Music & Identity: The Final Results
Samantha Colleran, December 2021
A few weeks ago, I posted a survey in hopes to get a few responses to help with a final project for my communications research class this semester. After posting the link I assumed I’d get no more than 40 responses, but to my surprise, 162 of you lovely people offered your insight on what music means to you and how listening to music impacts your day to day lives.
My original plan for presenting the final results of this project was to make a powerpoint. However, the more I thought about it, I thought it would be really cool to share the final results in a blog post! This will be structured a bit more formally than my regular posts, and is a lot longer than the content I normally put out, but I hope you enjoy seeing the results despite that fact. Without further ado, I present to you Music & Identity: The Final Results!
Background
Everyone who knows me knows that music is the most important thing to me. Everything I do revolves around music; it motivates me to get through life, it gives me a sense of purpose and direction. I’m turning my love of music into (what I hope will be) a lifelong, successful career, it’s a lifeline for me. A lot of people in my life have influenced the way I consume music, and I wanted to take a deeper dive into how music plays an important role in shaping our identities as we maneuver through life.
Music is a tool people can use to communicate with one another. Our favorite artists can make us feel emotions we never imagined feeling in our lives, they say the things we can’t verbalize correctly, they’re a safe space to run to when we need to close ourselves off from the world. People can bond over their love for a certain song or artist/band and create long lasting relationships founded on their common love of music. Music is a supplement to some of the most important moments and milestones in our lives. Certain songs can transport you to any moment in time whether that’s good or bad. I wanted to scratch the surface of the complex ideas surrounding music’s ability to shape how we go about everyday life, and with the help of 162 participants, as well as close family members, I can confidently say I was successful in my mission.
Research Process
Time to get a little technical with some fun communication terms! For the purpose of this study, I collected and used two types of data; quantitative and qualitative. If you’re wondering what the heck those mean, I’ll break it down for you. Quantitative data is the type of data you typically think of when you think of data collecting, like numbers or pie charts! These sorts of questions address the “what” or “how many” aspects of data collection. Qualitative data is the non-numerical data that researchers collect, such as interview responses.
For the purpose of collecting data to answer my specific question, I decided the best way to go about conducting research would be an online survey and interviews. I created a Google form consisting of 13 questions which accumulated 162 responses, and I interviewed seven people total who were asked a series of 11 questions. These questions will be listed in the following categories as I break down all of the data I collected.
Research Findings Part 1: The Survey
Now, you know how I went about collecting all this cool data, but what did I actually find? This is the fun part where I get to break down the data for you and explain how 162 individuals feel about music in this section, and I’ll be analyzing more in-depth responses from my wonderful interviewees in the second part of my research findings!
For the survey, I asked my participants some general information like their names and how old they are. I won’t be sharing names in order to protect the identities of my participants. What I can share are some general statistics. Of the 162 total participants, 9 were between the ages of 13-15, 61 were between 16-20, 62 between 21-25, 7 between 26-30, 4 people were between 31-39, 11 were 40+, and 8 people did not share their age.
Following those questions, I asked my survey participants to tell me when they first remember listening to music, how many days a week they listen to music, and how many hours a day they spend listening to music.
- 48.1% of participants reported first listening to music between the ages of 2-4, 43.2% ages 5-7, 8% were 5-9, and 0.6% reported being 10 or older
- 150 people stated that they listen to music 6-7 days a week, which makes up 92.6% of our participants
- 43.8% of participants reported that they listen to music on average 2-3 hours a day. Only 48 people (29.6%) of participants reported listening to music between 4-5 hours a day, a number I expected to be higher.
Getting a little bit deeper into the listening habits of participants, I asked those who took this survey to pick up to three genres they listened to the most as children, and what they listen to currently. The results are pictured below, but some of the most interesting points I came across:
- Pop was the most popular and made up nearly all participant votes for genres listened to as a child vs. currently
- There was a 50 vote gap between the top two highest voted categories for the genres most listened to as children
- More participants said they currently listen to alternative as opposed to when they were children, while country lost a number of votes in the current music genre category
- Taylor Swift is her own genre, according to one participant
When we’re younger, we don’t have much of a say over what we listen to, so I asked participants to tell me a bit more about who exposed them to the genres of music they listened to as kids. 112 participants said that their parents had the strongest influence on their musical consumption, while siblings and friends were tied with 18 votes each, grandparents earned 6 votes, cousins 5 votes, aunts/uncles got 2 votes, and one participant said that AM rock radio stations had the biggest influence on their listening habits.
