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The effect of musical fit on Psychology of Music

Psychology of Music
consumers memory Copyright 2010
Society for Education, Music
and Psychology Research
368378
10.1177/0305735609360262
http://pom.sagepub.com

JOANNE P.S. YEOH

faculty of human ecology , universiti putra malaysia , malaysia

ADRIAN C. NORTH
heriot -watt university , uk

abstract This study investigated the impact of musical fit on memory for items.
Participants were asked to recall 20 items they had seen while listening to either
rock music or classical music. Some of the 20 items were associated with either the
rebellious stereotype of rock music or the affluent stereotype of classical music.
More rock items than classical items were recalled when rock music was played,
although a similar number of classical items and rock items were recalled when
classical music was played. When rock music was played, participants recalled
rock items earlier than classical items and the reverse was found when classical
music was played. This suggests that musical fit operates by raising the salience
of items.

k e y w o r d s : consumers, memory, music

Studies concerning the effects of musical genre, rhythm, tempo and modality on
consumer behaviour have become increasingly common in the consumer behaviour
literature over the past 20 years. For example, in perhaps the most regularly cited
study in the field, Milliman (1986) found that fast tempo background music could
significantly affect the pace of restaurant patrons (see also, North & Hargreaves,
1996a). Research concerned specifically with the notion of musical fit in commercial
contexts is a relatively recent phenomenon, however. Musical fit refers to the
process by which customers associate a certain piece of music with particular
products, leading to the selection of one product over another, or with particular
patterns of spending, leading to customers being prepared to spend less or more for
the same products. At present, although the published research discusses musical
fit as though it were a universal phenomenon, all the research has been carried out
in the West; and although North, Hargreaves and McKendrick (1999) investigated
the effects of musical fit on selection between competing alternative products,
all the remaining research has focused on the impact of Western classical music on
the amount that customers are prepared to pay. This article investigates the effect

sempre :
 Yeoh and North: Musical Fit 369

of musical fit in Malaysia; and rather than considering the amount that customers
are prepared to pay, the present study concerns another possible manifestation
of musical fit, namely that music with the same connotations as the product in
question should prime recall of that item.
Aside from issues of convenience, research on musical fit in a Malaysian context
may be particularly timely as a consequence of the rapid growth of consumerism in
the country. Malaysias GDP is currently growing at 6.3 percent per annum, with
private consumption remaining a strong driver of economic growth (see Department
of Statistics Malaysia, 2008). Strong consumer spending is encouraged by low interest
rates and favourable terms of trade, with the largest export revenue for electrical
products (see Bank Negara Malaysia, 2008). Rising incomes and the presence of high-
profile international retailers has led to Malaysian consumers becoming increasingly
cosmopolitan/Westernized. One particular manifestation of this is the recent emergence
of hypermarkets, which have seen tremendous growth in urban areas. Most
hypermarkets are owned by foreign retailers, such as Giant (Hong Kong), Carrefour
(France), and Tesco (UK), and as of 2006, there were 40 foreign-owned hypermarket
outlets in Malaysia (Shamsudin & Selamat, 2005). As such, consumption-related issues
are particularly important in Malaysia at this moment.
To date, research on musical fit has shown that consumers have the propensity
to spend more when background music implied notions of affluence or wealth. For
example, Areni and Kim (1993; see also North & Hargreaves, 1998) showed that
playing classical music in a wine cellar led to customers buying more expensive
wine than when Top 40 music was playing. Similarly, North et al. (1999) found
that musical fit could prime the selection of certain products: customers were more
likely to buy French wine than German wine when French music was played from a
supermarket display, whilst German wines were selected when the display featured
German music. Both these studies illustrate how music can prime consumers choices.
In the former study, the authors argued that classical music fitted a stereotype involving
notions such as expensive and luxurious, which was why consumers bought
the more expensive wine when classical music was being played. In the latter study,
music primed or activated consumers knowledge related to the products displayed.
For example, German music primed knowledge associated with German wines, and
French music, French wines. Implicit to all these studies is the notion that music that
fits the product raises the salience of product attributes, and it is this raised salience
that facilitates recall of the product. The practical, applied basis of this existing work
(that has emphasized collection of data in the field and a focus on practical outcomes)
means that a precise definition of raised salience remains somewhat fuzzy. However,
implicit to all the existing work is the well-known concept of spreading activation (e.g.,
Anderson, 1983; Collins & Loftus, 1975), in which priming of one cognitive concept
(e.g., identification of the music as representative of classical music) primes all those
concepts related to it (e.g., stereotypes of classical music as upmarket), which in turn
primes the behaviours observed (e.g, spending). The present research argues that if
music activates related knowledge structures concerning certain products, then this
raised level of activation ought to improve the ability to recall these products, and to do
so at an earlier point in time, as compared to recall of unrelated products.
370 Psychology of Music 38(3)

