Research and Development Supporting the Music Talks Project

It has long been understood that music listening plays an important role among youth, particularly as part of their socializing activities, but just how important is music for young people? Can we safely assume that European youth find music to be important in their lives, or is music’s importance decreasing with the rise of new media? Might this vary widely depending on which part of Europe is surveyed, whether in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries or the Balkans, for instance? The EU’s Erasmus Plus-funded Music Talks project is enabling us to obtain a more precise and updated understanding of youth attitudes toward — and participation in — music as a basis for future innovations to nonformal education programs. These insights are achieved through our analysis of responses from a total of 377 completed questionnaires from Norway, Latvia and North Macedonia, along with 30 public Music Leader Profiles generated from qualitative interviews among 30 prominent leaders of diverse urban youth music activities in Bergen, Riga, and Prilep.

Music Talks is an EU Erasmus Plus funded partnership between institutions and NGOs in Latvia, Norway, and North Macedonia with the aim of developing innovative teaching materials for working with young people (ages 15-25) in non-formal education, with a focus on developing young people’s skills to discuss important issues through music as a tool for civic participation. The project partners are: Baltic Regional Fund (NGO, Latvia), Info front - Prilep (NGO, Macedonia), Tava mūzikas skola (music school, Latvia) and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Norway). Collectively, with a background in music education and youth work, the four European entities are joining their missions to develop an innovative approach that will boost social skills and facilitate inclusion through meaningful discussions about music among young people.

Executive Summary

To begin, as context we should note that this is among the first international-comparative studies of youth music attitudes in Europe since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is regarded as the most socially disruptive event since WWII. Among the more significant findings from this study were that across all three European countries youths report similar ways of sharing music with peers, favoring face-to-face over other methods. Additionally, over 80% of respondents indicated either “agree” or “strongly” agree in response to the statement “Music listening is an important and meaningful activity for me personally”. This result indicates a remarkably strong consensus, particularly when compared with the broad range of responses offered to such prompts as “I am politically active and concerned about my community”. Indeed, overall youth respondents indicate much more certainty about music mattering to them personally than their political activities or concern for their community. Still, we also note that those youth who frequently discuss music with peers are statistically more likely to be politically active and concerned about issues affecting their community. Fully 88% of respondents indicate they discuss music with friends “maybe a few times per month” and over 57% say this is closer to “a few times per week”. When it comes to listening to traditional music from their own country, a more complex picture emerges, with Latvia and North Macedonia showing some similarities while Norway stands out with some notable differences. Specifically, Norwegian respondents were least likely to indicate that they “strongly agree” with the prompt that they “listen to traditional music from your country”, comprising only 15.5% (versus 26.9% in Latvia and 26.4% in North Macedonia). Norwegian respondents were also most likely to indicate “Unsure” in response to this question, comprising 25.6% (versus only 13.9% in Latvia and 13.6% in North Macedonia). Less than half of respondents reported that they were personally able to describe music in a “technically detailed way” yet around to thirds reported that they like when others are able to do so (65.6%); this finding may suggest that there is an interest in learning how to more effectively describe musical sound.

Preferred ways of sharing music with peers were similar across all three countries, with respondents strongly favoring face-to-face over other methods; moreover, older youths were slightly more likely to share music via a link (URL) than younger participants. Another intriguing finding is that nearly 42% of participants admitted that they sometimes choose to conceal their true musical preferences. Some significant differences were encountered in the comparison of older and younger participants, as well as according to level of musical training, but overall there were notably few differences across nationalities from very different parts of Europe (Scandinavia, Baltic, and Balkan states). Our interpretation of likely reasons for these findings is offered later in the report.

Methods

Questionnaire

We administered our 35-question online survey to youth groups (ages 15-25) engaged in both music activities and non-musical settings in the three cities of Riga, Bergen, and Prilep. The survey instrument, completed by a total of 377 participants. The survey collected basic information about the respondents’ nationality, gender, age and level of musical training, and then explored attitudes regarding the importance of music listening, music sharing methods, music and self in social interactions, attitudes toward traditional and unfamiliar music, and music in civic engagement. In some cases, access for the data collection did not pose a problem, but in others we found great efforts were needed to reach prospective respondents at a time when they were willing to participate, which we attribute to challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic as well as “survey fatigue” in some institutions. Latvian chocolate was determined to be generally effective in motivating participants to complete the surveys.

As shown in Table 1, we managed to obtain a well-balanced representation of participants from the three countries (Norway 34.7%; Latvia 28.6%; Macedonia 36.6%). Participants were also compared in terms of two relatively equal categories of younger (15-18 years old: 53.1%) versus older (19-25 years old: 46.9%) as well as male (52.5%) versus female (46.4%) respondents.

