Musical Fit Research Articles

The Arts in Health and Social Care — Is Music Therapy Fit for Purpose?

This article considers the place of the arts therapies within contemporary health and social care provision, from the perspective of a music therapist employed as a senior manager in an end-of-life healthcare institution. Using St. Christopher's Hospice, London, as a case study, the work of a large group of artists, made up of arts therapists, community artists and arts teachers, is profiled, with a particular focus on how they work together, how their work conflicts and overlaps, and the challenges and complexities that service users, members of a multi-professional team, managers and funders all face in understanding what each of the artists has to offer. The question “Is music therapy fit for purpose?” is directed at both the training institutions who educate arts therapies students and the professional bodies who support them and define their work. Their responsibility to understand and articulate the changing environment within which their students and members are expected to practise is placed central to the argument. It is suggested that if music therapy and other arts therapies are to be considered fit for purpose and thus survive the challenges currently facing the health and social care sectors, they may need to reconsider the content of what they teach and revisit their definitions of what arts therapists do.

The Effects of Background Music on Consumer Responses in a High-end Supermarket

This study examines the effects of in-store background music valence (liking) and music fit with the overall store image on consumer evaluative and behavioural responses in the context of a high-end supermarket chain. Based on the previous body of work, a conceptual model is developed to examine music valence on customer appraisal of store offering and personnel, and on the length of shopping time and the value of purchase. The influence of the perceived music fit with the overall store image on shopping time is also assessed in the model. The hypothesized relationships are examined via covariance analysis using store-intercept consumer data. Implications of the structural analyses results for management of retail store brands and for future research on music as an element of store atmospherics are discussed.

Musical influences in advertising: how music modifies first impressions of product endorsers and brands

The ability of music to create differentiating effects on subjects’ impressions of product endorsers and brands of an advertisement were examined based on the theory of ‘musical fit’. Subjects ( N = 132) listened to one of three versions of a radio commercial in which the music varied in each version. The music selections differed in style, tempo, rhythm, etc., but matched product and message of the commercial in terms of ‘musical fit’. After listening to the commercial, subjects rated the endorser's personality via the external version of a personality inventory. Impressions of the brand were measured using semantic differentials. The results concur with previous findings: depending on musical style, music can lead to significantly different impressions of the endorser as well as the brand without affecting general evaluations of the product. Based on sex, interesting differences concerning music perception and its impacts were found. Self-critical annotations and suggestions for practitioners and future studies are discussed.

Supremely American: Popular Song in the 20th Century: Styles and Singers and What They Said About America (review)

Supremely American: Popular Song in the 20th Century: Styles and Singers and What They Said About America. By Nicholas Tawa. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005. [xvi, 352 p. ISBN 0-8108-5295-0. $40.00.] Selected bibliography, index. Nicholas Tawa, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, is the author of numerous volumes on the history of music in America. His most recent book, Supremely American: Popular Song in the 20th Century: Styles and Singers and What They Said About America, is a study of popular music and how it has been influenced by changes in American life and culture. Tawa examines the way popular music fits within the context of twentieth-century society, why musical styles changed, and what the new styles that emerged suggested. Songs of the jazz age and swing era are considered in terms of their relationship to the time, while post-World War II are classified more by styles and the audiences the variations in styles created. The book is written for the general reader with little or no formal training in music. As the author states: have not concentrated on a technical analysis and explanation of songs (p. ix). The arrangement of the first three chapters of the book seemed to flow more fluidly than later chapters, as Tawa's survey of popular song is organized chronologically. Beginning around chapter 4, the emphasis is on popular music after World War II, with the chronological arrangement being replaced by classification of styles and the audiences the variations in styles created. Perhaps there are just too many overlapping musical styles that flourished after World War II, but I found that I had to reread passages in some places to remember where I was and to what the author was referring. As the title suggests, the book examines many types of song that were popular throughout the twentieth century. Preliminary consideration is given to the close of the nineteenth century, and Tawa continues his survey with the jazz and swing eras. He explores the torch song, novelty and dance songs, and both light and serious love songs. There is early emphasis on the art of the crooner, and in the variety of singing styles that arose in the early to mid-1900s. As America changed, popular music changed with it. Prohibition, war, crisis, and controversy led people to seek out entertainment like never before (p. 31). The types of entertainment sought by the American public varied according to ethnicity and economic status. Brought to the fore are influences from African American musical styles such as soul, funk, the Motown sound, reggae, hip hop, and rap. Influences derived from British traditional music are discussed as precursors to the more political folk music that gained popularity in the United States after the Vietnam War, with singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Joan Baez. …

