Musical preferences may change with age
by Jacob Freeman Nkouka
In a recent conversation, one of my fellow freshmen at Notre Dame noted that their parents do not enjoy listening to newer pop music. Later, at lunch, my dormmates commented that songs their grandparent listened to were too “dull.” Why do these differences in preferences? Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, researchers have found that there are multiple reasons.
In a larger metastudy, looking at 21 prior studies of this issue, the psychologist David J. Hargreaves and colleagues discuss several theories that might explain why and how musical preferences change for children and adolescents. As a guiding principle, Hargreaves introduces the concept of “open-earedness” to describe the phenomenon that children are “more readily able to listen to and maybe also enjoy unconventional or unusual (e.g., ‘avant garde’, aleatory, or electronic) musical forms.” This may be due to them not fully acculturating to the normative standards of “good taste” compared to older children.
Following Hargreaves, Albert LeBlanc proposed that younger children are more open-eared which declines upon adolescence, even as it slightly rebounds in young adults and declines again in old age. This hypothesis is supported by most studies examined in Hargreaves’s metastudy. For example, LeBlanc and colleagues compared art music, traditional jazz, and rock, and found preferences to be greater in adulthood compared to adolescence and old age for all genres. Another example is Sam Taylor’s finding that preferences for twentieth-century composers were greater with age (12-20 years old) but less for later baroque composers.
Another researcher, Daniel Ellis Berlyne, claimed that continued exposure to a particular piece of music makes it easier to understand, less erratic, and less complex. This, in turn, increases liking that piece. According to Hargreaves, this theory suggests that aging leads to a greater preference for complex music. As modeled in Hargreaves’s Figure 16.3 a, children would perceive a simple Song B as moderately arousing but more complex Song C may be uninterpretable. However, the graph shifts from right to left for older people (Figure 16.3 b) as Song C is moderately arousing but Song B becomes simplistic.
Yet data from another study reported by Adrian C. North and Morris B. Holbrook suggest a difference with Berlyne’s theory. In that study, participants aged 9-78 were asked to nominate their most renowned pop musicians. In the top 10 list for each group, the nominated artists were those who peaked in fame during the participant’s adolescence/early adulthood. As North puts it, “what constitutes as ‘music’ does not evolve over time, and instead becomes fixed during the adolescence/early adulthood ‘critical period’.” This may explain why some musical preferences remain consistent throughout life.
In a different study Arielle Bonneville Roussy and colleagues offer another explanation of trends in musical preference across the ages. A music personality test collected data from volunteers between 2003 and 2013 and respondents were evaluated on their likeness of 21 musical genres. This was then analyzed in three age groups (age 12-19, adolescence, age 20-39, young adulthood, and age 40-65, middle adulthood) under a MUSIC model: “mellow” music included new age, electronica/dance, and international/world music since they were viewed as relaxing. Religious, pop, and country music was characterized as “unpretentious” due to their simple nature. Jazz, bluegrass, folk, opera, classical, and gospel were considered “sophisticated” as attributed to their deepness and inspiration. Heavy metal, punk, and rock were categorized as “intense” since they were perceived as aggressive. Lastly, “contemporary” music encompassed rap, soul/R&B, reggae, and funk.
As shown in Figure 1, Roussy found an upward trend for the preferences of unpretentious and sophisticated music from adolescence to middle adulthood. However, intense and contemporary music indicated the opposite effect as there is a steady decline from young adulthood to middle adulthood. The mellow category differed from these two trends with a rapid increase in preference from adolescence to young adulthood which then declines in middle adulthood. This resurfaces near the end of middle adulthood.
One way to analyze why preferences change with age is to use Erik Erikson’s model of the psychosocial stages of development : since adolescents are struggling to develop a coherent identity, they resonate with the rebellious connotations of intense music seeking to “establish a sense of independence or autonomy.” Once self-identity is formed in early adulthood, the focus is on creating intimate bonds of love. Contemporary and mellow music are considered “romantic, emotionally positive, and danceable,” reinforcing intimacy. This shows why young adults prefer these types of music. Middle adulthood is marked by challenges of maintaining friendships, raising a family, and developing a career. Preferences for unpretentious and sophisticated music peaked during this stage. Unpretentious music has themes about love and family which may appeal to adults raising children. Sophisticated music is associated with high culture which attracts those establishing social status and career success.
Another factor to consider is the development of changes in auditory perception. Roussy explains that with age, people lose the capacity to hear high-pitched and soft sounds and may develop hyperacusis, a decreased tolerance to certain sound frequencies. Since intense and contemporary music tend to have high intensity and volume, it may be painful to hear and less enjoyable for older listeners.
Something to keep in mind are social factors can influence one’s taste in music. A study by Tom F.M. ter Bogt and colleagues found that an integrational continuity of musical preferences may exist between parents and adolescents. In this study, two-parent families were randomly selected to answer a Music Preference Questionnaire on a scale of 1 (very bad) – 5 (very good) about their likeness to musical genres.
Parents were asked about genres that were popular during their adolescence such as Pop (top 40, soul, disco), Rock (rock, alternative), and Highbrow (classical music, jazz). Adolescents were asked about the same genres that were mainstream to them. This included: Pop (top 40, R&B, hip-hop), Rock (rock, heavy, metal, punk), Highbrow (classical music, jazz), and Dance (house/trance, club/mellow). Interestingly, mothers and fathers liked Pop which is also shown by boys and girls. Rock and Highbrow were liked less in comparison to Pop but their children demonstrated this preference to a significantly lesser degree. Another striking finding was a higher correlation between mother and daughter preferences for Pop compared to the father-daughter relationship. However, for Rock and Highbrow, the difference is not as significant between the mother’s or father’s influence on the daughter. Sons displayed a weaker correlation for Pop and Rock in relation to either parent. Interestingly, there was a stronger correlation for Highbrow music for both the mother-son and father-son relationship relative to the daughters.
Ter Bogt suggested that these intergenerational similarities likely stem from parents playing music around their children or persuading them to engage in musical activities such as attending concerts, playing instruments, or singing together. Perhaps this could be intentionally done to influence children to favor one genre over others.
Thus, musical preferences can change not only because of our developmental stages in life but also because of our predisposition and environment. It’s imperative to keep in mind, however, that there are instances when musical preferences may not change due to stagnant tastes. The various influences on musical preferences require a multi-faceted approach that needs to be analyzed through different lenses, just like how we interpret music from different perspectives.