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Musical preference and music education: Musical preferences of Turkish

university students and their levels in genre identification

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DOI: 10.1177/0255761415619390

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619390
research-article2015
IJM0010.1177/0255761415619390International Journal of Music EducationGürgen

Article

International Journal of

Musical preference and music

Music Education
2016, Vol. 34(4) 459­–471
© The Author(s) 2015
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of Turkish university students and DOI: 10.1177/0255761415619390
ijm.sagepub.com
their levels in genre identification

Elif Tekin Gürgen

Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey

Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate if there is any relationship between musical preference,
genre identification and frequency of listening to music genres, and whether musical training and
gender played a role in these factors. A total of 205 college music and non-music majors recorded
their preference for 13 music excerpts in popular, non-popular and Turkish Music genres. Results
suggested that students’ musical preference, frequency of listening to music genres and their
levels of accuracy in genre identification showed significant differences by gender and musical
training. Music students favored Rock and Metal music more, whereas students not studying
music enjoyed excerpts of the Traditional Turkish Art Music and Reggae. Furthermore, results
also suggested that while female students preferred Jazz, Latin, Reggae and Western music more,
male students favored the excerpts of Rock and Metal music more. As a result of the correlation
analysis, a statistically significant relationship was found between the students’ musical preferences
and the frequency with which they listened to that music.

Keywords
genre identification, frequency of listening to music, musical preference, musical training

Introduction
Aligned with the technological advances of the 20th century, very rapid changes have taken place in
the field of music education (Hargreaves, Marshall, & North, 2003). Digital technologies and social
media are increasingly affecting all apsects of daily life and individuals can access music whenever
they want to and they feel free to choose and listen to what they want from many different music
genres. The music industry’s struggle to provide the music which appeals to listeners from different

Corresponding author:
Elif T. Gürgen, Assistant Professor, Department of Musicology, Dokuz Eylul University, Güldeste Sokak No. 4, Izmir
35320, Turkey.
Email: elif.tekin@deu.edu.tr

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460 International Journal of Music Education 34(4)

backgrounds overlaps the desires of musicians, who are in search of new styles, resulting in the
emergence of many genres and sub-genres of music. Ginocchio (2009) suggests that this is causing
some music educators to constantly try to catch up with and keep up with the constantly changing
music trends and the musical tastes of their students.
In the second half of the 20th century, researchers sought answers to the questions concerning
what factors played a role in people’s preferences to listen to some music genres over others.
Several studies investigated the effects of a variety of factors on preference, which could be clas-
sified as music and listener related factors. Music related factors include genre, familiarity, com-
plexity, tempo and loudness, etc., and listener related factors include age, gender, personality,
culture, lifesyle, musical ability and training, etc. (Berlyne, 1971, 1974; Brittin, 1991; Gregory,
1994; Hargreaves, Comber, & Colley, 1995; LeBlanc, 1980, 1981; LeBlanc, Jin, Stamou, &
McCrary, 1999; LeBlanc, Sims, Siivola, & Obert, 1996; North & Hargreaves, 2007; Rentfrow &
Gosling, 2003, 2006; Tekman & Hortaçsu, 2002; Teo, Hargreaves, & Lee, 2008).
Before Price (1986) introduced the concept of “musical preference”, terms such as “musical
taste” or “liking” were used. The first and most comprehensive model developed on this topic
was LeBlanc’s (1980, 1981) Music Preference Model. The model consisted of 8 levels listed
hierarchically. Each level contained multiple factors affecting the musical preference. According
to this model the bottom level (8th level) consists of nine classes of input variables. Four classes
of this level are related with the musical stimulus including physical properties, complexity,
referential meaning, performance and quality. Peer group, familiy, educators/authority figures
and incidental conditioning are the classes of environmental variables. Media is the remaining
variable of this level.
The 7th level, physiological enabling conditions, regards the listener’s biologic health condi-
tion, such as sufficient auditory pathway or any phsysiological disease.
After the listener gives “basic attention” (the 6th level of the model), “current emotional state”
(5th level) is the next step for filtering musical input since an individual’s mood can affect musical
judgement. Auditory sensitivity (meaning sensitivity to particular aspects of music), musical abil-
ity, training, personality, gender, ethnic group, socioeconomic status, maturity and memory char-
acterize the 4th level.
After “actively processing” the input (3rd level), which may have musical or extra-musical
aspects, the listener makes a decision at the 2nd level. Judgement or need more information? If
more information is desired the listener will explore the musical stimulus further, through repeated
listening with heightened attention. At the top of the levels, the listener accepts or rejects the musi-
cal input (1st level). If acceptance has occured, the model assumes repetition and satiation.
According to Droe (2006), in this model, music education takes its place as a variable affecting the
preference in more than one level.
There are many studies investigating the comparison of musical preferences of musicians and
non musicians. In one of these studies, Gregory (1994) suggested that a person’s music preference
tends to be closely related to one’s background of music education. Gregory states that music stu-
dents’ preferences vary depending on the environment in which they were involved in music and
concludes that those who play in an orchestra prefer orchestral pieces, those who play the piano
prefer piano pieces and those who sing in a chorus prefer choral pieces. In most of the studies, it
has been concluded that students who have had music education had higher musical preference
ratings than students who have not had music education (Fung, 1996; Ginocchio, 2009; Morrison
& Cheung, 1999).
Studies on the influence of gender on music preference revealed that females prefer softer, more
romantic and dance-oriented types of music such as pop or rhythm and blues, while males prefer
harder styles such as rock (Christenson & Peterson, 1988; Colley, 2008; Lamont, Hargreaves,

