lit review

In response to classical music's widespread decline in popularity, we have witnessed a frenzied upheaval of advertising techniques among American classical music organizations. The Boston Pops Orchestra elongated their summer program, the Los Angeles Philharmonic created a kid-friendly version of the Ring Cycle and the Dallas Symphony now regularly invites rock groups to perform alongside their orchestra. Although exciting (and expensive), these attempts have failed to procur the desired effect, a revival of our culture's love for classical music. Because mere advertising and media manipulation doesn't seem to get the job done, we need to work harder to discover the root of people's music preferences so we may then change them.

The majority of research done on people's music preferences attributes musical taste to individual characteristics such as geography, socioeconomic status, race and level of education. For example, George Carney's book, The Sounds of People and Places, tracks the origin of various music genres to cities across America. Carney then attributes people's preference of unique genres such as country or blues to their geographic location. Similarly, author Karl Schuessler associates people's diverse music preferences with their socio-economic history. In his book Musical Taste and Socio-Economic Background, Schuessler concludes that those raised in high-income households tend to prefer "high art" music such as classical more than those raised in low-income families.

In addition to books and dissertations, a large amount of research on this subject are smaller published works such as surveys, articles and university studies. Craig and Irene Peery of BYU published an article in the Journal of Research in Music Education about the effect exposure to classical music as a young child has on future music preferences. In the same journal, author David Boyle published an article titled "Factors Influencing Pop Music Preferences of Young Persons," in which he accounts for societal and parental influences in a child's musical taste.

Encompassing all of these forms of research are published works such as Applications of Research in Music Behavior edited by Clifford Madsen and Carol Prickett that compile works from multiple researchers in this field. This particular book includes elementary studies on music's effect on childrens' behavior, models for teachers and parents to follow while giving music instruction, as well as studies on complex subjects such as pitch and tempo preferences in popular music.

Despite the presence of this research, it has yet to be recognized by current leaders of classical music organizations. Rather than acknowledge the complexity of people's music preferences, they assume that with the right amount of advertising people will easily be convinced to listen to classical music. It is apparent, however, that it takes more than a reduction in ticket prices to attract someone's attention to a classical concert. We must take individual preferences and sociological influences into account if we truly want to restore classical music's reputation. We will have to accept that people's music preferences are beyond our control, and instead manipulate classical music so that it will fall within their realm of listening.