Music and social identity: Stylistic identification as a response to musical style

2002-10-01
Tekman, HG
Hortacsu, N
One function of music is considered to be defining social identity for oneself and for others. This aspect of musical styles was investigated in the light of Social Identity Theory by examining how a college student population described fans of different musical styles. Respondents were questioned about their perception of listeners of six musical styles, two of which were indigenous to Turkey. Three basic dimensions that described the listeners of these styles emerged as the result of factor and scale reliability analyses. These dimensions were labelled the sophisticated, the sprightly, and the loser. Respondents associated these features with fans of different styles to different extents. The sprightly dimension characterized listeners of pop, rock, and rap best. The sophisticated dimension was most closely associated with listeners of classical and Turkish folk music. Listening to Arabesk, which is a style that is specific to Turkey, was most closely associated with the loser dimension. Consistent with the predictions of Social Identity Theory, evaluations by a person were affected by the attitude of that person towards a style in the cases of rock and Turkish folk music. Especially on the sophisticated dimension, respondents who liked rock or Turkish folk music rated the listeners of these styles closer to the ideal than respondents who disliked them. However, the self-evaluations of these groups were similar. Furthermore, respondents typically described themselves as being closer to the ideal value on the three dimensions than the listeners of musical styles they liked. These results provide considerable support for the idea that liking a musical style shows characteristics of group membership according to Social Identity Theory.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

Suggestions

Analysis of alternative rock scene through feminist standpoint
Bostancı Kutlu, Elif Cere; Ecevit, Fatma Yıldız; Department of Gender and Women's Studies (2020)
Music, as a social field, is affected by the patriarchal practices which are relevant in society. As an outcome of these practices: the knowledge regarding women’s experiences is being transmitted either insufficiently or distorted, which harms the gender equality both in the music scene and society. This study, fundamentally asks an overarching question such as: How do women’s experiences get constituted in the alternative rock scene? Additionally, with subquestions study examines that: How do women’s expe...
The relationship among individual differences in individualism-collectivism, extraversion, and self-presentation
Arpaci, Ibrahim; Baloğlu, Mustafa; Kesici, Sahin (2018-01-15)
Individualism versus collectivism as an aspect of culture and extraversion as an aspect of personality may help explain self-presentation attitudes, intentions, and behaviors on social networking sites. Thus, this study aims to investigate the individual differences and relationships among individualism versus collectivism, extraversion, and self-presentation attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. The Individualism-Collectivism Scale and the Big Five Personality Scale were used to collect the data from 311 c...
Designing effective anti-smoking public service announcements based on the independent and interdependent self-construals of smokers
Önen, Mutlu; Watson, Forrest; Department of Business Administration (2019)
The self-construal concept, which describes the self as separate from others or as connected with others, basically divides the self into two aspects as independent and interdependent. Considering the individualistic and collectivistic dimensions of culture, the self-construal concept has been well documented in many cross-cultural studies. However, the literature is mostly dominated by quantitative studies. This study differentiates from other studies in terms of applying two qualitative research methodolo...
Music and Soviet Power 1917-1932 (Book Review)
Pamir Dietrich, Ayşe (2018-07-01)
After 1917 musicians were subject to extreme pressure from the state to follow aesthetic standards determined by the government. State control over musicians was extended by Stalin in 1932 with the formation of the Union of Soviet Composers. This was a regulatory body whose mandate was to direct all musical activity for the government’s own political purposes. One result was that all Soviet composers were compelled to follow very specific regulations concerning the types of music they produced. This book t...
Design and emotion' in the context of social differentiation
Özlem, Savaş (2019-4-1)
Different social classes diverge in their goals, concerns and attitudes towards material objects. Therefore, consumption preferences reflect and reproduce social differences among people. As Veblen (1957) and Bourdieu (1984) suggests, diversity in tastes among different social classes is a crucial factor which situates material objects in the context of social differentiation. The empirical data that were detected from a larger study on attachment to and detachment from products suggested that different soc...
Citation Formats
H. Tekman and N. Hortacsu, “Music and social identity: Stylistic identification as a response to musical style,” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, pp. 277–285, 2002, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/65613.