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Gürgen 461

Marshall, & Tarrant, 2003). Additionally, there are studies that have concluded that girls generally
rated higher scores for the musical excerpts than boys. For example, Ho (2003) reported that
Chinese female students rated music styles more favorably than male students. Similarly, North
and Hargreaves (2008) reported that the consistent finding is that females generally have more
positive attitudes towards music than males.
In relation to Turkey, a number of studies suggested links between musical preference and per-
sonality (Erdal, 2009); beliefs (Erdal & Ok, 2012); prejudice (Şenel, 2013); and one further study
explored the interaction between stylistic knowledge and listening preferences amongst Turkish
students (Tekman & Hortaçsu, 2002). However, no specific studies have been conducted to inves-
tigate the variables used in determining musical preferences and genre identification in music
education. Thus, the present study was designed in order to fill the gap in this area in Turkey.
Musical preference is commonly determined by asking participants to denote their favourite
musical genres (Ferrer, Eerola, & Vuoskovski, 2012). Different selections and lengths of music
samples are used to determine the preferences for music genres. The genres of these excerpts can
be classified as Western art music, popular music (rock, jazz, etc.), Non-Western music (Chinese,
Japanese, Malaysian, Turkish, etc.) or the mixture of all these genres (Teo et al., 2008). In addition,
studies have been conducted on the length of time required to identify genres of music excerpts.
For example, Mace, Wagoner, Hodges, and Teachout, (2011) obtained dramatic results indicating
that a period of less than one second could be enough to identify some music excerpts.
The environmental conditions (where we are and what we do) and the arousal level elicited by
the musical stimuli affect the relationship between the listener and the music. In Berlyne’s com-
plexity theory the arousal elicited by a stimulus determined how pleasing this stimulus should be
perceived (Berlyne, 1971). According to this theory, preference for a musical stimulus is deter-
mined by its “arousal potential” produced in the ascending reticular activating system. A musical
stimulus that generates minimal or maximal arousal potential is consistent with the low degree of
liking while the intermediate degree of arousal potential is liked most. Thus it can be said that the
relationship between preference and familiarity/complexity is an “inverted-U” shape (as cited in
North & Hargreaves, 2008, p. 77).
There are also some problems of exploring musical preference. Russell (1999) suggested that
the major issues are music genre categorisation and the reliability of participants’ answers.
According to Ferrer et al. (2012), since a sample of music genre might be liked more than the genre
itself and because of the difficulties of defining a genre, they suggest to assess Artist-based Musical
Preferences to obtain more valid data. However, they state that the results of genre-based measures
of a Likert scale provide clean, pragmatic and comparable data.
Excerpts listened to in the studies were believed to represent that music genre. However, does a
participant’s appreciation of an excerpt determine his/her general preference for this music genre?
Or does his/her appreciation apply only to that particular excerpt? In order to understand this, it is
necessary to determine how often a participant listens to that genre of music and whether he/she
can identify the genre of music he/she listens to.
In the literature, there are few studies conducted to determine musical preference and the iden-
tification of music genres. Teo et al. (2008) determined that the relationship between preference,
familiarity and genre identification varied according to the genre of music and that this relationship
would not always be a direct relationship. In his study which included excerpts from around the
world, Fung (1994) did not find a significant relationship between musical preference and accurate
genre identification.
Determining students’ preferences and knowledge regarding music can be useful in determin-
ing which teaching programs, teaching strategies and materials are to be used. Individuals are
likely to be more motivated and enthusiastic during the tasks they find pleasant and enjoyable.