Stellar acoustics as input for music composition

Background in acoustics Variable stars show light variations due to internal acoustic waves. There are strong physical mathematical parallels between stellar behaviour and musical instruments: the basic principles underlying their “overtone” frequencies are identical. However, “stellar instruments” have many characteristics that make their sounds different from ordinary musical instruments. Background in theory/composition Many composers have incorporated inharmonic spectra into their music. Computer technology now enables us to control inharmonic sound processes and deal with associated theoretical implications. Drawing stellar acoustics into the orbit of music fits in well with this trend in compositional practice. Aims Our main aim is to demonstrate that sounds designed according to the principles of stellar physics and the nature of the processes inside stars can be used as a new basis for music composition, theoretical reasoning, and aesthetic evaluation. Main contribution Both cosmic and musical events are determined by the temporal and hierarchical order of events, states and processes. Acoustic models of variable stars predict unusual patterns of “overtones” and variations in these patterns as the stars evolve. Due to the enormous size of stars, their oscillatory frequencies are orders of magnitudes lower than the audible range; therefore we should transpose those oscillations to the range of human hearing. However, the frequency range of possible stellar oscillations is much wider than the musical range, indicating a need for nesting points. These questions provide an interesting starting point for a cosmically inspired music theory. We developed a C-sound based computer application, to make the compositional experiments manageable. Implications In our research, we combine scientific and artistic approaches and ways of thinking. Astrophysicists can investigate the special modes of vibration in stars of diverse size and inner structure, present possible sound sets that “celestial instruments” might offer, and provide information on their acoustic spectra. Composers can then scrutinize the audible features of these sonances, their behavior in diverse musical contexts, their aptness for creating tonal tensions, and their suitability for creating expressive musical structures. These points are illustrated with reference to the authors’ Stellar Music No. 1.

The Effects of Musical and Voice “Fit” on Responses to Advertisements1

Research on musical “fit” suggests that listeners might recall more of a radio advertisement if it features musical/voice content that corresponds with features of the advertised brand. This is because the music/voice should prime certain aspects of listeners' knowledge. Two studies were carried out to test this, each involving 5 specially prepared radio ads. The first indicated that musical fit enhanced recall of the products advertised, the brands advertised, and specific claims made during the course of the ad copy; and also participants' ratings of liking for the ad and likelihood of purchasing the advertised product. A second similar study considered voice fit and found that this could also promote recall of specific product claims and lead to higher ratings of liking for the ad and likelihood of purchasing the advertised product. These results confirm that both musical and voice fit can prime certain aspects of listeners' knowledge and also increase liking for ads, such that it might improve knowledge‐based and affective responses to advertising. The theoretical implications of this are discussed in terms of the concept of involvement and what precisely is meant by musical/voice fit.