Some more direct support for this notion that music primes related knowledge
structures comes from research in the psychology of the arts. A number of studies
conducted in the 1980s and 1990s indicated that people prefer artistic objects that
are prototypical of the class in question (see, e.g., Hekkert & van Wieringen, 1990;
Martindale & Moore, 1988; Martindale, Moore, & Borkum, 1990; Martindale,
Moore, & West, 1988; Whitfield, 1983; Whitfield & Slatter, 1979; but also North &
Hargreaves, 2000); and Martindale and Moore (1988) and North and Hargreaves
(1996b) present evidence supporting this concerning specifically musical stimuli.
Effects such as these were explained in terms of a neural network approach to
human cognition. For example, Martindale and Moore (1988) argue that the mind
is composed of interconnected cognitive units that differ in the strength with
which they can become activated (see e.g. Martindale, 1981). Units coding more
prototypical stimuli are activated more frequently, and are therefore stronger
than those coding atypical stimuli. Martindale and Moore claim that aesthetic
preference is hypothetically a positive function of the degree to which the mental
representation of a stimulus is activated. Because more typical stimuli are coded
by mental representations capable of greater activation, preference should be
positively related to prototypicality (p. 661).
Whilst the aim of this model is to explain preferences between aesthetic objects, it is
relevant to consumer research because it implicates processes concerning knowledge
activation in responses to music. The model asserts that the mind is comprised of
densely interconnected cognitive units, such that a specific piece of music can activate
related knowledge structures. For example, the preference for prototypes model argues
that people do not just respond to hearing the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club
Band; instead, this album may be associated with the related category The Beatles,
which may in turn be associated with the related category 1960s pop music,
which may in turn be associated with other aspects of the period such as the hippie
movement, etc. This allows us to explain the potential effects of musical fit in terms
of a more widely researched theory. If music in shops, restaurants and the like leads
to the activation of relevant related knowledge structures, it is not unreasonable to
suspect that this same process might influence responses to product choice and other
marketing-related factors. Specifically, the preference for prototypes model suggests
that music in commercial contexts should prime certain aspects of participants
knowledge of the world. This increased level of activation should enhance the probability
of selection of certain products, as found by previous research on musical fit; the
increased level of activation also suggests the hypothesis of the present study, namely
that musical fit should also increase the ability to recall the product (see North,
Hargreaves, MacKenzie, & Law, 2004).
The present study employed two different musical styles: rock music and classical
music. While one of these played in the background, participants were shown 20
items via a computerized slide presentation, some of which were associated with
either the rebellious stereotype of rock (e.g., marijuana, an electric guitar) or the
affluent stereotype of classical music (e.g., a cigar, champagne). Participants were
then asked to recall the items they had seen. It was predicted that participants who
had heard rock music would be better able to recall rock-related items and to recall
these earlier than other items. Similarly, participants who heard classical music
 Yeoh and North: Musical Fit 371

were expected to be better able to recall classical music-related items, and recall
these earlier than other items.