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462 International Journal of Music Education 34(4)

Understanding students’ musical preferences can be a clue for the music teachers who want to
have their attention (Teo, 2003). Listening situation is also important as well as the interaction
of the students with music. Konecni (1982) emphasized the importance of listening context
along with the role of arousal potential. He argued that the listener sums arousal from both
sources and selects music that will bring about, overall, a moderate level of arousal (as cited in
North & Hargreaves, 2008, p. 90).
Based on the reasons mentioned above, this study aimed to investigate what genres of music the
students studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Dokuz Eylül University (D.E.U), prefer, and whether
they can identify the genre of the music they listen to, the frequency with which they listen to these
music genres and what effect these variables have, depending on gender and music education.

Method
Sample
Participants for the study consisted of 205 undergraduate students at a public state university in
Western Turkey, Faculty of Fine Arts (72 music majors, 133 non-music majors). Non-music majors
are from seven departments (sculpture, ceramics, graphics, photography, painting, textile,
Traditional Turkish Arts). Only students who take the common lessons which are obligatory for
students from each department (e.g. Basic Art Education) were included the study. All study par-
ticipants were born and raised in Turkey. The sampled population consisted of 120 males and 85
females with the average age of 23.

Instruments
A “Musical Preference Inventory” (see Appendix) was designed to measure preferences corre-
sponding to 13 music excerpts belonging to 13 genres from popular, classical and Turkish music
(Rap, Jazz, Latin, Rock, Metal, Western Pop, Electronic/Dance, Reggae, Blues, Traditional Turkish
Art Music, Turkish Folk Music, Turkish Arabesque Music; see Appendix for a list of exerpts).
Genre labels for this study were determined using an open-ended question: “which music genres
do you listen to?” Since there were so many subgenres among answers, they were not included.
Some music types like “slow music” or “ozgun music” (a kind of local music genre in Turkey)
were also excluded to avoid misunderstandings, and finally, 13 music genres taken from the stu-
dents’ answers were used in the present study. The list of music genres of this study are consistent
with the list used in another study held in Turkey (Tekman & Hortaçsu, 2002) in which 141 univer-
sity students were asked to indicate all the music genres they know.
Three representative pieces for each genre created an excerpt pool of 39 pieces. Care was taken
to avoid crossover while choosing the excerpts. To control the factors that may influence prefer-
ence (familiarity, tempo, vocal lyrics, instrument timbre), the musical pieces were selected to
have similar tempos and instrumental voicings (only Rap Music, by definition, includes rhythmic
speaking of lyrics) and excerpts were taken from the middle of the pieces. They were between
15–27 seconds in length and the length of the excerpts was based on the completion of musical
phrases (Ginocchio, 2008). Two musicologists and two music educators who have experience in
teaching popular music were consulted to ensure that the 13 music selections used were repre-
sentative of the genres being tested. These four instructors were given 39 excerpts and asked to
label them. All answers were identical. Then only one representative piece was picked from each
genre and the number of musical excerpts decreased to 13. Instructors were agreed again about
the chosen musical pieces. All excerpts were taken from professional digital recordings. Wave

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Gürgen 463

Table 1.  Mean preference of students (N = 205).

