Lange Elke B, Gernandt Emily, Merrill Julia
Department of Music, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt/M, Germany.
Institute of Music, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2025 Aug;1550(1):227-238. doi: 10.1111/nyas.15404. Epub 2025 Jul 9.
In arts and music, exemplars are categorized into genres, but those are not static and change dynamically. In musical taste research, there are strong differences in number and width of genre categories, and it is unclear how category width (broad genres vs. narrow subgenres) affects liking evaluations. The use of broad genre labels has been strongly criticized. We address this issue by a quantitative approach, comparing liking evaluations of 15 musical genres with 100 embedded and two nonexistent subgenres (N = 804). We applied a wide range of analyses (correlations, regressions, random forest modeling, factor analyses). Results converge, showing that evaluations of the majority of nested subgenres were highly similar to the related genres. The nonexistent subgenres revealed evaluation heuristics, enhancing consistency. For some genres, liking of subgenres grouped based on historical (traditional-modern), cultural (German subcultures), or functional (danceability) reasons. The genre labels pop and rock were less appropriate. We provide a list of 24 genres to assess musical taste sufficiently for general applications. Importantly, the concept of genre for taste studies is still useful.
在艺术和音乐领域，典范作品被归类为不同的流派，但这些流派并非一成不变，而是动态变化的。在音乐品味研究中，流派类别的数量和范围存在很大差异，而且尚不清楚类别范围（宽泛的流派与狭窄的子流派）如何影响喜好评价。使用宽泛的流派标签受到了强烈批评。我们通过定量方法来解决这个问题，比较了15种音乐流派与100个嵌入式子流派以及两个不存在的子流派的喜好评价（N = 804）。我们应用了多种分析方法（相关性分析、回归分析、随机森林建模、因子分析）。结果趋同，表明大多数嵌套子流派的评价与相关流派高度相似。不存在的子流派揭示了评价启发式方法，增强了一致性。对于某些流派，基于历史（传统 - 现代）、文化（德国亚文化）或功能（可舞性）原因分组的子流派受到喜爱。流行和摇滚这两个流派标签不太合适。我们提供了一份24种流派的清单，足以在一般应用中评估音乐品味。重要的是，用于品味研究的流派概念仍然有用。