Method
PARTICIPANTS
One hundred and twenty participants took part in the study. Sixty participated in the
rock music condition and 60 in the classical music condition. Each group comprised
20 ethnic Chinese (10 females, 10 males), 20 ethnic Malays (10 females, 10 males),
and 20 ethnic Indians (10 females, 10 males). Participants mean age was 24.3 years
(SD = 6.55). Participants were recruited by approaching students and academicians
at the library in University Putra Malaysia. Testing was conducted individually in a
quiet room on campus during the first two weeks of April, between 10am and 5pm,
two weeks after the pilot study.

PILOT STUDY
A pilot study was carried out to ensure that the music that was to be used in the
main experiment was clearly identifiable as either rock music or classical music by
a sample of 20 participants drawn from the same general population as the sample
used in the main experiment. Each participant in the pilot study was played both rock
and classical music and they were asked to state what genre of music was playing.
All participants were able to clearly distinguish between the two pieces of music as
either rock or classical music respectively. The pilot study also identified items that
the participants related to rock music and classical music. The participants were
asked to write down as many items as they could think of that were related to the
classical or rock music that was playing. The four most frequently nominated items
were employed in the present research as the classical items and rock items
respectively. Finally, the pilot was used to determine the amount of time for each slide
to be presented in the main study. The participants in the pilot study watched slides
for periods of seven seconds, four seconds and two seconds, and this indicated that
seven seconds was altogether too long and two seconds too short, such that a four-second
exposure period was employed in the main study.

MATERIALS AND DESIGN

Musical genre was a between-subjects factor and item genre was a within-subjects
factor. The participants were played either rock music or classical music. These music
conditions employed a CD representing one of two musical styles. The classical music
was taken from the CD Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 16 BWV 10461051, by J. S.
Bach (2002). The track used from this CD was Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G
major. The rock music was taken from the album Chaos A.D. by Sepultura (1996)
and the track used was Refuse Resist.
Participants heard this music via headphones attached to a laptop on which
they simultaneously watched the slides. The slide-show lasted one minute 20
seconds. The slides featured pictures of a total of 20 items. The pictures used were
of at least 100KB and were downloaded from the internet. A caption beneath each
picture stated the items being shown (e.g., A watch). Of the 20 items, four were
the rock items that represented the rebellious stereotype of rock music, and four
372 Psychology of Music 38(3)

were classical items that represented the affluent stereotype of classical music. The
four rock items were marijuana, a tattoo, a long-haired man and an electric guitar;
the four classical items were a cigar, a watch, a fountain pen and champagne. The
other 12 neutral items were a bicycle, an umbrella, a coffee table, a photograph
frame, a sofa set, pans, cups, a broom, a travel bag, pillows, clothes pegs and a chair.
The ordering of the pictures was constant between the two conditions. The order in
which the items appeared on the slides were grouped into four chunks of five items;
each chunk contained three neutral items, one rock item and one classical item.
The rock and classical items were presented in the second and third position in each
chunk, with the ordering of the two alternating between successive chunks to ensure
the same overall mean serial position for rock and classical items. Specifically,
rock items appeared in positions 2, 8, 12 and 18, and classical items appeared in
positions 3, 7, 13 and 17.

PROCEDURE
Participants were shown 20 pictures of items on a laptop and heard music via
headphones attached to this. The music was played at a constant volume that was
considered sufficient to be heard clearly. After watching all 20 slides, participants
were then asked to write down as many items as they could recall, not necessarily in
the order that appeared on the slides, while still wearing the headphones with either
rock music or classical music looped for a further 10 minutes. Participants had the
choice to give up once they felt that they could not recall any more items. As soon as
the participants gave up, the music was stopped, the headphones were removed, and
a four-item questionnaire was administered. Questions 1 and 2 asked participants
how many hours they listened to rock/classical music respectively per week, and they
were given three choices: less than one hour per week; between one and five hours per
week; more than five hours a week. Questions 3 and 4 asked participants how many
rock/classical CDs respectively they owned and they were given three choices: fewer
than 10 CDs; between 11 and 30 CDs; more than 30 CDs.

