Age- and Sex-Related Differences in Music Requests on a Radio Show for Children

  • In research on the development of musical preferences, children are often asked either to evaluate musical pieces that have been previously selected by adult experimenters, or to give self-reports on preferences for different musical styles. This study involved analyzing a sample of 1,412 freely and publicly expressed music requests from children aged between 4 and 11 years taken from a German radio program, with regard to age- and sex-specific differences. The music was categorized into genres, as listed on Spotify, and examined using methods of music information retrieval provided by the Spotify Developer application programming interface. Results showed that, at younger ages, the requests were generally more evenly distributed across different genres. Regarding single genres, we observed small positive relationships between age and the likelihood of requesting the genres pop or electro and small negative relationships between age and the likelihood of requesting A capella, GermanIn research on the development of musical preferences, children are often asked either to evaluate musical pieces that have been previously selected by adult experimenters, or to give self-reports on preferences for different musical styles. This study involved analyzing a sample of 1,412 freely and publicly expressed music requests from children aged between 4 and 11 years taken from a German radio program, with regard to age- and sex-specific differences. The music was categorized into genres, as listed on Spotify, and examined using methods of music information retrieval provided by the Spotify Developer application programming interface. Results showed that, at younger ages, the requests were generally more evenly distributed across different genres. Regarding single genres, we observed small positive relationships between age and the likelihood of requesting the genres pop or electro and small negative relationships between age and the likelihood of requesting A capella, German songwriter, indie, theme songs, or children's music. Furthermore, we found that boys requested significantly more rock or hip-hop, whereas girls had a higher tendency to ask for pop. Finally, age- (but no sex-) related differences regarding the Spotify features of valence and liveness of the requested music were found, which were related to the preference for children's music at younger ages. The results thus suggest that previous findings regarding differences between boys and girls and an increasing formation of distinct genre preferences during infancy also apply to single song requests made on a radio show.show moreshow less

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Author:Markus von BergORCiD, Anna-Christina WolfORCiD, Jochen SteffensORCiD
open access:Gold - Erstveröffentlichung mit Lizenzhinweis
Fachbereich/Einrichtung:Hochschule Düsseldorf / Fachbereich - Medien
Hochschule Düsseldorf / Fachbereich - Medien / Sound and Vibration Engineering​
Document Type:Article
Year of Completion:2024
Language of Publication:English
Publisher:Sage Publications
Parent Title (English):Music & Science
Volume:7
Page Number:16
First Page:1
Last Page:16
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-46588
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043241288335
ISSN:2059-2043
Tag:DFG Publikationskosten; HSD Publikationsfonds
children’s music; children’s musical preferences; genre preferences; music requests; musical identity
Funding institution:DFG / zentraler HSD-Publikationsfonds
Funding number:532148125
Corresponding Author:Markus von Berg
Information on the Research Data:Data supporting the results of this scientific publication cannot be made openly available due to legal restrictions.
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 62 Ingenieurwissenschaften / 620 Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
Licence (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International
Release Date:2024/11/07
Note:
Funding:
Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 532148125 and supported by the central publication fund of Hochschule Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.
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