Musical genres Mean SD

1. Blues 4.19 0.90
2. Jazz 4.01 0.90
3.   Western Art Music 3.96 0.93
4. Latin 3.90 1.05
5. Reggae 3.75 0.94
6. Rock 3.54 1.28
7.  Traditional Turkish Art Music 3.53 1.02
8. Pop 3.12 1.11
9. Metal 3.03 1.40
10.  Turkish Arabesque Music 2.80 1.40
11.  Electronic/Dance Music 2.77 1.28
12.  Turkish Folk Music 2.73 1.24
13. Rap 2.53 1.14

format was used for the stimulus CD. The response sheet, prepared as 5-point Likert-type scale
(1 = strongly dislike, 5 = strongly like).
“The Music Identification Inventory” provided spaces for participants to identify a genre label for
each excerpt heard. For the identification of music genres, the labels that participants attached to each
excerpt in the identification task were coded as 1 (correct) or 0 (incorrect). Participants who answered
the related subgenre instead of main genre were also given “1” point. “Frequency of Listening
Inventory” was designed to measure how often participants listen to these 13 genres (1 = never; 2 =
rarely; 3 = occasionally; 4 = generally; 5 = very frequently/very often). This inventory was applied to
participants before the “Identification inventory” in order to obtain more accurate results.

Reliability
A test-retest system was utilized for reliability. The instruments were administered to a sample of
30 participants by simple random sampling method at the same university on two separate occa-
sions approximately four weeks apart. Re-test was administered to the same 30 participants.
For the “Music Preference Inventory”, test-retest correlation coefficient was very high (r = .867)
and for the “Frequency of Listening Inventory”, correlation coefficient was also very high (r = .847).
Kappa values for the “Identification Inventory” ranged between .345 and .927. It can be considered
that the scales used in this study are reliable.

Results
Mean preference ratings of all subjects were calculated for each of the 13 styles measured and
ordered top to bottom (Table 1). Results show that the most preferred genre among the subjects was
Blues with a mean preference rating .18 points higher than for the next most preferred style.
Subjects’ next favorite style was Jazz, which was closely followed by Western Art and Latin music.
The least favored styles were Turkish Arabesque music, Electronic/Dance, Turkish Folk Music and
Rap with ratings lower than 3 points on a 5-point scale.
Table 2 shows mean percentages of genre identification accuracy. The genres most accurately
identified by participants were Arabesque (82%) and Western Art Music (80%). The next most

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464 International Journal of Music Education 34(4)

Table 2.  Accuracy of musical genre identification of students (N = 205).

Musical genres Correct responses Incorrect responses

  F % F %
1.  Turkish Arabesque Music 168 82.0 37 18.0
2.  Western Art Music 165 80.5 40 19.5
3.  Traditional Turkish Art Music 150 73.2 55 26.8
4.  Turkish Folk Music 144 70.2 61 29.8
5. Metal 142 69.3 63 30.7
6. Rap 138 67.3 67 32.7
7. Jazz 134 65.4 71 34.6
8. Rock 127 62.0 78 38.0
9. Pop 120 58.5 85 41.5
10. Latin 110 53.7 95 46.3
11.  Electronic/Dance Music 109 53.2 96 46.8
12. Blues 70 34.1 135 65.9
13. Reggae 68 33.2 137 66.8

Table 3.  Frequency of listening to music genres.

Musical genres Mean SD

1. Rock 3.57 1.27
2. Jazz 3.18 1.22
3. Blues 3.16 1.27
4.  Western Art Music 3.07 1.20
5. Pop 2.95 1.21
6.  Electronic/Dance Music 2.78 1.42
7. Latin 2.61 1.32
8. Reggae 2.43 1.28
9. Metal 2.42 1.42
10.  Traditional Turkish Art Music 2.37 1.13
11.  Turkish Folk Music 2.05 1.14
12. Rap 1.88 1.23
13.  Turkish Arabesque Music 1.77 1.72

accurately identified genre was Traditional Turkish Art Music followed by Turkish Folk Music.
Accuracy was between 50% and 70% in identification of Metal, Rap, Jazz, Rock, Pop, Latin and
Electronic. Blues and Reggae were identified with accuracy below 35%.
According to Table 3, Rock and Jazz appear to have the highest listening frequency while Rap
and Turkish Arabesque Music have the lowest listening frequency.