As we grow older and form new relationships and learn more about ourselves as people, we tend to find new ways to listen to music. 56 of the total participants said that currently, their friends have the strongest influence on the music that they consume. There were a lot of varied answers for this one apart from friends having an influence on listening choices, so I’ll list some of those below:
- A number of participants said that they facilitate their own listening experiences
- The Internet plays a vital role in people’s music consumption; with the world at your fingertips you can search for any song you’d like to listen to at any given point in time, as well as find people to give you recommendations online through social media apps
- Taylor Swift once again comes up as a direct influence on someone’s music intake. Christian Grey was another one, this participant cited the 50 Shades franchise for getting them more into R&B style of music, and I 1000% respect the dedication and honesty in answering this question!
Up next was a series of questions I asked my participants to rate how much they agree with. The major consensus I could gather from these four questions was that more than half of my participants believe that music can have an impact on shaping themselves, those they surround themselves with, and that they could not survive in life without music. You can see more in depth results below!
For my final question, I asked participants to give me a brief summary of what music means to them and how it can shape our identities. This was the most interesting question to me personally, and it was the one I was most excited to see responses for. Some people gave answers that were only a sentence or two in length, while others gave incredibly deep responses, both of which are appreciated! I wish I could lay out every single response for you here, but that would take forever, so I’ll share some of the biggest themes to come up throughout the responses.
- A number of people stated that they were able to find strong connections with friends they meet through the common love of music. A number of people said that a shared bond over certain artists/bands helped their relationships with family and friends become deeper and more meaningful.
- Generally speaking, music is an escape from reality; a number of people stated that it’s a stress reliever and helps put their minds at ease
- Music is a form of self expression for many people
- A number of participants stated that the music they listen to directly influences their style and their personalities. Being a fan of bands and artists is considered a strong factor in shaping a number of participant’s personalities.
- Music can influence our emotions, or help us to better express things we’re feeling but can’t put into words. Summer Walker’s most recent album, Still Over It, and Taylor Swift’s collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers, “Nothing New”, were two examples highlighted specifically
- A few people mentioned that music helped them come to terms with their sexualities and helped them become confident in sharing this side of themselves with others
- Different songs and albums can become the soundtracks to our lives. Whether we’re doing the most mundane of tasks or experiencing a life changing event, music can put a whole new meaning on these moments and help make these memories stand out in our minds.
- Music is a lifeline or coping mechanism for some; it helps them through the darkest of times and makes the good times great, and is generally a constant factor in people’s lives
- Some people cited certain artists that helped them through dark times. One Direction and Harry (Styles, we’re on a first name basis with him on this blog), Taylor Swift, 5 Seconds of Summer, and The Band CAMINO were a few artists who were credited as positive influences in people’s lives
I could obviously go on for pages about the thoughtful responses my participants came up with, but these are just some of the important highlights from my research. One thing I think we can all agree on is that music most definitely plays a part in shaping our identities, and its influence on us is a positive one!
Research Findings Part 2: The Interviews
Having all of the survey responses to look through was awesome, but I wanted to have a bit more of a personal touch. I asked some of the people I’m closest to in life to sit with me and have a chat about what music means to them. The interviewees consist of my parents, my brother Justin, all three of my grandparents (Grandma and Grandpa, and my Granny), and my best friend Jonathan. I asked them a series of eleven questions, and I’m so thankful they took some time out of their days to talk to me about music! Some of the questions were similar to the ones on the survey, but they were structured in a way that interviewees could give more detailed answers. Here are some of the questions:
- What is your earliest memory related to music?
- What bands/artists did you grow up listening to the most, who played this music for you?