As seen from Table 1, we managed to obtain a representative and comparable sample of youth from across the three countries, with sufficient numbers to enable inferential statistical analysis across different nationalities, ages, genders, and levels of music training.

Music Leader Profiles

In a parallel study, 30 youth music leaders from Latvia, Norway and North Macedonia were interviewed to provide their views of the challenges and opportunities faced by music educators and facilitators in Europe today.

Results

It has long been known that music plays an important role when it comes to emotional well-being among adolescents (Miranda & Gaudreau, 2011), and recent studies have suggested that youth engagement with music has changed during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic (Vidas, Larwood, Nelson, & Dingle, 2021). It follows that along these lines we aimed to explore how much young people listen to music, under what kinds of circumstances, how important it is to them, and how they share music with peers. In this section we will report on the findings (quantitative results) from our questionnaire.

Importance of Music Listening

In terms of music listening, we determined that 78.5% or our respondents listen to music for at least a few hours per week without simultaneous activities, while 94% play music for at least a few hours per week while doing other things. Moreover, 88% discuss music with friends at least a few times per month, and for 57% of the youth surveyed, discussions of music with friends occur a few times per week. In terms of age differences, 15-18 year olds reported considerably more frequent focused listening than 19-25 year olds (68.7% versus 31.3%, respectively). Additionally, the survey revealed the following points:

• 84.1% report music is important and meaningful

• 80.2% listen to cope with difficult situations and experiences

• 69.2% find music listening brings them closer to their friends

• 55.5% discuss music frequently with friends

We anticipated that young people would have limited understanding of what constitutes listening skills and lack skills such as the ability to analyze and describe for others essential elements of music. By many measures, however, participants listening was reported as skillful and reflective.

• 68.2% report that they frequently reflect on the music they listen to

• 39.0% of participants report frequent focused listening; 72.7% report frequent casual listening

• 75.3% report that music is easy to talk about

• 48.5% report being able to discuss music in a technically detailed way

• 65.6% report liking to hear others discuss music in a technically detailed way.

We may infer from these last two findings that many young people might aspire to gain a better ability to discuss music in a more technically detailed way. This outcome can serve as one basis for development of innovative approaches through the Music Talks projects.

Music Sharing Methods

We anticipated regional variation in terms of preferred methods for sharing music with peers, but little was to be found. Rather, the survey revealed broad similarities between regions in terms of music sharing media. Specifically, in all three contexts, sharing of music face to face (or IRL for “in real life”) was found to be most popular by a wide margin, followed by URL, Playlist, and lastly Recording, although there are minor differences across nationalities. The following figures demonstrate how methods of music sharing break down into demographic categories (Figure 1 and Figure 2):

The results suggest very similar proportions across the three countries with only minor differences (Figure 1), the only exception being older youth in North Macedonia who reportedly share by URL with relatively greater frequency (Figure 2). Specifically, North Macedonian participants (37.0%) reported using URLs much more often than Latvians (27.8%) and Norwegians (20.6%).

We presume that age differences (including that in North Macedonia) may be due to the fact that older youths are more likely to be busy with work and/or studies, with fewer opportunities to share music face to face, even though the latter is their preferred way of sharing music. Such financial pressures are likely to be a bit stronger in North Macedonia due to its economic conditions. In terms of age differences, younger respondents (15-18 year olds) showed a stronger preference for face to face sharing (56.0%) than 19-25 year olds (42.9%), which constitutes a statistically significant difference (p= 0.003).

Music and Self in Social Interactions

We obtained several interesting findings when it comes to music in relation to perceptions of self and peer group. Interestingly, 90% of respondents reported that they “frequently listen to music when I am alone” and 70% reported that music listening helps them to “cope with difficult situations and experiences.” More than half of respondents indicated they are either “unsure” or not confident in their ability to discuss music in a technically detailed way.

Another intriguing finding is that nearly 42% of respondents admitted that they sometimes choose to conceal their true musical preferences: “with some of my peers, I choose not to reveal what music I really like.” This corroborates previous research among youth in Japan (Koizumi, 2002), but is a quite interesting finding to explore more deeply in terms of which kinds of reasons and which kinds of peers. One might imagine some youths pretending to enjoy the Black Metal genre or extremely simple yet provocative songs such as “WAP” (number 1 hit of 2020) in order to be more fully accepted among some peers, or conversely, genuinely enjoying such genres and songs but concealing their love for this music among more serious, conservative or religious peers. Perhaps they genuinely enjoy folk music or classical music but sense that admitting this publicly might cause them to be viewed differently, so we see a need for deeper study of this topic.

Music as being an important aspect of personal identity was indicated by several measures:

• Those who report music taste as important for defining their generation against previous ones: 56.5%

• Those who report music taste as different from their parents: 67.1%

• Those who report strong dislike of certain genres of music: 69.2%

• Those who report love of certain genres of music: 90.5%

Attitudes Toward Traditional and Unfamiliar Music

Based on previous studies, we anticipated that young people would have relatively narrow listening practices with little interest in traditional and non-Western musics; However, we found that traditional music and non-western music was actually valued by the respondents. Specifically, 52.6% reported that they enjoy unfamiliar musics, 61.5% claimed to enjoy traditional music of their own country, 54.5% reported that they enjoy traditional music from other parts of Europe, and 47.7% reported that they enjoy music from other parts of the world.

Overall, broad similarities were also found between regions in terms of attitudes toward traditional musics and music listening in terms of enjoying traditional music from other European nations and from non-European nations. A majority of respondents from all three nations reported that they enjoy listening to traditional music of their own country; However, this was stronger in some locations than others, with 71.1% of North Macedonians reporting that they enjoy listening to traditional music of their own country, versus Latvians at 61.2% and Norwegians at only 51.9%. Interestingly, musical training was not associated with broader music listening practices; instead, broad music listening practices were reported by the majority of participants

Music and Civic Engagement

Previous research has explored how music activities, including music learning in schools, shape attitudes associated with civic engagement, including with respect to patriotism, nationalism, and social justice (Hebert & Kertz-Welzel, 2016). In terms of relationships between music, ethics and civic engagement, the questionnaire results were more nuanced. In terms of overall degree of civic engagement, 43.8% of participants report being politically engaged (”I am politically active and concerned about my community”), and 55.7% reportedly make an effort to stay informed, but only 31.6% consider themselves more politically engaged than their peers.

The majority of respondents reported not having particularly strong views on politics, community and civic engagement. When it comes to questions about political views, “unsure” was among the most popular responses. Age did not appear to impact this issue, and overall, the survey determined that the 15-18 year olds were not any less politically engaged than 19-25 year olds. Unsurprisingly, young people who have received advanced musical training were twice as likely as those without musical training to “strongly agree” with the statement “some of my heroes are musicians”, but the statement was relevant to all categories of participants. Among our participants, 73% report that “music inspires me to be a better person,” and 66.8% agree that “some of my favorite public figures and heroes are musicians.”

We anticipated that a high degree of music listening and music listening skills might be associated with civic engagement or that certain genre categories were associated with a high degree of civic engagement

• Frequently discussing music with friends is associated with a high degree of political engagement.

• 50.7% of participants who frequently discuss music with friends report being politically active and concerned about issues affecting their community compared to the 43.8% of all participants who report political engagement. (p=0.002)

• We also found an association between political engagement and enjoying traditional music of one’s own country: 52.6% of participants who report enjoying traditional music of their country also report being politically engaged compared to the 43.8% of all participants who report political engagement (p=0.000).

• World music and political engagement were also found to be associated: 57.0% of those who listen to world music are politically engaged compared to the 43.8% of the total population that report political engagement (p=0.001).

Discussion of Qualitative Data in Light of the Questionnaire read in page Interviews.

Concluding Remarks

In Phase 1 of the Music Talks project, our questionnaire results have provided a valuable overview to serve as a basis for development of innovative methods to be implemented and evaluated in later phases of the project. These findings were also reinforced by the richness of interview data from several prominent leaders of youth music activities in the three countries of Latvia, Norway, and North Macedonia. Our findings affirm that music listening is indeed deeply valued by youth, something they “love,” that enables them to bond with peers, and about which they feel with certainty relative to other more general concerns (e.g. politics and community). While many respondents also expressed a strong dislike for certain kinds of music, such tastes appear to be defined more by genre characteristics than geographic origin. Overall, we see far more similarities than differences across respondents from three rather different parts of Europe, including with respect to how music is valued, used, and shared. Correlations noted between civic engagement and frequent discussions of music with peers suggest that expansion of music activities may prompt youth to increasingly reflect on how they may contribute to improvement of their communities. We also see a rationale for developing methods that that enable participants to gain the ability to describe musical sound in a technically detailed way. It follows that we see several avenues to pursue for development of 10 research-based methods for informal youth education which are responsive to these results.

REFERENCES

Hebert, D. G. & Kertz-Welzel, A. (Eds.), (2016). Patriotism and Nationalism in Music Education. London: Routledge.

Koizumi, K. (2002). Popular music, gender and high school pupils in Japan: Personal music in school and leisure sites. Popular Music, 21(1), 107-125.

Vidas, D., Larwood, J. L., Nelson, N. L., & Dingle, G. A. (2021). Music listening as a strategy for managing Covid-19 stress in first-year university students. Frontiers of Psychology, 12. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647065

Miranda, D. & Gaudreau, P. (2011). Music listening and emotional well-being in adolescence: A person- and variable-oriented study. Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée, 61(1):1-11. DOI: 10.1016/j.erap.2010.10.002

July 2021