Music Influences Ratings of the Affect of Visual Stimuli

This review provides an overview of recent studies that have examined how music influences the judgment of emotional stimuli, including affective pictures and film clips. The relevant findings are incorporated within a broader theory of music and emotion, and suggestions for future research are offered.Music is important in our daily lives, and one of its primary uses by listeners is the active regulation of one\u27s mood. Despite this widespread use as a regulator of mood and its general pervasiveness in our society, the number of studies investigating the issue of whether, and how, music affects mood and emotional behaviour is limited however. Experiments investigating the effects of music have generally focused on how the emotional valence of background music impacts how affective pictures and/or film clips are evaluated. These studies have demonstrated strong effects of music on the emotional judgment of such stimuli. Most studies have reported concurrent background music to enhance the emotional valence when music and pictures are emotionally congruent. On the other hand, when music and pictures are emotionally incongruent, the ratings of the affect of the pictures will in- or decrease depending on the emotional valence of the background music. These results appear to be consistent in studies investigating the effects of (background) music

A Comparison of Music Characteristics of Funeral Music from Croatia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom

Music forms an integral and essential part of funeral rituals worldwide, but has to date received little systematic research attention. Recent investigations into funeral music used in the Netherlands showed that it is lower in tempo and valence, less energetic, and more acoustic than popular music. Funeral music is also often in a major mode. The present study sought to replicate these findings for a Dutch (NL) funeral music sample and to expand upon previous knowledge by investigating the audio features provided by Spotify, namely: valence, energy, tempo, acousticness, instrumentalness, mode, and danceability for funeral music samples from Croatia (HR) and the United Kingdom (UK). First, values of music characteristics for funeral music used in HR, N = 388 pieces, NL, N = 500 pieces, and UK, N = 439 pieces, were compared to values of popular control music from each country separately. Previous findings were replicated: for HR, NL, and UK, funeral music displayed a similar pattern as described above. Second, the values of Spotify audio features for funeral music were compared between countries. Analyses revealed significant differences between NL/UK and HR, namely lower valence and energy and higher acousticness (only HR-UK) and instrumentalness for NL/UK compared to HR. Effect sizes were, however, small and are likely due to differences in music selections. These results suggest that, even though there is much diversity in music pieces and songs, funeral music within and across these European countries is more alike than different in terms of its audio characteristics

Music and lyric characteristics of popular Dutch funeral songs

This study compared the characteristics of 150 songs (Dutch lyrics, N = 47, English lyrics, N = 103), popular at Dutch funerals, to an equal number of non-funeral songs. The variables explored included those linked with the music (valence, energy, danceability, acousticness, key, and tempo); and lyrics, namely: linguistics-related (first-person singular/plural, second-person pronouns; past, present, future tense; expressed emotion (positive, negative words, and the discrete emotional categories anger, anxiety, sadness); and category words (those relating to family, friends, death, religion). Funeral music was lower in valence, energy, and danceability and higher in acousticness than non-funeral music. Furthermore, English funeral music lyrics contained more second-person pronouns and were more future-focused than comparison songs. Funeral lyrics were not particularly negative, but English texts contained more words relating to sadness. In conclusion, funeral music differs in severable notable respects from general popular songs that may reflect the special purpose of this music

A Comparison of Music Characteristics of Funeral Music from Croatia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom

Music forms an integral and essential part of funeral rituals worldwide, but has to date received little systematic research attention. Recent investigations into funeral music used in the Netherlands showed that it is lower in tempo and valence, less energetic, and more acoustic than popular music. Funeral music is also often in a major mode. The present study sought to replicate these findings for a Dutch (NL) funeral music sample and to expand upon previous knowledge by investigating the audio features provided by Spotify, namely: valence, energy, tempo, acousticness, instrumentalness, mode, and danceability for funeral music samples from Croatia (HR) and the United Kingdom (UK). First, values of music characteristics for funeral music used in HR, N = 388 pieces, NL, N = 500 pieces, and UK, N = 439 pieces, were compared to values of popular control music from each country separately. Previous findings were replicated: for HR, NL, and UK, funeral music displayed a similar pattern as described above. Second, the values of Spotify audio features for funeral music were compared between countries. Analyses revealed significant differences between NL/UK and HR, namely lower valence and energy and higher acousticness (only HR-UK) and instrumentalness for NL/UK compared to HR. Effect sizes were, however, small and are likely due to differences in music selections. These results suggest that, even though there is much diversity in music pieces and songs, funeral music within and across these European countries is more alike than different in terms of its audio characteristics