- Do you still listen to these artists/bands today? Do you believe it’s because you grew up listening to them?
- What artists/bands did you listen to on your own when you were old enough to explore music independently? What drew you to this music?
- Were you ever ashamed of the music you listened to? If so, who made you feel this shame? Did you overcome those feelings?
- How do you feel certain artists/bands shaped your identity as a child? How about as a teenager? And now as an adult?
- Do you feel music is a vital part of shaping who we are?
Of course when I thought of doing research on music, I knew I had to talk to my parents since they’re the ones who made music a solid part of my childhood. The next person I thought of was my brother, Justin. Despite being twins, we’re very different people. I wanted to see how he interpreted the music we listened to as we grew up and how his own experiences shaped his music listening. My parents always say how their parents, my grandparents, had a major influence on their listening experiences, so I wanted to get their insight on music, especially since they grew up with a lot of the oldies. Jonathan and I have been best friends for years, but we’re both on very different ends of the musical spectrum (“I’m musical theatre, you’re everything else” as he so hilariously put it in our interview) so I thought it would be interesting to get a different musical perspective. There’s some really interesting points to break down, so let me do that for you.
Starting off with the grandparents, since they’re the ones who influenced the people who influenced my listening! Granny’s earliest memories consist mainly of piano and organ music; she talked to me about growing up in England, how her older brother Bob and father Raynor played piano and taught her how to harmonize. A lot of the stuff she was exposed to as a young child was church/chapel music, since she sang and played the bells in church. Granny also talks about neighbors of hers named Billie and Peter, who she looked to as aunt and uncle figures. She babysat their two boys and would sometimes stick around for Sunday dinners, where Uncle Peter would play opera for her. Although it wasn’t what she listened to most often, she explained that she gained a new appreciation for the art and associates those songs with good times at Uncle Peter and Aunt Billie’s. Grandma said that her grandparents would often blast music while cleaning and doing chores, while Grandpa says that his dad (my Pop) would play a lot of country western music such as Eddie Arnold, while his mom (my Nan) would play slightly more modern music, particularly Elvis. Granny informed me that the first song she ever remembers hearing was comedic and that she couldn’t sing it for me, but she fondly remembers her brother sitting at the piano playing the song for his friends and everyone singing along. Grandpa said he remembers listening to The Mickey Mouse Club, while Grandma spoke about Chubby Checker getting on TV and teaching people at home how to do the twist.
Some of the biggest names mentioned throughout the course of both interviews were iconic rat pack members such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett, as well as Elvis and The Beatles. Granny recalled a time where she saw Elvis’ first ever movie in her hometown in England, and that she was able to get a ticket that cost her the equivalent of an American nickel. Although it was a movie, Granny said that everyone treated it like it was a big show, and it was really special getting to hear that memory. Granny actually beat The Beatles to America, she arrived just before the British Invasion, so she wasn’t super fond of The Beatles because she was so immersed in the newness of American culture. However, she did mention that she saw commercials for the Disney+ Beatles special, and that it brought back all the memories of watching young girls go crazy for the foursome as they took their first steps on American soil. Granny isn’t huge on technology, so she doesn’t listen to music as often as she used to. She’s incredibly fond of the vinyl era, and wishes things were as simple as they used to be where you could just pop on a 45 single and call it a day.
Grandma and Grandpa both mentioned The Beatles, as well as The Rolling Stones. Grandma mentions other classic rock icons, some of which she actually got to see in person (forever envious of this, but that’s a conversation for another day). Hendrix, Janis, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Cream, these were just some of the names mentioned throughout our conversation. Both Grandma and Grandpa said that the biggest influences on the intake of this specific music was the people they hung out with at the time. Grandpa mentioned the fact he got into doo wop as he got a little older; bands like Jay Black and the Americans, the Platters, Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge. Grandma and Grandpa both still listen to these artists today, my Grandma has a whole stash of CDs she alternates between daily, most of the music on these CDs are some of the previously mentioned bands and artists the two listened to as children and teenagers. Grandpa said that his taste in music hasn’t necessarily changed as he’s grown older, rather that more artists come out and sing about similar subjects in new ways as the world changes and progresses. Grandma mentioned how Leslie Gore’s music has stood the test of time because she sings about relatable things, and Grandpa said Adele could potentially be this generation’s Leslie Gore because of the subjects she sings about in her music.