Comparison of preference, identification and frequency on the basis of musical

training (N = 205)
Results indicated significant differences between preference ratings and musical training. A
Mann–Whitney U test revealed those with musical training gave significantly higher ratings for
Rock (z = -2.50, p < .01) and Metal (z = -2.40, p < .01) than subjects with no music training. On
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Gürgen 465

the other hand, subjects with no music training showed a significant preference for Traditional
Turkish Art music (z = -.72, p < .05) and Reggae (z = -2.12, p < .05).
In genre identification, there were significant differences between the subjects with and without
musical training. A chi-square test indicated that subjects with musical training had significantly
higher scores for identification of all excerpts than subjects without music training (p < .01).
In frequency of listening to particular music genres, results also indicated significant differences
betweeen the subjects with training and those without. A Mann–Whitney U test revealed that sub-
jects with musical training gave significantly higher ratings for Metal (z = -2.26, p < .05) than
subjects without musical training. Mean ratings, standard deviations, percentages and p values are
presented in Table 4.

Comparison of preference, identification and frequency by gender (N = 205)

Preference ratings difference between males and females was found to be significant. A Mann–
Whitney U test revealed that females gave significantly higher preference ratings for Latin
(z = –5.04, p < .001), Reggae (z = –2.12, p < .05) and Western Art Music (z = -3.98, p < .001) than
males. Males had significantly higher ratings for Rock (z = –2.50, p < .05) and Metal (z = –2.40,
p < .01) music excerpts.
In genre identification, significant differences between males and females were found, with the
chi-square test revealing that males have significantly higher scores for identification of all excerpts
than females (p < .05).
In frequency of listening to music genres, results indicated significant differences between
males and females responses. A Mann–Whitney U test revealed that females gave significantly
higher ratings for Jazz (z = –2.19, p < .05) and Latin (z = –3.33, p < .01) than males, while males
gave significantly higher ratings for Metal (z = –2.62, p < .01) and Electronic (z = –3.78, p < .001)
music excerpts than females. Mean ratings, standard deviations, percentages and p values are pre-
sented in Table 4.
The relationships among preference, genre identification and frequency of listening were inves-
tigated by Spearman correlations (see Table 5). A positive correlation was found between musical
preference and the frequency of listening to all music genres. Moderate correlations were observed
between preference and the frequency of listening for the Pop, Electronic, Reggae and Blues genres
(r ⩾ .30, p < .01), while strong correlations were observed between preference and the frequency of
listening for the Traditional Turkish Art, Rap, Jazz, Latin, Rock, Metal, Turkish Folk Music, Western
Art Music and Tukish Arabesque Music genres (r ⩾ .50, p < .01).
The correlations are weak between identification and preferences for Rock (r = .15, p < .05), Metal
(r = .15, p < .05), Turkish Folk Music (r = .23, p < .01) and Blues (r = .19, p < .01) genres. However,
no significant relationship existed between identification and preferences of Jazz (r = .09), Latin
(r = .05), Electronic (r = .06), Western Art (r = .08), Turkish Arabesque (r = .08), Rap (r = –.01) and
Pop (r = –.04) music genres.
Weak correlations were observed between frequency of listening and identification of Metal (r = .14,
p < .05), Electronic (r = .15, p < .05), Reggae (r =.29, p < .01) and Blues (r = .18, p < .01) excerpts. There
was no significant correlation between frequency of listening and identification of Traditional Turkish
Art (r = .03), Rap (r = .04), Jazz (r = .06), Latin (r = .13), Rock (r = -.00), Pop (r = .03), Western Art
(r = .08) and Turkish Arabesque (r = .06) music genres.

Conclusion and discussion

The results of the study revealed an interesting finding: it was not Turkish music genres but Western
Art Music that rated highly in both the students’ musical preferences and reported frequencies with
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466 International Journal of Music Education 34(4)

Table 4.  Comparison of preference, identification and frequency by gender and musical training
(N = 205).

