Musical Preferences as a Function of Stimulus Complexity of Piano Jazz

Gordon, Joshua A.; Gridley, Mark C.

doi:10.1080/10400419.2013.752303

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This empirical literature dovetails with theoretical accounts suggesting that aesthetic preferences depend in part on an optimum level of complexity for the perceiver (Berlyne, 1971(Berlyne, , 1974Walker, 1973). Thus, musicians may enjoy musical complexity (Berlyne, 1971(Berlyne, , 1974Gordon & Gridley, 2013;Heyduk, 1975;Orr & MUSICAL TRAINING, WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY, AND PREFERENCE 7 Ohlsson, 2005;Wundt, 1874) more than nonmusicians partly by virtue of their superior working memory capacity, just as visual art experts enjoy visual complexity more than nonexperts (Silvia, 2006;Winston & Cupchik, 1992).…”

Section: Musical Training Working Memory and Preference For Complexitysupporting

confidence: 59%

Musical Training Mediates the Relation Between Working Memory Capacity and Preference for Musical Complexity

Vuvan¹,

Simon²,

Dj³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Previous research has examined the relationships among cognitive variables and musical training, but relatively less attention has addressed downstream effects of musical training on other psychological domains, such as aesthetic preference, and the potential impact of domain-general constructs, such as working memory. Accordingly, the present study sought to draw links between musical training, working memory capacity, and preference for musical complexity. Participants were assessed for their experience with musical training, their working memory capacity, and their preference for musical complexity. Diverging from predictions based on vision research, our analyses revealed that musical training significantly mediated the association between working memory capacity and preference for music complexity. This significant mediation held even after a variety of sociodemographic variables (gender, education, socioeconomic status) were taken into account. Furthermore, the role of working memory capacity was domain general, such that the mediation was significant regardless of which measure of working memory capacity was used (tone, operation, or symmetry span). The current results develop a model of aesthetic preference that illuminates differences between vision and audition in terms of the multifaceted effects of complex skills training on cognition and affect. Moreover, they drive new work aimed at better understanding how domain-general constructs such as working memory capacity might interact with domain-specific cognition.

show abstract

Section: Musical Training Working Memory and Preference For Complexitysupporting

confidence: 59%

Musical Training Mediates the Relation Between Working Memory Capacity and Preference for Musical Complexity

Vuvan¹,

Simon²,

Dj³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Musicians recognize familiar musical phrases better than non-musicians, and they are better in musical perception as well (Besson & Faïta, 1995). Research results also confirm musician listener enjoys more than non-musicians on modern jazz (Gordon & Gridley, 2013). Even familiarity with music pieces can positively influence their preferences.…”

Section: Personal Attributes-basic Layermentioning

confidence: 61%

“…In a similar vein, V-I is the most preferred cadence, which never substitutes for any other progression as well as the inversions (Rosner & Narmour, 1992). Another study shows the enjoyment follows an inverted U-shape in complexity level of non-vocal music pieces; a moderate complexity level is the most preferred range from simplicity to hardly complex musical compositions (Gordon & Gridley, 2013). Teo, similar to Wapnick (Wapnick, 1980), shows that pitch does not significantly influence musical preferences, and both high and low pitch had played a part in musical satisfactions (Teo, 2003).…”

Section: Basic Musical Attributes-basic Layermentioning

confidence: 87%

Graphical Layout of the Musical Preferences Studies: An Overview on How the Studies on Musical Tastes Are Conducted

Tayyebi¹,

Demir²,

Nemutlu³

et al. 2020

ADR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Various studies have been exploring the numerous determinants form our musical tastes and some review papers classify them in a discursive manner to provide a more holistic understanding of the determinants. This study, as a similar endeavor, depicts the mains determinants of our musical preferences categorized with regards to our musical perception process via a graphical model. After dividing the internal and external factors, the model provides a layer-based structure illustrating both musical taste determinants and modes of investigation. This paper provides three layers of determinants. The basic layer reflects the trace of more fundamental aspects of music on our musical tastes, like tempo as well as aggressive or happy as perceived attributes. The classification layer discusses on the trace of some classes in musical appreciations, like genre and Big Five Model. As lastly, the skimmed layer, as the midst layer, illustrates the newly-developed factors summing up the determinants of our musical taste. The introduced three layers also classify the external determinants of our musical taste. Consequently, this study not only provides a more holistic understanding of the determinants but also reflects the gap among the conducted studies to provide a platform for further investigations.

show abstract

“…Aspects of this complexity that are amenable to a quantitative evaluation include acoustics (the dynamic range and the rate of change in dynamic levels of audio tracks), timbre (the source of the sound and the way that this source is excited), as well as complexity measures for the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic content of music (that are often based on time-frequency analyses) [12] . The so-called ‘optimal complexity hypothesis’ suggests that audiences prefer music of intermediate perceived complexity [13] , as has recently been experimentally confirmed for modern jazz piano improvisations [14] . It is worth to note that commercial success or popularity of music (as measured by the numbers of sales or listeners, respectively) is not determined by quality or complexity of music alone [15] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Instrumentational Complexity of Music Genres and Why Simplicity Sells

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Listening habits are strongly influenced by two opposing aspects, the desire for variety and the demand for uniformity in music. In this work we quantify these two notions in terms of instrumentation and production technologies that are typically involved in crafting popular music. We assign an ‘instrumentational complexity value’ to each music style. Styles of low instrumentational complexity tend to have generic instrumentations that can also be found in many other styles. Styles of high complexity, on the other hand, are characterized by a large variety of instruments that can only be found in a small number of other styles. To model these results we propose a simple stochastic model that explicitly takes the capabilities of artists into account. We find empirical evidence that individual styles show dramatic changes in their instrumentational complexity over the last fifty years. ‘New wave’ or ‘disco’ quickly climbed towards higher complexity in the 70s and fell back to low complexity levels shortly afterwards, whereas styles like ‘folk rock’ remained at constant high instrumentational complexity levels. We show that changes in the instrumentational complexity of a style are related to its number of sales and to the number of artists contributing to that style. As a style attracts a growing number of artists, its instrumentational variety usually increases. At the same time the instrumentational uniformity of a style decreases, i.e. a unique stylistic and increasingly complex expression pattern emerges. In contrast, album sales of a given style typically increase with decreasing instrumentational complexity. This can be interpreted as music becoming increasingly formulaic in terms of instrumentation once commercial or mainstream success sets in.

show abstract

Musical Preferences as a Function of Stimulus Complexity of Piano Jazz

Cited by 23 publications

References 23 publications

Musical Training Mediates the Relation Between Working Memory Capacity and Preference for Musical Complexity

Musical Training Mediates the Relation Between Working Memory Capacity and Preference for Musical Complexity

Graphical Layout of the Musical Preferences Studies: An Overview on How the Studies on Musical Tastes Are Conducted

Instrumentational Complexity of Music Genres and Why Simplicity Sells

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About