In terms of music actually shaping who we are, all three said that they don’t feel music plays a strong factor in shaping our identities. It can have the potential to, but it’s generally the people you surround yourself with who can influence you; music is more of a tool to enhance those good times and is something to turn to more for enjoyment than a factor in shaping people’s identities. Granny said that if you’re inclined to like music, you’re inclined to like music, but music itself doesn’t necessarily shape our identities.
Working our way through the ranks, Mom and Dad are next. This was the longest interview I had, and I think it’s because my parents know just how special music is to me. They raised my brother and I in a house where music was always on, whether it was the focal point of our activities or it was just background noise, it was always involved in our lives somehow. My parents are really open about their love of music, but having specific questions to guide their thinking brought up some new answers I wasn’t expecting or even thinking they would mention.
Apart from nursery rhymes, Mom’s earliest memory relating to music was Granny joining a cassette of the month club and packages coming every month with all sorts of new music. The Oak Ridge Boys, Neil Diamond, and The Village People are some of the artists Granny would listen to while doing chores around the house. Dad talks about road trips he would take with his parents and siblings, and how artists like Queen and Fleetwood Mac would play on the radio. Singing along to “Another One Bites The Dust” would help the time pass on the long car rides. Although neither of them could remember the first song they had ever heard, Mom said that Christmas songs are some of the first she ever remembers listening to as a young child. Dad says music was in the background constantly, so it’s hard to pinpoint a specific song.
My parents got to grow up during a pretty cool time for music, a lot of the music I love and appreciate now was just starting to come out. Queen, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5, Dolly Parton, and Kenny Rogers were some of the artists Dad cites as the most listened to as he was growing up. Mom also mentions the Stones, and how she was allowed to stay up late to watch them perform songs from Tattoo You on SNL when she was a kid. Both mentioned Van Halen, and how they were absolutely massive in the 80s. The “Jump” music video is a specific moment brought up, Mom mentions her friend Tara sleeping over so they could stay up late to watch it and jump around as they watched it on TV for the first time. Billy Joel is also a strongly emphasized artist. As New Yorkers it’s sort of a given that Billy Joel is a staple in their musical rotations, but Glass Houses is a standout for Mom because it reminds her of one of her best friends, my Uncle Michael. (Before even knowing this was one of her favorite albums, my brother and I also took a strong liking to this album, particularly “Sleeping With The Television On”. Kind of cool, huh?)
To my parents, music is sort of like a time machine. When you listen to and genuinely enjoy certain music, it becomes ingrained in you. Freestyle music and artists like Donna Summer reminds my mom of her childhood best friends, my Aunt Dorothea and Uncle Michael, while albums like Jagged Little Pill instantly bring her back to her first apartment she lived in with one of her college best friends, my Aunt Ellen. My dad talks about how hard it was to get your hands on music when they were growing up, and how if one of your friends had a certain album on vinyl or cassette you would all go to their house and spend the night listening to it as a group. He says he can always remember where he was the first time he heard some of his favorite songs and who he was with. My mom also brings up the fact that you can have your own personal connections to music, but when you’re in a group of friends you can all belt out the same song and all talk about different memories you’ve made with the song before knowing each other.
Since I’m such a cassette and vinyl geek, I veered off topic for a moment to ask about the first physical product they owned. Dad’s was one I wasn’t expecting, Raising Hell by Run D.M.C. He said it was a cassette that was impossible to get your hands on, but Grandma and Grandpa somehow managed to snag a copy for Christmas. Mom says she had so many cassettes growing up because of Granny’s cassette of the month subscription, but she thinks her’s was an AC/DC record from a local shop that was open at the time. She did talk about her beloved Walkman, and how she wouldn’t leave home without it, and one of her favorite albums to listen to was Licensed To Ill by the Beastie Boys.
