The effect of the study and performance of world music on high school vocal music students\u27 preferences for world music

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the study and performance of world music on high school vocal music students’ preferences for world music. The following research questions were the focus of the study: (1) Does the performance and study of a particular piece of world music make a significant difference in high school vocal music students’ preference for world music in general? (2) Does the performance and study of a particular piece of world music affect males’ and females’ preference for world music differently? (3) Does the performance and study of a particular piece of world music effect the preference for world music of students who have lived outside of the Midwest differently than students who have lived in the Midwest? The subjects for the study, a pre-post, single group design, were students (N = 120) enrolled in the vocal music program at a large high school in the Midwest. The World Music Preference Inventory (WMPI) (Fung, 1994) was administered to all subjects prior to the treatment. During the six week treatment period students rehearsed the song Dravidian Dithyramb by Victor Paranjoti or Vamudara, a traditional Shona recreational song from Zimbabwe, Africa. Concurrently, the students received instruction on the culture and music of India or Zimbabwe based on the song that they were rehearsing. At the conclusion of the six week treatment, the WMPI was administered again, and t-test comparisons were used to determine if there was any significant difference between WMPI prettest and posttest means at the .05 level of significance. There were no significant differences found between overall WMPI pretest and posttest scores; between male and female pretest and posttest scores; or between the pretest and posttest WMPI scores of students who had lived outside the Midwest and those who had not lived outside the Midwest. Additional analyses undertaken to examine possible pretest and posttest WMPI Indian and African subscale differences also produced no significant differences