Genres Factors Gender Musical training

  Female Male p Yes No p

n = 120 n = 85 n = 72 n = 133
Traditional Preference* 3.59±1.0 3.45±1.1 .469 3.30±1.1 3.66±1.1 .029
Turkish Art Music  Frequency of Listening* 2.36±1.2 2.38±1.1 .785 2.31±1.1 2.40±1.1 .630
  Identification** 64% 86% .001 89% 65% .000
Rap Preference* 2.52±1.1 2.55±1.2 .980 2.48±1.2 2.56±1.1 .600
  Frequency of Listening* 1.84±1.2 1.94±1.3 .657 1.83±1.1 1.91±1.3 .728
  Identification** 57% 81% .001 83% 59% .001
Jazz Preference* 4.15±.8 3.83±1.1 .054 3.84±1.1 4.11±.8 .188
  Frequency of Listening* 3.34±1.1 2,94±.1.3 .028 3.14±1.3 3.19±1.2 .797
  Identification** 57% 76% .008 96% 49% .000
Latin Preference* 4.18±.94 3.50±1.1 .000 3.76±1.05 3.97±1.04 .102
  Frequency of Listening* 2.88±1.4 2.25±1.2 .001 2.60±1.3 2.63±1.3 .855
  Identification** 44% 67% .002 85% 37% .000
Rock Preference* 3.32±1.4 3.84±1.0 .012 3.88±1.13 3.35±1.32 .004
  Frequency of Listening* 3.43±1.4 3.76±1.1 .119 3.80±1.2 3.431.29 .050
  Identification** 60% 64% .591 75% 55% .007
Metal Preference* 2.84±1.4 3.31±1.3 .016 3.41±1.36 2.83±1.38 .004
  Frequency of Listening* 2.19±1.3 2.74±1.5 .009 2.75±1.5 2.24±1.3 .023
  Identification** 59% 84% .000 96% 55% .000
Pop Preference* 3.18±1.1 3.04±1.1 .304 3.01±1.13 3.18±1.10 .220
  Frequency of Listening* 3.03±1.2 2.82±1.2 .193 3.10±1.2 2.86±1.2 .183
  Identification** 53% 67% .052 71% 52% .013
Turkish Folk Preference* 2.70±1.3 2.76±1.2 .727 2.83±1.2 2.67±1.3 .354
Music  Frequency of Listening* 2.05±1.2 2.06±1.1 .765 2.10±1.1 2.03±1.2 .552
  Identification** 62% 81% .006 92% 59% .000
Electronic/Dance Preference* 2.84±1.3 2.68±1.3 .361 2.59±1.25 2.87±1.3 .140
Music  Frequency of Listening* 2.46±1.3 3.24±1.45 .000 3.04±1.5 2.64±1.4 .061
  Identification** 43% 67% .001 76% 41% .000
Reggae Preference* 3.87±.9 3.57±1.0 .034 3.56±.9 3.84±1.0 .048
  Frequency of Listening* 2.33±1.27 2.59±1.3 .152 2.42±1.2 2.45±1.3 .932
  Identification** 15% 57% .000 57% 20% .000
Western Art Preference* 4.15±.9 3.69±.9 .000 3.83±1.0 4.03±.9 .152
Music  Frequency of Listening* 3.18±1.2 2.93±1.2 .149 3.22±1.2 3.00±1.2 .188
  Identification** 74% 89% .011 97% 71% .000
Tukish Arabesque Preference* 2.75±1.4 2.87±1.4 .528 3.00±1.3 2.69±1.5 .121
Music  Frequency of Listening* 1.59±.9 2.01±2.4 .124 2.15±2.6 1.56±.8 .059
  Identification** 77% 89% .031 97% 73% .000
Blues Preference* 4.17±.8 4.22±1.0 .290 4.16±.9 4.21±.9 .829
  Frequency of Listening* 3.17±1.3 3.15±1.2 .906 3.35±1.2 3.10±1.3 .126
  Identification** 20% 54% .000 62% 19% .000

*Mann–Whitney U test. **chi-square.

which they listen to these genres of music. However, a review of similar studies in the literature
conducted with participants from different cultures yielded completely different results. For
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Gürgen 467

Table 5.  Correlations between mean preference, identification and frequency of listening (N = 205).