As Mom got older, she of course still loved her AC/DC and metal bands, and mentions one of her first big purchases was front row AC/DC tickets that she had to buy out of the newspaper. As she got older, she met some new friends (Greg and Teddy and Kenny), who introduced her to new wave music. Depeche Mode, The Smiths and Morrissey, and Echo & The Bunnymen are a few artists she mentions as making up her later teen years. Dad talked about old school rap, which was just rap then. Memories of him and two of his best friends, my Uncle John and Uncle Dave, going to the local record store with their birthday money and buying CDs for artists like Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J (Mamma Said Knock You Out is a specific album mentioned), and Third Base. Dad says that Third Base is probably his favorite among those mentioned because it reminds him of spending weekends drinking with Uncle Dave and Uncle John and getting lost in the music. Mom said that when her and my dad got married and started to combine their music collections, they had doubles of so many albums. LL Cool J, Lisa Loeb, Pearl Jam, it’s so interesting to know that they discovered these artists on their own and had memories made prior to knowing each other, but they were then able to make new memories with the same music at a new point in their lives. The more I think about it, the more I fall in love with music’s ability to connect people.
Becoming parents seems to have had an impact on my parent’s listening experiences. Mom brings up certain artists that my brother and I have shown her; Dominic Fike and Orville Peck are two examples of people she says she may not have listened to if my brother and I hadn’t introduced her to their music. They also get to experience my brother and I finding the music they grew up with, Foo Fighters are a specific example. Dad talks about how he feels like he grew up with Dave (Grohl, once again we’re on a first name basis with him here) because he watched Nirvana take over the grunge world, he watched Dave take his frustrations and anger about losing a friend and turn that into what is 26 years later known as the Foo Fighters. They’re still touring and making music, and Dad gets to look back fondly on where he was when he first heard songs like “My Hero”, but now he can make new memories with those songs as a father and a husband.
My parents are pretty open to listening to a lot of music, but there are a few things they aren’t too keen on. My mom still doesn’t understand twangy country, which my dad has started to embrace because country music reminds him of my Nan and Pop, and both of my parents agree that new rap doesn’t compare to old school rap. Dad also talks about his appreciation for boy bands, and how that influenced some of his style choices as he grew up. He doesn’t have frosted tips anymore, but you can always count on him to bust out the entirety of “I Want It That Way” without missing a single beat.
Both of my parents can agree that music is a vital part of shaping who we are. Dad thinks of not having certain albums in his life, like Pearl Jam’s Ten, and he can’t imagine living without it. He says they were so different and Eddie Vedder was such a powerhouse, he doesn’t know what grunge would have been like without Pearl Jam’s influence, or what his music library would be if Pearl Jam hadn’t stepped onto the music scene. Mom mentions how “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is forever going to remind her of her dad, my Grandpa Jim who is sadly no longer with us, because he loved Brenda Lee and that song was one of his favorite Christmas songs. She also says how so many people associate AC/DC with her because she was and still is that rock loving girl at heart. One Direction and Fleetwood Mac remind my parents of me, she mentions crying after hearing a Fleetwood Mac song on the radio after I left for college, and they associate Billy Joel and Beastie Boys with my brother. “People’s personalities are reflected in things they love, and one of those things is music,” Mom said, and I think that sums it up perfectly.
Onto our final interviewees, Justin and Jonathan. I decided to group these two together because they’re the two closest people in life to me, and they had some interesting overlapping thoughts. A lot of the music Jonathan listened to as a child was because of his grandparents. Summers in Florida driving around with his grandpa listening to The Rolling Stones and The Temptation’s “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” set the scene for Jonathan’s early musical influences, while Justin talks about movie and TV related music, the Batman (1989) opening theme and the official Spongebob Squarepants soundtrack we had on CD that we played to death. Jonathan also spoke about music in movies that stood out to him in his childhood, one of the most important being “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard Of Oz. He talked about how his grandma loved the movie and still does, and he never really registered the fact it was a song until he got older, it felt more like it was part of the story than an actual song. Justin talked about our parents playing the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown on weekend mornings, and songs like “Wake Up Call” by Maroon 5 and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie being featured on the countdown.
