TY - JOUR

T1 - "i like reggae and Bob Marley is already dead"

T2 - An empirical study on music-related argumentation

AU - Knörzer, Lisa

AU - Stark, Robin

AU - Park, Babette

AU - Rolle, Christian

PY - 2016/9/1

Y1 - 2016/9/1

N2 - This study investigates music-related argumentation in different music genres (rock/pop versus classical music) applying a mixed-methods design with three groups (referred to as novices, semi-experts and experts). Participants were asked to compare two versions of a musical piece and justify their preference in individually written argumentation. Arguments were coded by applying a category system with four main categories, namely, attributes of the musical piece, subjective dimensions, context-specific background knowledge and media-related dimensions. Results of quantitative analyses showed that experts formulated longer arguments, referring to more different categories and mentioning more aspects within these categories. Further, a larger proportion of the experts' arguments referred to context-specific background knowledge and attributes of the musical piece, whereas semi-experts' and novices' argumentation consisted to a larger extent of subjective dimensions. For all analyses, there were no differences concerning the two different music genres. A discriminant analysis showed that the participants' ascribed level of expertise was correctly predicted on the basis of their argumentation in 97.3% of the cases. Therefore, the category system provides an effective instrument for representing and evaluating music-related argumentation. Our findings illustrate quantitative and qualitative differences between arguments and build a starting point for developing innovative intervention approaches for fostering music-related argumentation.

AB - This study investigates music-related argumentation in different music genres (rock/pop versus classical music) applying a mixed-methods design with three groups (referred to as novices, semi-experts and experts). Participants were asked to compare two versions of a musical piece and justify their preference in individually written argumentation. Arguments were coded by applying a category system with four main categories, namely, attributes of the musical piece, subjective dimensions, context-specific background knowledge and media-related dimensions. Results of quantitative analyses showed that experts formulated longer arguments, referring to more different categories and mentioning more aspects within these categories. Further, a larger proportion of the experts' arguments referred to context-specific background knowledge and attributes of the musical piece, whereas semi-experts' and novices' argumentation consisted to a larger extent of subjective dimensions. For all analyses, there were no differences concerning the two different music genres. A discriminant analysis showed that the participants' ascribed level of expertise was correctly predicted on the basis of their argumentation in 97.3% of the cases. Therefore, the category system provides an effective instrument for representing and evaluating music-related argumentation. Our findings illustrate quantitative and qualitative differences between arguments and build a starting point for developing innovative intervention approaches for fostering music-related argumentation.

KW - category system

KW - expertise

KW - genre

KW - mixed methods

KW - music-related argumentation

KW - Educational science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84982175035&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0305735615614095

DO - 10.1177/0305735615614095

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84982175035

VL - 44

SP - 1158

EP - 1174

JO - Psychology of Music

JF - Psychology of Music

SN - 0305-7356

IS - 5

ER -