Why is this research being conducted?

Previous research on music engagement has tended to focus on younger or older adult samples1. The few studies that have adopted a lifespan approach are contradictory and inconclusive1. As the proportion of older adults is set to increase over the next few decades, it becomes ever more important to understand how people of all ages may use music2.

We conducted a replication study to investigate the reasons why people listen to music across the lifespan and to identify factors that may influence these reasons by comparing music engagement across different age groups.

How was this investigated?

The study distributed an anonymous online questionnaire.

The questions concerned the importance of music, time spent listening to music, music genre preferences (STOMP-R)3, favourite songs, reasons for listening to music (uses of music questionnaire)4, life roles, identity (AIQ-IV & I am task)5,6, and trait emotional intelligence (TEIQue-SF)7.

How many people took part?

400 people completed the questionnaire. The participants' ages ranged from 18 to 95 (M = 50.16, SD = 21.03) and were split into eight age groups for analysis: 18-24, 25-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, and 81+.

There were 204 males and 196 females.

125 were musicians or had musical training and 275 were non-musicians.

What are the preliminary findings?

The importance of music, the time spent listening to music, and participants' reasons for listening to music were found to decrease significantly with age.
The importance of music and music consumption were found to be significantly predicted by being younger, being a musician, a strong sense of identity, low emotional intelligence, and life roles such as leisure user, homemaker, or worker.
Musicians rated music as more important and spent more time listening to music than non-musicians.
Positive mood management was the highest-rated reason for listening to music across all ages.
Other significant reasons for listening to music included developing identity, negative mood management, reminiscing, reliving boredom, arousal, keeping up with current trends and social interaction.
Younger adults and males prefer energetic or intense music (e.g., rap & rock), whilst older adults and females prefer upbeat music (e.g., pop & country).
Adults were on average 21 when their favourite songs were released, 26 when they first listened to their favourite songs, and 32 when they most listened to their favourite song.

What can we conclude?

Music engagement was found to decrease significantly with age.
Identity was the most significant predictor of music engagement followed by emotional intelligence, and life roles.

What's next?

The present findings support the idea that music and our identity may be closely related. We might therefore expect listening to our favourite music to elicit a more positive sense of identity than popular or unfamiliar music. An experimental study will explore how listening to participants’ favourite song versus a familiar song from participants’ early adulthood, an unfamiliar song or white noise affects mood ratings and identity descriptions across age groups.

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References

Skeffington, S. J., Lonsdale, A. J., Rathbone, C. J., & Burgess, M. (2025). Music consumption: A systematic review across the lifespan. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xm458_v1
Christensen, K., Doblhammer, G., Rau, R., & Vaupel, J. W. (2009). Ageing populations: the challenges ahead. The Lancet, 374(9696), 1196-1208.
Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2003). The do re mi’s of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1236-1256.
Lonsdale, A. J., & North, A. C. (2011). Why do we listen to music? A uses and gratifications analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 102(1), 108-134.
Cheek, J. M., Tropp, L. R., Chen, L. C., & Underwood, M. K. (1994, August). Identity Orientations: Personal, social, and collective aspects of identity. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, CA.
Rathbone, C. J., & Moulin, C. J. (2024). Understanding the relationship between self and memory through the IAM task. Memory, 32(6), 803-818.
Petrides, K. V. (2009). Psychometric properties of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. In C. Stough, D. H. Saklofske, and J. D. Parker, Advances in the assessment of emotional intelligence. New York: Springer.

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