Typical Patterns of Adolescents' Musical Preferences and Activities During Leisure

Abstract

This work is a part of a broader study dealing with adolescents' leisure time. Research confirms that music plays a vital role in adolescents' everyday life and suggests that they are exposed to music almost all the time and in a variety of situations using the Internet (North, & Hargreaves, 2008). Adolescents also differ significantly in their musical preferences. This study aims to identify typical patterns of adolescents' musical preferences and practices during leisure. The sample comprised 1358 secondary school students (56% of whom are female) from different school types in 10 Serbian cities; 51% of the interviewees are in the first and 49% in the third grade. From the questionnaire about adolescents' leisure habits, that included closed questions, we selected 20 items related to various music activities and habits. Those items can be classified in the following categories: music as an extracurricular activity, music as a hobby, listening to different music genres and following music themes via various media (Internet, TV, magazines). Explanatory factor analysis (Oblimin rotation) was performed on these items. Results revealed five extracted factors, which explain around 50% of the data variance. The first factor (18.4% of variance explained) represents a pattern of preference for listening to pop and rock music vs. folk music. The second factor (9.9% of variance explained) describes a habit of following musical themes in media and on the internet, including following musical idols and famous figures. The third factor has all negative loadings, regarding listening to any modern music, like techno, electro, and house (8.8% of explained variance). The next one represents an "old fashion" pattern -listening to the classical, jazz or rhythm & blues music and the last factor represents a pattern of musical behavior, which includes besides listening to the music, music as a hobby, or music as an extracurricular activity (6.8% and 6.6% of variance, respectively). The paper discusses the meaning of different identified patterns as a tool for describing musical preferences of today’s youth and the importance of music in youth leisure time.