TY - JOUR
T1 - Thoughtscapes in music
T2 - An examination of thought types occurring during music listening across 17 genres
AU - van der Walle, Hazel A.
AU - Wu, Wei
AU - Margulis, Elizabeth H.
AU - Jakubowski, Kelly
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Music listening can evoke a wide range of thought types, including autobiographical memories, fictional stories, visual imagery, and mind-wandering. Previous studies have typically examined these thought types individually, which precludes investigation of why certain music evokes certain thought types over others. This study investigates the impact of musical genre, familiarity, enjoyment, contrast, and emotional expression on the occurrence of different thought types during music listening across 17 genres targeted towards UK and US listeners. We systematically selected 356 music excerpts and collected data from 701 participants from the United Kingdom and the United States, analysing the frequency of thoughts occurring during these excerpts and various excerpt ratings (e.g., familiarity, emotional expression). We found significant genre-specific effects on thought types, such as Film music primarily evoking media memories and fictional imaginings. Familiarity, contrast, enjoyment, valence, and arousal ratings all significantly influenced certain thought types, suggesting that both compositional features and one’s previous experiences of music affect listeners’ inner mental worlds. This study extends previous research by exploring a broader range of genres and musical features, offering new insights into the mental landscape of thoughts occurring during music listening.
AB - Music listening can evoke a wide range of thought types, including autobiographical memories, fictional stories, visual imagery, and mind-wandering. Previous studies have typically examined these thought types individually, which precludes investigation of why certain music evokes certain thought types over others. This study investigates the impact of musical genre, familiarity, enjoyment, contrast, and emotional expression on the occurrence of different thought types during music listening across 17 genres targeted towards UK and US listeners. We systematically selected 356 music excerpts and collected data from 701 participants from the United Kingdom and the United States, analysing the frequency of thoughts occurring during these excerpts and various excerpt ratings (e.g., familiarity, emotional expression). We found significant genre-specific effects on thought types, such as Film music primarily evoking media memories and fictional imaginings. Familiarity, contrast, enjoyment, valence, and arousal ratings all significantly influenced certain thought types, suggesting that both compositional features and one’s previous experiences of music affect listeners’ inner mental worlds. This study extends previous research by exploring a broader range of genres and musical features, offering new insights into the mental landscape of thoughts occurring during music listening.
KW - genre
KW - imagination
KW - memory
KW - mind-wandering
KW - music-evoked thoughts
KW - narratives
KW - visual imagery
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105013412001
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105013412001#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1177/03057356251346654
DO - 10.1177/03057356251346654
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105013412001
SN - 0305-7356
JO - Psychology of Music
JF - Psychology of Music
M1 - 03057356251346654
ER -