Kid stuff: marketing sex and violence to America's children

Contents: List of Contributors Acknowledgments1...Toxic Lessons: Children and Popular Culture Diane Ravitch and Joseph P. Viteritti2... Teaching amid the Torrent of Popular Culture Todd Gitlin3... Socializing Children in a Culture of Obscenity Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn4... The Problem of Exposure: Violence, Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol Stacy L. Sith and Ed Donnerstein5... Equipment for Living: How Popular Music Fits in the Lives of Youth Peter G. Christenson6... Music at the Edge: The Attraction and Effects of Controversial Music on Young People Jeffrey Jensen Arnett7... Video Games and Aggressive Behavior Craig A. Anderson8... Violent Video Games: Who's at Risk? Jeanne B. Funk9... The Effects of Cutting Back on Media Exposure Thomas N. Robinson10... The Contradictions of Parenting in a Media Age Kay S. Hymowitz11... The Role of Government in a Free Society Newton Minow and Nell Minow Index

Environmental background music and in-store selling

Retailers use background music in order to enhance the atmosphere of their stores. The present study shows, as predicted by the proposed model, that the effects of music on attitudes toward the store, the salesperson, and the visit to the store are moderated by cognitive processes (number of thoughts and depth of information processing), whereas previous studies focused on emotional moderators. Soothing music (i.e., both pleasant and low arousing) is shown, as predicted, to increase cognitive activity when other cognitive stimulation is low (mainly when sales arguments are weak). However, retailers are warned that enhancing cognitive activity is no panacea since it is found here that higher cognitive activity is associated with lower attitudes. It is proposed that music fit with the store may explain such results. Music fit and cognitive processed triggered by store music are strongly suggested as avenues of store atmospherics research.

Singing SHEAR History: A Commentary and Music Sampler

In 1965, Samuel Eliot Morison ended thirty-six of the sixty-two chapters in his Oxford History of the American People with a song extract or other music he found emblematic of the period discussed.' Each of his musical examples is in the broad sense of referring to specific events, issues, or attitudes of the past. Some of Morison's examples are also in the further sense that they can be documented-words and music-from contemporary sources in the same way that historians document any other bit of new information. Ten of Morison's musical extracts fall within the SHEAR period of concern, but these are only a sampling of the many topical song texts scattered through American newspapers, songsters, songbooks, broadsides, manuscripts, and occasionally even sheet music of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. (A songster is a pocketsize book of song texts. songbook may or may not be the same size, but it provides music for its texts.) Although topical song texts printed with their music are rare in most historical periods, a search through printed music and music manuscripts of the fifty years preceding their appearance will often turn up from one quarter to one half of the for texts that have only an indicated tune. Music of the last two-hundred years poses a few problems for music readers today-natural signs may be missing or syllables may not be under the right notes. An is one that has a contemporary, documentable connection to a specific historical song text. In a few cases such an association may be complete, with words and music found together in the eighteenth or nineteenth century (figures 1, 2, 5, and 6 following). More often there is only an indicated (figures 3 and 4 following). Sometimes a text title and some of the lines or the pattern of versification provide useful clues. All too frequently there is no musical clue of any kind, though it may be easy to find unrelated music that fits the words. Whatever the evidence for an tune, it must be tested by reuniting the text and tune for singing. Only if documented words and music fit together easily, without manipulation, can we be confident that we have matched a topical text with its associated tune (people made mistakes even in the old days). Even if the words and music fit together easily we must bear in mind that a historical song text may have had more than one in early America.3 Associated tunes are a vital part of the history of any song. Many song texts that seem clumsy in print or manuscript sound fine when sympathetically sung to their associated music (We shall Overcome is a pertinent recent example). Sometimes the choice of a tune has significance. For example, A Life on the Vicksburgh Bluff is both a Confederate topical song and a satirical parody of Henry Russel's sentimental, romantic, and very successful A Life on the Ocean Wave published in 1838. Furthermore, the overnight popularity of Tip and Ty (or Tippecanoe and Tyler Too) is more easily understood on hearing it as a song with its excellent bouncy tune and its built-in sing-along refrains. Tip and Ty is a very easy tune to learn by ear or from notation. And the music is a perfect match for Tip and Ty's satirical, expandable text that permitted, nay urged, singers to add their own lines.5 Tip and Ty may be nearly unique for its reputation among American political songs. (Only Ma, Where is My Pa? from the Cleveland-Blaine campaign of 1884 seems as often remembered by historians.) In fact, Tip and Ty might also be usefully considered the first American top-hit song-more akin to such twentieth-century novelty hits as Music Goes Round and Round, or Three Little Fishes (essentially nonsense songs for grown-ups)than to the general run of political songs, which are often dismal. The enormous popularity of Tip and Ty raises the question whether Van Buren's supporters were discomfitted by hearing Tip and Ty and did any of them write of such misgivings? …

Literacy and Numeracy - How Does Music Fit into the Equation?

