The present investigation, conducted on music students and non-music students as well as middle-aged subjects, had two aims. The first was to try to discover, through a synaesthetic bias, whether there is a difference in emotional reactions to the many musical modes in existence in Japan. The second was to make a comparison between age groups of the way in which melodies which differ only in one aspect, namely musical mode, are heard. The results show that (1) each mode produced a different impression, according to melodic type, on the listeners, but (2) there were additional differences in the emotional modal characters according to age group and to whether the listeners were musicians or non-musicians.
Regardless of the time and location, people listen to music. One may ask why people listen to music and what function it serves. This study clarifies the psychological functions of listening to music and the attributes associated with the individual differences found in these functions. A total of 916 participants between the ages of 15 and 88 were asked to rate various psychological functions of music listening and Big Five traits. A factor analysis identified the seven factors of psychological functions of music listening: "self-awareness", "emotion regulation", "communication", "tool", "embodiment", "social distance regulation", and "solace". The results revealed that the individual differences in the functions were the result of gender, age, and personality traits. The nature of these seven functions and future directions are discussed.
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