Engagement with music in everyday life : and in-depth study of adults' musical preferences and listening behaviours

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the role of music in adults' daily lives by exploring why they choose to listen to certain musical styles and pieces over others, and how and why they use their preferred music in everyday contexts. Whilst there has been a growth in the number of studies over the past two decades in music psychology exploring factors such as motional responses to music, links between personality types and preferences, and uses of music in everyday contexts, no studies had hitherto provided insights into how such factors interrelate to explain what music means to people and how they choose to use it in a range of everyday settings to fulfil particular goals. Adopting a phenomenological approach and employing mixed methods, a series of four empirical studies exammed short- and long-term engagement with music with a sample of over 300 adults.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo