Week 4: Music Genres & Mere Exposure Effect
Aashi H -
Welcome back everyone! In today’s post, I will be deeper diving into my MIM experience and the music genres chosen for this project.
MIM Experience
Today, I finished my training. I am officially allowed to start Gallery Guiding on my own! My position involves walking around the museum and interacting with patrons to make them feel comfortable in this new environment. There is so much to see!
I heard the orchestrion demonstration, saw a crystal flute, and experienced the STEM Lab in the upstairs gallery. I will continue exploring the museum in the coming weeks. I find it so fascinating, as there is a new thing to see every time you walk through a gallery. This month, the museum is celebrating Irish music, and they have a whole weekend filled with exciting festivities!
Preferred Genre of Music
Changing gears a little bit, now I will be talking about my research. In my blogs from the past two weeks, I have explained the questionnaire in depth. This post talks more about the musical aspect. My project allows participants to choose their favorite genre of music from the list below:
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Pop
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Rap
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Classical
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Country
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Jazz
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Rock
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Zen/Spa
Why? – These genres allow for a wide variety in music taste among the participants. Additionally, most participants will be teenage to middle-aged, as a majority of people working in fast-food restaurants such as Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Subway, and Starbucks, are high schoolers or college students. Therefore, they are exposed to these music styles, especially the most popular songs of each. Even for those who are not, the music under these genres is very well-known and is typically on store playlists.
Songs under each Genre
The biggest question that has come up over the weeks of my project is: Why are participants choosing the music?
There are pieces of music, such as “Weightless” by Marconi Union, that have been proven to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress. However, studies on the effects of music therapy do not let people choose the music participants listen to—it is always assigned.
This is unfortunate, as science has shown that there are numerous benefits that come with the familiarity of music, including but not limited to:
- A more intense emotional reaction
- Enhancement of previous (and emotional!) memories
- Increased engagement
- Positive associations with mood & memory
- Increased release of oxytocin (bonding, trust, love, happiness)
This is mainly due to the Mere Exposure Effect, which is the phenomenon where “individuals show an increased preference (or liking) for a stimulus as a consequence of repeated exposure to that stimulus.” (American Psychological Association (APA)) Essentially, one is more likely to have a positive reaction to music that they have already been exposed to in a variety of settings, rather than new, unfamiliar music.
Additionally, a study published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Journal delved deeper into the connection of music familiarity and cognitive brain functioning. They found that music familiarity was a crucial factor in keeping the participants engaged in the music. Further, many emotion, memory, and hormonal regulating parts of the brain, particularly the amygdala (emotion hub), hippocampus (memory), and thalamus (hormonal), were much more active when participants listened to familiar music, rather than unfamiliar. This study used pop/rock songs from everyday life.
In order to achieve this same connection with the music, participants will be listening to a playlist taken from the top hits of that genre from 2024. These songs have a variation in melody, rhythm, and tempo, ensuring that a participant will not feel too strongly of a happy or sad emotion while listening. The playlist will have about 25-30 songs, ensuring a wide variety in songs, in case a participant is not familiar with/dislikes a certain song.
These playlists are currently undergoing approval with a music therapist before being sent out in my surveys. After this step, I am ready to conduct my surveys with the public!
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