold War division of Europe. The article contributes to our understanding of the connection between performances of Italian opera and the construction of a Soviet musical culture that placed a very high value on opera as an advanced form of musical expression. It reveals that even during a period often considered the most insular in Soviet history, Soviet musicians and cultural administrators were engaging with their counterparts in the West. Finally, it demonstrates that the distinction between “international” and “transnational” cultural exchange that is often key to the way scholars of globalization analyze interactions that cross national borders is not as important in a Soviet context in which society was essentially embedded in the state bureaucracy.

Commentary: A Neurodynamic Perspective on Musical Enjoyment: The Role of Emotional Granularity.

Commentary: A Neurodynamic Perspective on Musical Enjoyment: The Role of Emotional Granularity.

Music Appreciation after Cochlear Implantation in Adult Patients: A Systematic Review.

Objective The cochlear implant (CI) improves quality of life for people who are severely and profoundly deafened, allowing implantees to perceive speech at levels similar to those of individuals with normal hearing. However, patients with CIs generally report a reduced appreciation of music after implantation. We aimed to systematically review the English-language literature for studies evaluating music enjoyment and perception among adult patients with CIs. Data Sources A systematic review of PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. Review Methods The PRISMA statement was utilized to identify English-language studies reporting music appreciation among adults with CIs. Two independent reviewers performed searches through May 2017. Included studies investigated parameters related to music enjoyment and music perception, including (1) pitch and timbre perception, (2) noise-canceling algorithms, and (3) the presence of dissonant chords, lyrics, or visual cues. Results A total of 508 articles were screened for relevance. Forty-one full-text articles were evaluated, and 18 met final inclusion criteria. Studies used heterogeneous methods of outcome measurement for identifying music appreciation. The outcome measures suggest that rhythm and lyrics are important components of enjoyment. Patients with CIs had difficulty with pitch and timbre perception. Conclusion The heterogeneous outcome measures identified in this systematic review suggest that rhythm and lyrics are important components of enjoyment, while patients with CIs had difficulty with pitch and timbre perception. Because there is no standardized reporting metric for music appreciation among adult patients with CIs, a standardized validated outcome-measuring tool is warranted.

A Neurodynamic Perspective on Musical Enjoyment: The Role of Emotional Granularity.

This article explores how an emerging family of neurodynamic theories of brain function could be extended to offer a new perspective on musical enjoyment that highlights the role of emotional granularity in musical experience and invites new paths of empirical research. Music perception is an active area of neurodynamic research but few studies of musical enjoyment are based on a neurodynamic approach; meanwhile few if any scientific discussions of musical enjoyment take emotional granularity into account. Here we focus on the paradoxical phenomenon of enjoyable sadness in music in order to develop the explanatory prospects of a neurodynamic approach that incorporates emotional granularity. Studies have indicated that higher emotional granularity can have a meliorating effect on the experience of negative emotion, and we propose that high emotional granularity is what accounts for the enjoyment of sadness in music. Furthermore, we suggest a broad distinction between pleasure, defined as bursts of positively categorized feeling, and enjoyment, defined as sustained flows of highly differentiated feelings regardless of emotional categorization.

What Does Music Sound Like for a Cochlear Implant User?

Cochlear implant research and product development over the past 40 years have been heavily focused on speech comprehension with little emphasis on music listening and enjoyment. The relatively little understanding of how music sounds in a cochlear implant user stands in stark contrast to the overall degree of importance the public places on music and quality of life. The purpose of this article is to describe what music sounds like to cochlear implant users, using a combination of existing research studies and listener descriptions. We examined the published literature on music perception in cochlear implant users, particularly postlingual cochlear implant users, with an emphasis on the primary elements of music and recorded music. Additionally, we administered an informal survey to cochlear implant users to gather first-hand descriptions of music listening experience and satisfaction from the cochlear implant population. Limitations in cochlear implant technology lead to a music listening experience that is significantly distorted compared with that of normal hearing listeners. On the basis of many studies and sources, we describe how music is frequently perceived as out-of-tune, dissonant, indistinct, emotionless, and weak in bass frequencies, especially for postlingual cochlear implant users-which may in part explain why music enjoyment and participation levels are lower after implantation. Additionally, cochlear implant users report difficulty in specific musical contexts based on factors including but not limited to genre, presence of lyrics, timbres (woodwinds, brass, instrument families), and complexity of the perceived music. Future research and cochlear implant development should target these areas as parameters for improvement in cochlear implant-mediated music perception.

The Enjoyment Cycle: A Phenomenology of Musical Enjoyment of 4- to 7-Year-Olds During Musical Play

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe children’s lived experience of enjoyment during musical play. Data sources included class video from 15 weeks of a 24-week extracurricular music class for 4- to 7-year-olds taught by the researcher, parent-filmed video of child participant music-making in home settings during the same period, and transcripts of exit interviews with parents and children. Participants included 12 children and 4 adults, all of whom had contributed to prior studies on children’s music-making in family settings. Phenomenological data analysis followed Moustakas’s approach. Five elements emerged as hallmarks of children’s musical enjoyment and provided the textural description of “what” occurred during musical enjoyment, including active musical engagement, signs of physical engagement, a balance of familiarity and novelty, inclusion of activities allowing for student control or choice, and a safe and playful environment. Structurally, participants’ enjoyment occurred in four ways: within a balance of structure and freedom, within a balance of community and individual expression, as a cycle between children’s musical enjoyment and participation, and as a springboard to musical risk-taking and musical agency. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Self-Reported Usage, Functional Benefit, and Audiologic Characteristics of Cochlear Implant Patients Who Use a Contralateral Hearing Aid.

