Reasons for liking music: Differences by country and gender among Australian, Korean, and American University students

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine whether reasons for liking music differ by country and gender among Australian, Korean, and American University students. Participants were 211 students in total; 62 Australian (male - 25, female - 37), 86 Korean (male - 33, female - 53), and 63 American (male - 27, female - 36), who all lived in their own countries and recruited from there. The Musical Taste Questionnaire was devised to ask students to describe why they like certain genres of music. Their descriptions of why they like music were divided into 3 categories: 1) Personal/Emotional, 2) Musical, and 3) Social reasons. 'ANOVA' was computed to determine differences by country and gender for the three categories of reasons for liking music. The results showed the following: 1) Personal/Emotional reasons were predominantly frequently cited reasons for liking music by all three countries' students (p < .0001). 2) Interaction effects were found by the 3 categories of reasons for liking music and country. That is, Korean students cited significantly more Personal/Emotional reasons than Australian students, but Australian students cited significantly more Musical reasons than Korean students did. 3) Korean femal students cited Personal/Emotional reasons significantly more than Australian female students. No other gender differences were found. The results suggest that reasons for liking music could differ by country and by females across countries.