Preferences of elderly music listeners residing in nursing homes for art music, traditional jazz, popular music and country music

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate seniors' comparative music preference for four generic styles including art music, country music, popular music of today, and traditional jazz. The study was also attempted to identify certain variables that have an affect on preference. Sixty-three subjects with a mean age of 82.5 from four nursing homes in the South Central Michigan area participated in the study. An interview and musical preference test was administered to the subjects individually. The listening test consisted of 16 music selections, four being from each style. The seniors judged how much they liked the selections on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 indicating greatest preference. Results indicated that the style of country music was preferred the most, followed by traditional jazz, art music, and lastly popular music. Varibles that were found to have an affect on preference were education level, community size in which the seniors grew up, and music training outside of school.

Keyword(s): Music-preference, elderly, nursing-home.

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