Changing the Tune: Listeners Like Music that Expresses a Contrasting Emotion

Abstract

Theories of esthetic appreciation propose that (1) a stimulus is liked because it is expected or familiar, (2) a stimulus is liked most when it is neither too familiar nor too novel, or (3) a novel stimulus is liked because it elicits an intensified emotional response. We tested the third hypothesis by examining liking for music as a function of whether the emotion it expressed contrasted with the emotion expressed by music heard previously. Stimuli were 30-s happy- or sad-sounding excerpts from recordings of classical piano music. On each trial, listeners heard a different excerpt and made liking and emotion-intensity ratings. The emotional character of consecutive excerpts was repeated with varying frequencies, followed by an excerpt that expressed a contrasting emotion. As the number of presentations of the background emotion increased, liking and intensity ratings became lower compared to those for the contrasting emotion. Consequently, when the emotional character of the music was relatively novel, listeners’ responses intensified and their appreciation increased.

Liking music: Genres, contextual factors, and individual differences

“…As in many other studies (e.g. Hunter et al 2008Hunter et al , 2010Hunter et al , 2011aHunter et al , 2011bHusain et al 2002;Khalfa et al 2008;Ladinig and Schellenberg 2012;Schellenberg et al 2008;Thompson et al 2001;Vieillard et al 2008), these adult listeners initially preferred positively valenced over negatively valenced music. After repeated exposure to both types of music, however, responses became more polarized.…”

“…Frequency of exposure may also affect liking differently across individuals, as a consequence of differences in personality or other variables. In one study, Hunter and Schellenberg (2011a) reanalysed the data from the focused listening conditions of two previously reported experiments (Schellenberg et al 2008;Szpunar et al 2004, Experiment 2). As a group, participants exhibited an inverted-U shaped pattern of liking as a function of exposure frequency, as reported in the original published articles.…”

“…Gabrielsson 2001;Juslin and Laukka 2004;, and they generally prefer music that expresses positive emotions such as happiness over music that expresses negative emotions such as sadness (e.g . Hunter et al 2008, 2010, 2011a, b; Husain et al 2002;Khalfa et al 2008;Ladinig and Schellenberg 2012;Schellenberg et al 2008;Thompson et al 2001;Vieillard et al 2008). This preference for music that is positive in valence is evident even among individuals who have experienced damage to the emotion-processing centers of the brain, including the amygdala (Gosselin et al 2005).…”

The pleasures of sad music: a systematic review

“…Some individuals report that their preference for sad music is dependent on the time of day when they listen (Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014 ). Other studies have shown that liking of sad music increases when the listener is repeatedly exposed to the musical excerpt while distracted or mentally fatigued (Schellenberg et al, 2008 ) or when the music is preceded by multiple happy-sounding excerpts (Schellenberg et al, 2012 ). Empirical evidence that context can have an effect on one’s emotional response to music was recently found in a study in which participants who listened to music alone showed greater skin conductance response compared to participants who listened to the same music in a group (Egermann et al, 2011 ).…”

Female Listeners’ Autonomic Responses to Dramatic Shifts Between Loud and Soft Music/Sound Passages: A Study of Heavy Metal Songs

“… Parker et al (2008) reported that musical pieces tend to be evaluated positively if they follow bad musical pieces (positive hedonic contrast), whereas musical pieces tend to be evaluated negatively if they follow good musical pieces (negative hedonic contrast). Schellenberg et al (2012) showed that emotional contrasts between adjacent musical stimuli intensify listeners’ emotional responses, and the intensified emotional responses tend to increase listeners’ appreciation because music evoking strong emotions is preferred by listeners. Notably, hedonic-contrast effects have been particularly associated with responses to stimuli that are evaluated esthetically ( Parducci, 1995 ; Dolese et al, 2005 ; Zellner et al, 2010 ).…”