DIFFERENCES IN MUSIC PREFERENCES BETWEEN MUSICIANS AND NON-MUSICIANS

Abstract

The aim of this research was to check potential differences in music preferences between musicians and non-musicians. Music preferences were evinced by a short test on the topic (STOMP-R: Rentfrow & Gosling 2003), of the four types of music: Reflexive and Complex, Intense and Rebellious, Upbeat and Conventional, Energetic and Rhythmic. A sample of 209 students from the University of Niš (M=75; F=134), 112 non-musicians and 97 of musicians, were asked to give their opinion. The results of the t-test showed that there are differences between musicians and non-musicians as far as the preferences for one type of music or another is concerned. Statistically significant differences were found for the Reflexive and Complex music (p=.000), as well as for the Upbeat and Conventional music (p=.001). All statistically significant differences were in favor of the musicians. These results show that musicians prefer Reflexive and Complex as well as Upbeat and Conventional music, while differences don’t exist for the remaining two types of music. On the other hand, when it comes to differences in the preference for Upbeat and Conventional music, they can be attributed only to female subsample, so only female musicians differ from female non-musicians when it comes to preference for this type of music (p=.001), while male musicians don’t differ from male non-musicians, on the preference for thins genre (p=.213).