Certainly in the past, and arguably continuing into the present, music education in schools has been and is often perceived as the exclusive domain of the so-called ‘talented and able’ with a distinct bias towards middle class West-centric society. Yet we are constantly reminded that education ought to address issues of inclusivity, access and equity for students, no matter what their background or history (Smith, 1995). In fact effective music education experiences often provide another means of access to learning areas such as language or maths for children excluded by their apparent lack of literacy or numeracy skills (Campbell, 2000).

La musique des marges. L'iconographie des animaux et des êtres hybrides musiciens dans les manuscrits enluminés du XIIe au XIVe siècle

In the margins of the illuminated manuscripts of the XIIIth and XlVth centuries, a loads of animals hybrids are playing differents music instruments. Regarded as ministri satanae from the moralists, musicians partake of the new forms of Mendiants predication. There music fits in the limits of and monstrosity, silent and cacophony, life and death. Combining humor and sacrilège, their contributes to integrate the human imperfection in a scholastic vision of the divine Cosmos.

Theoretical Considerations in the Bibliographic Control of Music Materials in Libraries

Bibliographic control does not differ in substance from one type of material to another. Therefore it is not possible to separate the bibliographic control of music materials entirely from the larger domain of bibliographic control activity. The literature of music librarianship is examined for relevant theoretical explanations. Specific problems of description and access are used to show that, in general, the requirements for bibliographic control of music fit neatly into the theoretical structure for all bibliographic control. The primary purpose of descriptive cataloging of musical objects is to identify and differentiate among objects in a library collection. Where the concept of responsibility is relevant, access is provided through the names of composers or performers. Systematic access is provided through co-equal facets: medium, manifestation, and form.

Music cannot be locked in a closet

How does music fit into the American open classroom? Obviously, it cannot be confined to a music room in the school, although a special music room should supplement classroom music areas. It cannot be simply a scheduled activity with the music specialist, although certain types of experiences must be scheduled. It cannot be based on a set of objectives for an entire class, although objectives are vastly important. In short, the music specialist faces a challenge in the open classroom, but a very promising and involving challenge. The potential for the music program is described in the following article by Keith Thompson, who is on the faculty of the School of Music at The Ohio' State University, Columbus.—Ed.

Expressionism and American Music

T HE TEN D E N C Y for each generation in America to wipe away the memory of the previous one, and the general neglect of our own recent past, which we treat as a curiosity useful for young scholars in exercising their research techniques-so characteristic of American treatment of the work of its important artists-is partly responsible for the general neglect of the rather sizable number of composers who in their day were called ultramodern, and who wrote in this country during the early decades of our century. And it is also part of this unfortunate pattern that interest in these composers is being awakened now because their music fits into a new frame of reference imported from Europe since the war, thus confirming the disturbing fact that the world of serious music here is still thought of as an outpost of that European world which Americans have so often found more attractive than the

The editor on tour in America

Where then did African music fit into this picture? How could it make sense in this far country, except in the light of the current anti-colonialism, anti-segregation and anti-communism? Here was one of my problems in lecturing on this subject at the kind invitation of over twenty American universities which had been placed on the schedule of appointments by the State Department agency, the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils. At each of the major Universities which had an African studies section there was little need for long explanations. Both the Faculty and students connected with this division had already a sound grounding in the physical and political realities of Africa and several of my general observations do not apply to these alert groups of well informed men and women. My task, as I understood it, was to suggest a new approach to the study of African people and personality in the present day, through the recording of their indigenous aural arts, and the careful study of the data obtained in this way.