Jonathan talks highly of his grandparents music taste, they introduced him to all the classic rock music we both adore today. The Rolling Stones and anything Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks were playing constantly when he would visit them. The Fleetwood Mac influence stuck a bit stronger than the Stones and led Jonathan down a path of the likes of Florence + The Machine and Hozier as he got a bit older, and he says that “Dog Days Are Over” is still his ultimate summer anthem because of all the memories he has with that song. Foo Fighters, AC/DC, Eminem, and Beastie Boys are the big names Justin mentioned, which would influence later listening choices such as backtracking to Queen and old school rap like LL Cool J. Justin also mentions my parents love for the 80s, and that all the classic singles of the 80s were in constant rotation in our house.
Jonathan talks about his parent’s taste in music being more late 90s and early 2000s, but the second he found his own corner of music he went in the complete opposite direction and fell straight into the world of hard rock, most prominently Pierce The Veil. PTV consumed his musical taste, other artists along similar paths like Sleeping With Sirens and All Time Low would make their way into his rotation, but PTV had the strongest impact. Their lyrics and music were “exactly what he needed at that time in life”. He’s distanced himself a bit from Pierce The Veil because he’s grown so much from the person he was in middle school, but expressed how thankful he was for finding their music at the perfect time in life.
As soon as freshman year of high school hit, Jonathan took a completely different musical direction and fell into the world of musical theater. The world of theater is its own beast, and there’s so much to uncover and so much music to get lost in. When Jonathan found theater soundtracks and started discovering more and more music, he knew he wanted to pursue it full time and dove head first into theater. Justin talked about learning more about Queen and the incredible discography they produced. Justin said that he got really interested in Queen when hearing one of their songs featured on The Suicide Squad soundtrack, and he fell down a rabbit hole. Some of the more popular Queen songs are more anthemic, but it’s the deeper tracks that can get really personal, and that’s what drew Justin in. Another classic rock band discovered through a movie soundtrack is Electric Light Orchestra. After hearing “Mr. Blue Sky” on The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 soundtrack, he got into an ELO phase and learned to appreciate more of their music apart from the popular singles. He also talks about one of his roommates, Max, introducing him to a number of new artists, particularly Dominic Fike, and how the two discovered Silk Sonic together.
At this point in their lives, Jonathan and Justin are both in college taking on different careers, but both still incredibly art driven. As an NYU Tisch student, Jonathan’s entire life is eating, sleeping, and breathing musical theater. Justin is an English major with a film minor, and any free time he has is spent digging into the history of movies and TV. Although he sticks to the 70s/80s classic rock genres, Justin has said that recently he’s been getting into musical movie soundtracks; Little Shop Of Horrors, Tick, Tick… Boom!, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and even the South Park movie soundtrack which he swears is a musical to some degree, are some of the most listened to albums for Justin at the moment. He also says that joining a fraternity and listening to the music they play at their parties has brought up a lot of memories of early 2000s music he forgot about, and we both agreed that it makes us feel really, really old. Jonathan said that his appreciation for music has grown a lot more as he’s gotten older. He used to be a person who needed silence to get things done, but has now been turning to music and making playlists to listen to while he does laundry or goes grocery shopping.
Both Jonathan and Justin agree that music is a vital part of shaping who we are. Speaking more on movie soundtracks, Justin says that if Dad hadn’t introduced him to movies like Batman (1989) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid, he wouldn’t have found the appreciation and love of movies he has now. Those music intros, he said, will stick with him forever and seeing how music can set the tone for a movie sparked something in him and led him to becoming an avid movie lover. Not only does it shape ourselves, but Justin talked about how his love for Queen brought him closer to two of his friends, Nico and David. He said that listening to Queen with those two are memories that’ll stay with him forever, even though they weren’t doing the most life changing things the music still enhanced those memories for him, and that’s so special.