Results and discussion

A mixed ANCOVA was carried out to determine whether the number of rock items
and classical items recalled varied as a function of the type of music playing in the
background (controlling for variations in the frequency with which participants
listened to rock and classical music and variations in the number of rock and
classical music CDs owned). The results indicated an interaction between the type
of music and type of item (rock versus classical) being recalled (F (1, 113) = 63.64,
p < .001, partial eta-squared = .36). When rock music was played, participants
recalled a mean of 3.12 (SD = 1.16) of the four rock music items, but a mean of only
1.47 (SD = .95) of the four classical music items. When classical music was played,
participants recalled a mean of 2.15 (SD = .99) of the four classical music items, and
a mean of 2.20 (SD = 1.16) of the four rock music items. More simply, rock music
led to more rock items being recalled than classical items, but this difference was
all but cancelled out when classical music was played, as this gave rise to similar
numbers of rock items and classical items being recalled. These differences were
confirmed by two repeated measures t-tests, in which the first test compared recall
 Yeoh and North: Musical Fit 373

of rock and classical music items when rock music was played, showing a significant
difference, and the second test compared recall of rock and classical music items
when classical music was played, showing no significant difference.
The frequency of recall of individual rock and classical items when rock or
classical music was played is shown in Table 1. This indicates that the effects of musical
fit seemed to be similar across all the rock items, which were each recalled on a
similar number of occasions, and across all the classical music items, which were
also each recalled on a similar number of occasions. This suggests that the effects of
musical fit are common for all products in the class in question.
The mean serial position in which each participant recalled each classical music
item was then calculated. Smaller numbers indicated that the item in question
was recalled earlier in the participants list. The mean of these was taken for each
participant to produce a mean serial recall position for classical music products. The
same was then done for rock music items. A second mixed ANCOVA was then carried
out to determine whether the mean serial recall position of rock items and classical
items varied as a function of the type of music playing in the background (controlling
for variations in the frequency with which participants listened to rock and classical
music and variations in the number of rock and classical music CDs owned). The
results indicated an interaction between the music and type of item (rock versus
classical) being recalled (F (1, 113) = 13.58, p < .001, partial eta-squared = .11).
When rock music was played, the mean position in which participants recalled rock
items was 5.50 (SD = 2.01), but the mean position in which participants recalled
classical music items was only 8.31 (SD = 5.95). When classical music was played,
the mean position in which participants recalled classical music items was 5.28 (SD
= 2.51), but the mean position in which participants recalled rock items was only
6.41 (SD = 4.01). More simply, if rock music was played then participants recalled
rock items earlier than classical items: if classical music was played then participants
recalled classical items earlier than rock items.
In conclusion, previous studies concerning musical fit have indicated that music
can increase the amount consumers spend or the items that they select. In addition,
this study demonstrates that musical fit is able to prime consumers memory for
particular related items. When rock music was played, more rock products than
classical items were recalled. Although a corresponding effect of classical music

table 1 Frequency of recall for individual rock and classical items x music

Items Frequency of recall in the Frequency of recall in the

rock music condition classical music condition

Electric guitar (rock) 47/60 27/60

Marijuana (rock) 41/60 26/60
Tattoo (rock) 46/60 34/60
Long haired-man (rock) 53/60 45/60
Cigar (classical) 23/60 37/60
Watch (classical) 20/60 24/60
Fountain pen (classical) 24/60 35/60
Champagne (classical) 21/60 33/60
374 Psychology of Music 38(3)

