Miller Natalie P, Margulis Elizabeth Hellmuth
Department of Music, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 May 13;15(5):667. doi: 10.3390/bs15050667.
Exploratory listening encompasses the various ways, contexts, and levels of attention with which listeners engage with their sonic environment. This paper presents findings from qualitative research conducted with audience members during the concert tour. During these events, attendees encountered music from the widely successful indie video game, reorchestrated in a new context. Just as the game encourages exploration through open-ended gameplay, the concerts prompt listeners to explore how the rearranged music refers to and diverges from its use in the game. Findings suggest that attendees deployed their attention to divergent aspects of the music. While some attendees focused on specific musical aspects like recognizable melodies and instrumentation, others focused on the broader audiovisual and community aspects of the performance. Results also indicate that highly immersed listeners experience diverse thoughts, including those not directly about the immediate musical content. Positioning music-evoked imaginings as a way listeners become immersed in musical experiences, we report on how exploratory listening shapes the dynamics of attention, immersion, and enjoyment within musical and audiovisual contexts.
探索性聆听涵盖了听众与声音环境互动的各种方式、背景和注意力层次。本文展示了在巡回音乐会期间对观众进行定性研究的结果。在这些活动中，观众欣赏到了来自广受欢迎的独立电子游戏的音乐，这些音乐在新的背景下进行了重新编排。正如游戏通过开放式玩法鼓励探索一样，音乐会促使听众去探索重新编排后的音乐与游戏中音乐的联系以及差异。研究结果表明，观众将注意力分散到了音乐的不同方面。一些观众关注特定的音乐元素，如可识别的旋律和乐器，而另一些观众则关注表演更广泛的视听和社交方面。结果还表明，深度沉浸的听众会产生各种想法，包括那些并非直接关于当前音乐内容的想法。我们将音乐引发的想象定位为听众沉浸于音乐体验的一种方式，报告了探索性聆听如何塑造音乐和视听环境中注意力、沉浸感和愉悦感的动态变化。