Musical genres Factors Preference Identification

Traditional Turkish Art Preference .09
Music  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .59** .03
Rap Preference –.01
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .54** .04
Jazz Preference .05
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .63** .06
Latin Preference .05
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .65** .13
Rock Preference .15*
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .66** –.00
Metal Preference .15*
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .65** .14*
Pop Preference –.04
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .39** .03
Turkish Folk Music Preference .23**
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .56** .08
Electronic/Dance Music Preference .06
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .36** .15*
Reggae Preference .12
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .34** .29**
Western Art Music Preference .08
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .52** .08
Tukish Arabesque Music Preference .08
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening .61** .06
Blues Preference .19**
  Identification  
  Frequency of Listening 47** .18**

*p < .05. **p < .01.

example, in the studies conducted in Hong Kong, China and the United States, Morrison and
Cheung (1999) determined that Chinese and American students preferred excerpts close to their
own culture. Likewise, Hui (2009) determined that students from Macau preferred Cantopop, a
genre of local music close to their own culture, to the other genres of music. In Ginocchio’s (2009)
study, it was not Western Art Music, but jazz that was most preferred. Ho (2003) reported that the
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most preferred genres were western music and the local popular music, whereas the least preferred
genres were traditional and regional ones among Chinese students.
Stalhammar (2006) suggests that today there are three major musical forces that determine the
musical identity of people: (a) the international music industry, (b) cultural background and (c)
learning environment. Therefore, it can be said that the social environment within which a person
feels a sense of belonging and the surrounding culture itself likely plays a decisive role. Thus,
social identity is one of the most important factors that affect the musical preferences of individuals
(North & Hargreaves, 2008; Tekman & Hortaçsu, 2002). The fact that Turkish Folk Music received
the lowest rating in the students’ musical preferences in this study might not be because of a disfa-
vor the students had for this genre of music but because of a prejudice the students had against
people who listened to this genre of music. In their study, Şenel (2013) investigated the relationship
between musical preferences and prejudice by interviewing 26 people, yielding qualitative results.
The participants of the study labeled people who listened to Turkish Folk Music as “poor”, “unedu-
cated” and “lower class”. The study also found that the participants labeled people who listened to
Western Art Music as “educated”, “elite” and “high-income”.
Another interesting finding was that, contrary to other studies (Brittin, 1991; Fung, 1996;
Ginocchio, 2009; Morrison & Cheung, 1999), those without music training had higher mean scores
for music preferences than did music students. The courses may have caused musicology students
to consider music listening as an obligation to be discussed rather than a joy. This may be a possible
reason for this result.
As expected, for the identification of music genre, music students had higher scores than stu-
dents without music education. In addition, male students were better at identifying the genres of
music than were female students. This may stem from the fact that, of the participants in the sample
group, those who played a musical instrument and those who were members of a music group were
mostly male students. In their study which suggested that music education was effective in identi-
fying music genres, Mace et al. (2011) concluded that those who received music education identi-
fied Western Art Music and Jazz more accurately and that those who did not have music education
identified Rap better.
The results obtained on the variable of gender revealed that female students preferred the
excerpts of Latin, Reggae and Western Art Music more than the male students did, and that male
students favored excerpts of Rock and Metal music more than did female students. These results
are consistent with the results of the studies of Christenson and Peterson (1988) and Colley (2008)
who suggested that women tend to prefer “softer” styles and males tend to prefer “harder” music
styles. Similarly, Hargreaves et al. (1995) found that female students preferred chart pop, reggae,
jazz, classical, folk and opera more than males did and males liked heavy metal and rock more than
female students. The results of Brittin’s study (1991) revealed that the female participants rated
higher scores for popular genres than male participants. Mace et al. (2011) also concluded that
Metal music was preferred more and identified more accurately by male students.
Another gender-related finding suggested that female students listened to Jazz and Latin music
and male students listened to Rock, Metal and Electronic genres of music more frequently.
According to results of many studies, Rock music is the most preferred genre among male students.
For example, Ginocchio (2009) asked 176 university students to listen to 19 different music
excerpts in order to investigate preferences with regard to different genres and observed that stu-
dents preferred Pop-Rock and Hard Rock. Similarly in the results of Lamont et al.’s (2003) study,
boys were more likely than girls to report listening to rock music, whilst girls were more likely to
report listening to pop and R&B music. Mulder, Bogt, Raaijmakers, and Vollebergh (2009) found
differences between the genders for musical preferences; girls preferred pop and urban, while boys
preferred dance music.