was not found, this music was at least able to reduce participants ability to recall
rock items over classical items. One reason why classical music did not lead to
specifically a greater number of classical than rock items being recalled could be that the
rock-related items projected a more offensive impression, whereas the remaining
items were comparatively bland. One albeit speculative possibility is, for instance,
that the potential offensiveness of the rock music and rock music items created a
greater degree of arousal on the part of the participants that influenced the degree of
processing in which participants engaged. A limited number of authors (e.g., Hansen
& Krygowski, 1994) have argued that greater degrees of arousal lead to greater
schematic processing of musical stimuli, and such an effect may have led to the rock
music items employed here being particularly prone to musical fit effects as a result of
narrowed attentional focus. Indeed, there was evidence that the greater effects of rock
music occurred specifically because the music was raising the salience of related items
in participants minds. When rock music was played, participants recalled rock items
earlier than they recalled classical items; whereas when classical music was played,
participants recalled classical items earlier than they recalled rock items.
An alternative explanation for the apparently greater effects obtained here for rock
music products concerns the limited range of music employed. For instance, it is possible
that the rock music employed in the present study was simply more representative
of the category rock music than the classical music employed was representative of
the category classical music. If so, the rock music items would be primed more and,
therefore, recalled more effectively. In order to resolve such an issue, the pilot work
involved in future studies may present participants with a wide range of candidate
pieces and, in addition to checking that the pieces are clearly distinguishable from
one another as representatives of the styles in question (as was done here), also take
a global measure of the extent to which each represents the prototype of the style in
question. We might also add that such an explanation seems unlikely in the context
of the present research, however, since the two pieces in question, taken from
Sepulturas Chaos A.D. and Bachs Brandenburg Concerto, possess clear face validity
as prototypical examples of rock and classical music respectively. Nonetheless, future
research may wish to rule out this possibility more formally.
Similarly, because a single piece of music represented each of the musical styles
employed in the present research it is impossible to say whether the present results
are attributable to musical fit effects associated with solely the specific pieces of
music employed or instead with musical fit effects associated with the musical styles
that the pieces of music represented (or both). Future research might address this
by employing several pieces to represent each style and then determining whether
the effects of all the pieces within the style are similar (indicating an effect at the
level of the style per se) or dissimilar (indicating that the effect operates at the level
of specific pieces of music). Such issues of course go beyond the hypothesis of the
present research, namely that musical fit should prime memory, but do suggest clear
opportunities for future work.
These findings may have implications for retailing and advertising alike. Department
stores and supermarket may, for example, use music to cue shoppers to consider
certain product categories or to visit certain sections of the store that sell those
products. With regard to advertising, there is of course typically a delay between
 Yeoh and North: Musical Fit 375

exposure to advertising and actual purchasing, and musical fit might be one means
by which advertisers can ensure that their product is recalled during the intervening
period. Similarly, it might be possible for an advertiser to use musical fit to draw
consumers attention to one particular aspect of a product that gives it an advantage
over an otherwise similar competing brand. On a slightly more pessimistic note,
we should note that there are also several possible limitations to these effects. For
example, if consumers have no prior experience of the music used then the chances
are that they may not derive the appropriate communicative intent from that music.
Rather, retailers and advertisers should employ either very well-known pieces of
unambiguous music or rely on the stereotypes associated with entire musical styles.
Furthermore, it remains to be determined whether too great a degree of musical fit
could instead lead to the advert or retail environment in question seeming somewhat
hackneyed. For instance, the use of very literal lyrics (e.g., Aretha Franklins You
Make me feel Like a Natural Woman in an advert for shampoo) might not appeal
to a market segment that perceives itself as sophisticated. Along similar lines, the
present research did not test the possibility that high degrees of incongruity between
products and music may also prime recall of the former, by for instance causing deeper
processing (see Heckler & Childers, 1992; Houston, Childers, & Heckler, 1987). We
might also note that while such a possibility exists from a theoretical perspective, such
effects should not be attempted by practitioners given existing evidence that shows
that high levels of musical incongruity are disliked by people in commercial (North &
Hargreaves, 1996a) and other (North & Hargreaves, 1996b) contexts.
Note also that the age group of the sample used in this study is rather young,
with a mean of 24 years. It is possible that this age group do not possess a schema or
knowledge structure for the affluent lifestyle, and that this might go some way to
explaining why the present results arguably showed more effect of musical fit on the
rock than the classical items. Future research can further investigate if the extent
of musical fit effects to some extent depends on the age of the participants or other
factors that mediate their ability to deduce the intended communicative intent from
the music in question. For instance, linguistic abilities would presumably play a role
when the content of lyrics is used to produce musical fit.
Musical fit is undoubtedly a multi-faceted concept. For instance, the extent to
which a given piece of music fits (or does not fit) with a particular product might be
determined by its tempo, intensity, instrumentation, mode and attack, among several
other possible candidate variables. Indeed, the extent to which we should even attempt
to define musical fit in terms of objectively measurable aspects of musical structure
reflects a broader debate that has taken place within the field of aesthetics over the
past few decades. In that field, several authors have addressed the very well-known
absolutist versus referentialist approach to emotional responses to music. At the risk
of over-generalizing, proponents of the former approach argue that musical meaning
resides within musical structure itself, whereas proponents of the latter argue that
musical meaning resides in the associations that a given listener has with the piece in
question. Similarly, several studies of musical preference have addressed the extent to
which this might be determined by the complexity of the music in question. Whereas
some (e.g., Berlyne, 1974) have argued that this concept can be measured by objective,
mathematical means, others (e.g., Heyduk, 1975; North & Hargreaves, 1995) have
376 Psychology of Music 38(3)

