Music for hedonia and eudaimonia during pandemic social isolation

Abstract

The pandemic spread of the novel coronavirus and associated COVID-19 disease in 2020 prompted governments around the world to pursue strict containment protocols to minimize contagion risk. Although restrictions were interpreted more strictly in some countries than in others, widespread social isolation resulted on an unseen scale, leading to severe negative mental health consequences such as loss of hope, increased anxiety, stress, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbance. During this time, while governments were battling the health crisis, musical engagement provided key, individualized coping strategies for laypeople. This was first demonstrated anecdotally in captivating balcony music videos from Italy and Spain and later substantiated in large-scale, multi-country survey studies. This chapter reviews the emerging research literature on music listening and making during pandemic lockdown to assess whether and how music became a compensatory source of hedonic pleasure versus whether and how it satisfied the need for eudaimonic meaning in life during socially and psychologically impoverished times.

Editorial: Social Convergence in Times of Spatial Distancing: The Role of Music During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…While Mak et al and Hurwitz and Krumhansl did not find self-reported increases in musical engagement (for UK and US samples), other studies reported higher levels of daily musical engagement or an increased importance of music ( Cabedo-Mas et al , Carlson et al , Ferreri et al , Ribeiro , Janzen et al ). Quantitative reports of decreased audio streaming (e.g., Spotify) accompanied by increased video streaming (e.g., YouTube) of music during lockdown (Sim et al, 2020 ; see also Carlson et al ) point toward a possibly accelerated uptake of multimodal media for music consumption and potentially inaccurate introspections about actual use (Hansen, in press B ).…”

“…There is, however, no guarantee that the available survey studies provide a complete account of all aspects of pandemic coping with music. For example, no studies were conducted sufficiently early to capture the time around the pandemic declaration and the initial upsurge in lockdown restrictions ( Figure 1B ) even though online search trends suggest public interest in coronamusic peaked during this time (Hansen, in press B ). Different sampling periods and countries were, moreover, characterized by vastly divergent contextual circumstances.…”

“…Long before concerts were canceled and music venues were shut down, creative outpourings from professional musicians and skilled amateurs appeared, and new patterns of music consumption started spreading as “virally” as COVID itself throughout the world ( Fraser et al ; Hansen et al ). In fact, Google search trends for “music AND corona” suggest that musical responses to the surging outbreak took off already in February 2020 thus preceding the pandemic declaration by the World Health Organization on 11th March by several weeks (Hansen, in press B ). The abundant and diverse Frontiers Research Topic presented here arose out of this context.…”