Understanding Young People's Preferences for Different Genres of Modern Music
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Understanding young people’s preferences for different genres of modern music: Case studies of two schools in Manchester Daniel Lucien Bachelard Acknowledgements I would like to thank the School of Arts and Media, University of Salford, and in particular Dr T. Wise and Dr N. Spelman for their kind encouragement and support. Understanding young people’s preferences for different genres of modern music: Case studies of two schools in Manchester Abstract My dissertation’s aim is to understand how British school children coming from varying backgrounds, subject to different social influences, and with different interests and ambitions, develop preferences for different musical genres. My dissertation examines current literature focusing on young people’s musical tastes, beginning with the theoretical debate over the concept of subculture between the CCCS researchers and the post-subculturalists. I adopt Hesmondhalgh’s (2005) approach: young people’s musical tastes are influenced both by social structure and musical form. I also consider the largely separate, questionnaire-based approach of the ‘youth music survey researchers’. My subjects were pupils of two secondary schools in Manchester: both Roman Catholic, one boys-only and one girls-only. I adopted a mixed methods approach, utilising focus groups and a survey based on questionnaire comprising closed-answer and open-answer questions. My study findings showed that pupils’ preferences for pop songs, folk songs, urban songs and rock songs correlated differently with a range of independent social factors, although pupils’ preferences were equally influenced by songs’ musical form and fashion. Social factors important for pop and folk songs were being a girl and having friends with similar musical tastes. The findings for pop songs contributed considerably to the theory of bedroom culture. Pupil’s preferences for urban and rock songs were less easily explained. However, when I controlled for status of pupils’ homes, I found career ambition, home location, taking part in musical activities, ethnicity and sex to play roles to some extent. Although my study has limitations, it suggests that a flexible approach and recognition of the influences of social background factors, such as home social status, sex, and friends’ musical taste, as well as those of musical forms and practices, can develop existing theory and add new theoretical insights and knowledge about how young people develop their preferences for groups of songs. Contents 1.0 Introduction 1.1 My dissertation aim 1.2 The research gap 1.3 My research questions 1.4 The ethics of conducting research on children and young people 1.5 Plan of my dissertation 2.0 Literature: The theoretical debate over the influence of subculture on young people’s musical preferences 2.1 The concept of subculture 2.2 The Chicago School and early British theories of subculture 2.3 Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) – The Birmingham School 2.3.1. CCCS studies of subculture → the general trend 2.3.2 The study of girls and young women’s subcultural practices 2.3.3 Post-subcultural writers’ criticism of CCCS scholarship 2.4 The post-subcultural theorists 2.4.1 The general trend of post-cultural research 2.4.2 Post-subculturalists’ new concepts replacing subculture 2.4.3 The specific study of girls and young women’s leisure after CCCS-influenced studies 2.4.4 Criticisms made of post-subculturalists’ scholarship theoretical and methodological approach 2.5 Bringing structure back into the study of youth culture and its music 2.6 My theoretical approach to the role of subculture in the study of young people’s identification with musical genres 2.7 Factors of interest for my empirical study of young people’s music preferences based on my review of the Chicago School, the early British theorists, the CCCS researchers and the post-subculturalist researchers 3.0 Literature: Survey-based empirical studies of young people’s musical preferences and of the independent factors correlating with its development 3.1 Youth music survey researchers’ different perceptions of the concept of young people’s musical tastes – my dependant variable 3.2 Literature on independent factors influencing young people’s musical taste 3.3 Tanner et al’s (2008) omnivores and univores, and elite and dissenting musical taste 3.4 An example of a study that contrasted the influence on young people’s musical preferences of social background with that of music characteristics such as melody, mood, rhythm and lyrics 3.5 The research gap, critique of the survey-based empirical studies of young people’s musical preferences and implications for my research 4.0 Methods 4.1 Quantitative and qualitative strategies in research methods 4.2 Combing quantitative and qualitative research 4.2.1 Two views on combining quantitative and qualitative research strategies 4.2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of using mixed methods in social research 4.3 My choice of research sites for my study 4.4 My adoption of a multi-method strategy 4.5 My pilot study 4.6 My focus groups discussions 4.7 My questionnaire survey 4.8 Improving response in my questionnaire survey 4.9 My choice of respondents for my questionnaire survey 4.10 Response to my survey 4.11 Editing the questionnaires 4.12 Inputting the data into SPSS and data checking 4.13 Running multiple regressions and controlling data by independent factors 5.0 Findings from focus group discussions 5.1 Pupils’ response to taking part in the focus group discussions and my critical reflection on my role as researcher. 