argued that it is the complexity of a piece of music, as experienced by the listener, that is
crucial in determining preference, rather than any objective, mathematical measure.
A very similar issue applies to the conception of musical fit. It is theoretically possible
that future research may show that a given piece of music has structural characteristics
that imply it ought to be perceived as, for example, rebellious. This hypothetical series
of studies might show that rebellious music is that which employs instruments with
harsh timbres, short attack times, and a fast tempo. This might seem to benefit research
on musical fit, as it offers an objectively measurable definition of whether a given piece of
music fits a given product. Crucially however, a given listener may still not regard music
with these properties as rebellious, since he/she knows, for instance, that the musician
who performed it lives a rather dour lifestyle, that the music has recently been used in
an advert for a large corporation, or that the music is in some way old-fashioned, to
name but a few possibilities. Similarly, an older person may regard as rebellious music
that a younger person regards as very mainstream. Similarly, music might be defined by
a listener as rebellious solely because it is labelled by him/her as rock, solely because it
is of fast tempo and high intensity, as a result of both these factors, or as a result of some
other hitherto unidentified factor such as, for example, instrumentation (and the strong
possibility also exists that different listeners will use different criteria). In all cases, it is
the subjective impression on the part of the listener that the music fits with rebellious
products that is important in explaining its effects on recall, rather than the precise
process by which this impression was arrived at. These brief examples illustrate the
problem of using objective, absolutist definitions of musical fit that approach the concept
in terms of structural musical properties: if the listener in question does not perceive
the music in question as, for example, rebellious, no matter what its actual structural
properties are, then that music would not be expected to prime recall for rebellious
products. In short, musical fit is in the ear of the beholder, and subjective definitions are,
therefore, preferable to objective ones. As the examples here illustrate, aspects of musical
structure alone are almost certainly insufficient when attempting to define musical fit; it
is difficult, perhaps impossible, and certainly inappropriate to arrive a priori at a definitive,
objective set of musical characteristics that determine the extent to which a given piece
of music would be regarded by a given individual as fitting a particular product. It is
desirable from both scientific and practical standpoints if future research on musical fit
adopts the subjective method of defining musical fit employed here, in which pilot work
with the population to be sampled in the main research is asked to state whether the
music that the researchers plan to use does indeed fit the products that they plan to use.

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joanne yeoh completed her PhD on music psychology in 2009 at Heriot-Watt Unviersity,
Edinburgh, UK. She is currently a full time music lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia. She is
interested in how musical fit can promote choice of certain products over others and recall of
certain features of advertising.
Address: Music Department, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia,43400
UPM, Selangor 47500, Malaysia. [email: joanneyeoh@gmail.com]

adrian north completed his PhD on music psychology in 1996 at the University at Leicester.
He was appointed to a Lectureship in Psychology at Leicester that same year, and to a Senior
Lectureship in 2002. In 2007 he was appointed Professor of Psychology at Heriot-Watt.
Address: School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK. [email:
North.A@hw.ac.uk]