Stephanie G. Mathis Mobile devices now allow us to access millions of songs. We have more access to music than ever, and more is being created. SoundCloud has made it easy for anyone to create and share music. The lines between genres are becoming more blurred as we listen to a greater variety of music.
Labels of the genre are problematic for a number of reasons. They are umbrella terms used to describe music with a wide range of characteristics. There is no way to tell if someone says “”rock”” when they mean The Beatles, Bob Dylan, or Jimi Hendrix. All three have different styles. If someone says they like pop music, can you tell if it’sit’s Justin Bieber or Michael Jackson?
What is the first step? Ollyy/Shutterstock.com
Genre labels can also be socially motivated and have little to do with actual music characteristics. Record companies stamp these labels on artists and albums with the intention of targeting a particular type of audience.
Beyond genre
Genre labels are often inaccurate in describing artists and their music. They simply don’tdon’t do them justice. It would be more accurate to label music based on the actual musical characteristics of each artist. A labeling system like this would also better reflect the diversity of a person’s musical taste.
My team of music psychology experts recently addressed this issue by creating a scientific method to create a classification system for music based on its attributes, not social connotations. The team consisted of music researcher Brian Monteiro, a Cambridge expert on musical preferences, and Daniel Levitin, bestselling author and neuroscientist. This month, our research has been published.
More than 100 musical extracts from over 20 genres were rated according to 38 different musical attributes. Then, we used a statistical method to classify these musical attributes. We found that they clustered into three categories: “Arousal”, (the level of energy in the music), “Valence” (the range of emotions from sad to happy in the song), and “Depth” (the sophistication and emotional depth of the song). Each piece was mapped on these three categories using the statistical procedure. The music “blue” by Joni Mitchell, for example, is low in arousal because of its slow tempo and soft vocals. It’s also low in valence due to the sadness and nostalgia expressed. But it scores high on depth thanks to the complexity of emotion and sound expressed through the lyrics.
The songs are grouped according to their musical attributes. Tricia Seibold | Stanford Business | http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/can-your-personality-explain-your-itunes-playlist
Arousal, valence, depth
Will people begin wearing T-shirts with the words “I love Depth In Music” or listing themselves as supporters of positive valence in their Twitter profiles? I doubt it. It would be helpful if people used attributes to describe their favorite music (aggressive, soft, happy, nostalgic). Music libraries are extremely diverse today and often contain music from many different genres. I hypothesize that people who like arousal will likely enjoy it in other musical genres.
These three dimensions may not become part of the culture,, but platforms like Spotify, Pandora,, Apple Music,, and YouTube can use them to code and recommend music to their users. It is also helpful for scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists who study the effects of music.
The team then looked at how these preferences were related to the Five Big. Personality traits: openness, conscientiousness (both positive and negative), extraversion (positive or negative), agreeableness (positive or negative), and neuroticism. Nearly 10,000 people completed a personality test and indicated their preference for 50 musical extracts. Music with a high level of depth appealed to people who were open to new experiences, while those seeking excitement and extroversion preferred music that was high arousal. People who are neurotic prefer negative emotions, while people who are confident and self-assured prefer positive emotions.