Jonathan made a really great point; art in any form is something we consume daily, especially living through a pandemic in a technology centric focused world, people turned to art more than ever as an escape from life. We communicate through music, but it’s become a source of entertainment and even therapy, and it’s such a wonderful thing to be able to turn on a song by an artist you love and hear them talk about the exact things you’re feeling. Since we are a world that’s so focused on technology, we have the ability to listen to so much music. As a final thought, Jonathan encouraged everyone reading this at home to never limit the music you consume. Different types of music can teach you how different people view the world, but you can also learn more about yourself by listening to new music, and it’s important to keep an open mind.
One thing that was relieving to know about all participants is that they never faced any feelings of shame surrounding the music they listen to. My parents and grandparents all said that there were people in life that would make comments, but they never let it get to them. Granny said that half the people who made comments about the stuff she listened to, particularly opera, couldn’t sing themselves, so she wasn’t bothered by their remarks. However, Justin and Jonathan both brought up an interesting point. Since they were listening to genres that weren’t popular in high school (Justin on the classic rock wave, Jonathan immersing himself in musical theater), there was a sense of isolation in conversations. Although no one outwardly shamed them for what they were listening to, there was still a small part of them that wished they were able to listen to the same thing as their peers and be part of the conversation at times. Both said that they don’t care about that now, but at the time it was a bit isolating to not fully understand popular culture.
Research Reflection
If you’re still here, thanks for sticking around! I know this was a really in-depth post, but I promise we’re almost done. There’s a few more important notes to touch on before I conclude this post, and I hope you’ll read to the end.
First off, let’s get into the survey. One of the things I thought would be the most challenging was actually getting people to answer the survey. This proved to be the easy part; after I posted it to a vinyl Facebook group I’m part of and to my Instagram page, I received over 100 responses in less than two days. One thing I wished I had done differently as soon as I saw the number of responses I had to go through was to have participants select their age range as a multiple choice question so I didn’t have to go through each response to gather data about age ranges.
For the questions about the genres of music listened to as children vs. currently, I should have added more genres for people to select from. I restricted myself and participants by only adding a few choices, which caused many people to fill out the “Other” option with their own responses. I also think adding more options for the current music influences would have been beneficial. Adding an option for “Self” and “The Internet” definitely would have eliminated people having to type it in manually.
I also feel as though my agree/disagree statement “I could survive in life without music” was worded in such a way that if you read it too fast you could misinterpret it. While watching some of the results roll in before closing the form, there was a point where more people agreed than disagreed with the statement. Maybe that’s just my musical brain not being able to comprehend people being able to live without music, but ensuring my questions and statements are worded better is something I’ll keep in mind for future surveys and research projects.
In terms of the interviews, I feel everything went fairly well. As the conversations flowed naturally, some of my questions were answered without my having to ask them. If I had more time, I would have really liked to interview a few more people and broaden my interviewee pool.
If you’re thinking of doing a research project on something you’re interested in, I say go for it! It’s a lot of work, but in the end you’ll find new insights or pieces of information you never thought of. You all know how much I love music, but going through this process has made me appreciate other people’s thoughts related to music a lot more. Sometimes I get really focused on how I feel about certain music; getting to interview people like my grandparents who grew up in such a musically different time made me appreciate their views on music a lot more.
So, does music actually shape our identities? Although a few of my interviewees said no, nearly everyone who took part in the survey, as well as my parents, brother, and best friend, all said that music plays a part in shaping our identities. It can be a small factor such as simply just enjoying listening to music. It can be a large factor for most; defining personality traits, outward presentation such as style, and can quite literally be a lifeline for people to hold onto when things get really bad. Music is most definitely something that can help shape who we are, and I believe this research can prove that fact.
Thank you once again to anyone who participated in the survey, your responses mean the world to me. Thank you to my awesome interviewees who set aside some time for me during the busiest time of the year and gave me really fantastic data to work with, and a really huge thank you to my parents for raising me in a music loving household. A special thank you to my professor for being so kind and encouraging throughout this entire process, I don’t know if a student has ever turned in a blog post as a final project so I hope this was something interesting for you to see! If you’ve read this far, thank you for doing so! This was a very different post than my normal content, but I hope you found it as interesting to read as I did to actually collect and analyze all of this data.