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Gürgen 469

There is a strong correlation between the musical preference and the frequency of listening to
music of all genres. It can be said that students who enjoy an excerpt listen to the music genres that
excerpt represents more frequently. When the other variables were considered, weak correlations
were observed between the frequency of listening to music genres and identification of all genres.
Again very weak correlation existed between preference and identification scores. According to
these findings, it can be said that the students were unable to identify accurately most of the music
genres they liked and listened to with frequency or they identified some genres even though they
did not like them. For example, Arabesque music was the most accurately identified genre whereas
it had the least listening frequency ratings (Table 1). Frequent exposure to local music genres in
daily life can be one of the possible reasons for this situation. Fung (1994), who reached similar
findings, carried out a study to investigate the relationship between the preferences, identification
and familiarity of 50 college students with regard to music genres of the world and did not find a
significant relationship between preference and accurate identification of music genres. However,
Teo et al. (2008) studied the relationship between the same variables with reference to non-Western
music and determined a positive relationship between preference and genre identification.
Similarly, in their study, Mace et al. (2011) determined a high correlation between preference and
genre identification in consideration of Western Classical Music, Jazz, Country, Metal and Rap.
The genres of preferred pieces were identified with accuracy, while the genres of the least-pre-
ferred pieces were not. Obviously the results from a range of previous studies have so far proved
inconclusive.
When considering the importance of music in young people’s life and their music consumption
outside of school, teachers’ usage of the various musical genres will make their music lessons more
effective (North, Hargreaves, & O’Neil, 2000). It is a reality that the culture industry produces new
musical genres almost every day. In some studies (North & Hargreaves, 2008), it has been reported
that students may prefer a genre just because of its popularity or their friends listen to that genre.
Therefore, learning motivation can be increased by detecting the preferred musical genres by the
students outside of school and by plannig the lesson programs according to their needs. Hui (2009)
similarly emphasized that students learn better when the music sounds good to their ears. Choosing
music samples based on the needs of the students rather than strictly following a textbook will
make their lessons more attractive and efficient. The investigation of musical preferences of the
students, which factors affect their desicions and how they identify the music genre they listen to
may make it easier to reach educational goals such as increasing motivation and learning.
This study includes 13 different genres of music used to determine preferences and genre iden-
tification. In the next study, one or a few of these genres will be chosen and more excerpts of each
genre will be included. It is thought that findings that are more valid can be obtained by conducting
detailed investigations of a small number of genres.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Julia West and Oğuzhan Gürgen for English editing. I am also grateful to Bülent Kılıç
for his suggestions on statistics.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit
sectors.

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Appendix
Musical Preference Inventory Recorded Selections.
Track Genre Performer/Composer Song Length (s)
1 Traditional Turkish Art Music Nesrin Sipahi Kimseler Gelmez Feryadıma 27
2 Rap Ice T Home of the Bodybag 24
3 Jazz Duke Ellington Honeysuckle Rose 25
4 Latin Ry Cooder El Cuarto de Tula 18
5 Rock Pearl Jam Once 25
6 Metal Lamb of God Hourglass 20
7 Pop Kylie Minogue Come into My World 20
8 Turkish Folk Music Fethiye Türküleri Yayla Yollarında Kaldım 23
9 Electronic/Dance Bob Sinclair The Beat Goes 25
10 Reggae Alton Ellis You Make Me so very Happy 15
11 Western Art Music Mozart A Little Night Music 19
12 Turkish Arabesque Music Orhan Gencebay Dertler Benim Olsun 27
13 Blues Sonny Boy Williamson Sad to be Alone 15

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