5.2 Classifying the pupils’ perception of how modern music is divided into broad genres and subgenres and identifying specific songs to represent genres/ subgenres. 5.2.1 Focus group participants’ perception of genres and subgenres 5.2.2 Focus group participants’ perception of songs representing genres and subgenres 5.3 Pupil’s opinions on the factors affecting young people and their own preferences for different musical genres 5.4 An overview of my study’s findings from the focus group discussions, the relationship between my focus group findings and extant schools of thought on young people’s musical preferences and suggestions from my focus group findings for my questionnaire survey 6.0 Findings from the questionnaire survey 6.1 Questionnaire data on pupils’ musical preferences (the dependent variable) 6.2 Choosing whether the dependent variable for the hierarchical multiple regressions would be song groupings or subgenre groupings 6.3 The popularity of the song groupings amongst the pupil respondents in my study and a comparison of my findings with those of other researchers 6.4 Social characteristics of pupils in the two schools 6.5 Running my hierarchical multiple regressions 6.6 My hierarchical multiple regression findings for my song scales 6.7 Further analysis of the correlates of pupils’ preferences for urban songs and rock songs: controlling by sex and social background 6.8 Comparing the findings of my quantitative data with the different schools of thought on the factors affecting young people’s music preferences 6.8.1 Comparing the factors highlighted in my quantitative data as influencing young people’s music preferences with those proposed by CCCS researchers 6.8.2 Comparing the factors highlighted in my quantitative data as factors influencing young people’s music preferences with those proposed by youth music survey researchers 6.9 Analysis of pupils’ response to the questionnaire’s open-ended answers for the factors affecting young people’s music preferences and comparison with those proposed by the post- subcultural researchers 6.9.1 Analysis of pupils’ response to the open-ended questions in my questionnaire study concerning what factors affect young people’s music preferences 6.9.2 Comparison of the pupils’ view of the factors affecting young people’s music preferences drawn from the open-ended questions in my questionnaire study with those proposed by the post-subcultural researchers 6.10 An overview of my study’s findings from the questionnaire survey, the relationship between my questionnaire survey findings and extant schools of thought on young people’s musical preferences 7.0 Conclusions, suggestions for a new understanding of young people’s music preferences, limitations of study’s research and suggestions for further research 7.1 The consistencies and differences by means of data collection for the factors influencing the music preferences of the young people in my study 7.1.1 My findings consistent by method of data collection 7.1.2 My findings inconsistent by method of data collection 7.2 Justification of my use of mixed methods in my study of the factors influencing young people’s music preferences 7.3 Developing understanding of young people’s music preferences from my study findings 7.3.1 Explanations for young people’s musical tastes should be seen as complimentary and not as competitive 7.3.2 Developing a new understanding young people’s preferences for different types of modern music that combines different perspectives 7.4 The limitations of my study 7.5 My suggestions for further research Appendix 1 – Focus group prompt Appendix 2 – Pupil survey consent letter Appendix 3 – Questionnaire survey Appendix 4 – Sampling methods Appendix 5 – Statistical techniques CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1.1 My dissertation aim The study of young people’s musical preferences is an important area for investigation. As Colley states (2008: 2039) ‘[m]usic particularly popular music plays a central role in the lives of young people’. Tanner et al. (2008) point out that young people are prime consumers of popular music and are those most attuned to nuanced stylistic differences between musical genres and within musical genres (subgenres). I came to be interested in young people’s musical tastes through my experiences as a peripatetic drum tutor, teaching in secondary schools (giving individual drum lessons).