Ninety-four unilateral CI patients with bimodal listening experience (CI plus HA in contralateral ear) completed a questionnaire that focused on attitudes toward hearing aid use postimplantation, patterns of usage, and perceived bimodal benefits in daily life. Eighty participants continued HA use and 14 discontinued HA use at the time of the questionnaire. Participant responses provided useful information for counseling patients both before and after implantation. The majority of continuing bimodal (CI plus HA) participants reported adapting to using both devices within 3 months and also reported that they heard better bimodally in quiet, noisy, and reverberant conditions. They also perceived benefits including improved sound quality, better music enjoyment, and sometimes a perceived sense of acoustic balance. Those who discontinued HA use found either that using the HA did not provide additional benefit over the CI alone or that using the HA degraded the signal from the CI. Because there was considerable overlap in the audiograms and in speech recognition performance in the unimplanted ear between the two groups, we recommend that unilateral CI recipients are counseled to continue to use the HA in the contralateral ear postimplantation in order to determine whether or not they receive functional or perceived benefit from using both devices together.

Musical anhedonia after focal brain damage

People listen to music because it is pleasurable. However, there are individual differences in the reward value of music. At the extreme low end of this continuum, individuals who derive no pleasure from music are said to have ‘musical anhedonia.’ Cases of acquired musical anhedonia following focal brain damage are rare, with only a handful having been reported in the scientific literature. Here, we surveyed a large sample of patients with focal brain damage to identify the frequency, specificity, and neural correlates of acquired musical anhedonia. Participants completed the Musical anhedonia Questionnaire and the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (Mas-Herrero et al., 2013) to assess changes in musical enjoyment and reward following brain injury. Neuroanatomical data were analyzed with a proportional MAP-3 method to create voxelwise lesion proportion difference maps. No clear or consistent neuroanatomical correlates of musical anhedonia were identified. One patient with damage to the right-hemisphere putamen and internal capsule displayed specific and severe acquired musical anhedonia. These findings indicate that acquired musical anhedonia is very uncommon, a result which is consistent with the fact that only a small number of such cases have been reported in the literature. This rarity could have positive implications for the therapeutic potentialities of music in patients with severe neurological disorders.

Reduction of the Harmonic Series Influences Musical Enjoyment With Cochlear Implants.

Cochlear implantation is associated with poor music perception and enjoyment. Reducing music complexity has been shown to enhance music enjoyment in cochlear implant (CI) recipients. In this study, we assess the impact of harmonic series reduction on music enjoyment. Prospective analysis of music enjoyment in normal-hearing (NH) individuals and CI recipients. Single tertiary academic medical center. NH adults (N = 20) and CI users (N = 8) rated the Happy Birthday song on three validated enjoyment modalities-musicality, pleasantness, and naturalness. Subjective rating of music excerpts. Participants listened to seven different instruments play the melody, each with five levels of harmonic reduction (Full, F3+F2+F1+F0, F2+F1+F0, F1+F0, F0). NH participants listened to the segments both with and without CI simulation. Linear mixed effect models (LME) and likelihood ratio tests were used to assess the impact of harmonic reduction on enjoyment. NH listeners without simulation rated segments with the first four harmonics (F3+F2+F1+F0) most pleasant and natural (p <0.001, p = 0.004). NH listeners with simulation rated the first harmonic alone (F0) most pleasant and natural (p <0.001, p = 0.003). Their ratings demonstrated a positive linear relationship between harmonic reduction and both pleasantness (slope estimate = 0.030, SE = 0.004, p <0.001, LME) and naturalness (slope estimate = 0.012, SE = 0.003, p = 0.003, LME). CI recipients also found the first harmonic alone (F0) to be most pleasant (p = 0.003), with a positive linear relationship between harmonic reduction and pleasantness (slope estimate = 0.029, SE = 0.008, p <0.001, LME). Harmonic series reduction increases music enjoyment in CI and NH individuals with or without CI simulation. Therefore, minimization of the harmonics may be a useful strategy for enhancing musical enjoyment among both NH and CI listeners.

Emotional granularity and the musical enjoyment of sadness itself.

We contest the claim that musically induced sadness cannot be enjoyable in itself. This possibility is supported by closer attention to a musical experience as well as cases of affective reversal, such as the "hedonic flip" of painful feelings. We propose that the affective reversal of sadness in music is due to the high granularity of musically induced emotion.

The Role of Trait and State Absorption in the Enjoyment of Music.

Little is known about the role of state versus trait characteristics on our enjoyment of music. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of state and trait absorption upon preference for music, particularly preference for music that evokes negative emotions. The sample consisted of 128 participants who were asked to listen to two pieces of self-selected music and rate the music on variables including preference and felt and expressed emotions. Participants completed a brief measure of state absorption after listening to each piece, and a trait absorption inventory. State absorption was strongly positively correlated with music preference, whereas trait absorption was not. Trait absorption was related to preference for negative emotions in music, with chi-square analyses demonstrating greater enjoyment of negative emotions in music among individuals with high trait absorption. This is the first study to show that state and trait absorption have separable and distinct effects on a listener’s music experience, with state characteristics impacting music enjoyment in the moment, and trait characteristics influencing music preference based on its emotional content.