Search Results (145)

Background/Objectives: Music is an important component of quality of life and is increasingly recognized as a meaningful patient-centered outcome in hearing healthcare. Although individuals with hearing loss frequently report reduced enjoyment of music, research in this area has focused on auditory perception, including pitch, timbre, melody, and sound quality. Consequently, music enjoyment is often conceptualized and measured primarily through perceptual performance, despite growing evidence that enjoyment represents a broader subjective experience. Methods: This narrative review examines the current conceptualization of music enjoyment in individuals with hearing loss by integrating literature from audiology, music psychology, affective neuroscience, and patient-reported outcome measurement. Results: We discuss music enjoyment as a multidimensional construct influenced by, but not limited to, auditory perception. Additional determinants include emotional reward, musical engagement, prior musical experience, expectations, identity, listening behaviors, and social context. We further examine evidence demonstrating that music perception and music enjoyment, while related, may diverge substantially across individuals with hearing loss, highlighting the limitations of equating perceptual fidelity with patient experience. Finally, we consider the implications of this conceptual distinction for hearing rehabilitation and music-related outcome measurement. Conclusions: We argue that a broader patient-centered understanding of music enjoyment is necessary to guide future research, inform clinical practice, and support the development of next-generation patient-reported outcome measures capable of capturing the complexity of music experience in individuals with hearing loss. Full article

In this article, I analyze white American performances of South Asian music as concurrent performances of racial identity. I deploy a performance studies perspective that treats the visible and audible manifestations of race as performative agents in the manufacturing of racial structures. Scholars of interracial performance such as Philip Deloria, Eric Lott, and E. Patrick Johnson have long examined the ways white Americans have used the traditional art forms of ethnic Others as a means of understanding their own whiteness in silhouette. Likewise, I argue here that the performance and consumption of Hindustani music in its American diasporic context serves as a sort of funhouse mirror, forcing white practitioners and spectators to confront their own Orientalizing impulses and thereby affording them the opportunity to do whiteness differently. This article is structured in two parts. The first follows ethnographic interviews with a white American sitar player across his interactions with South Asian collaborators and audiences; the second reverses this gaze, this time analyzing a South Asian tabla player’s performance before a white Euro-American audience. I demonstrate the ways the question of authenticity generates a productive anxiety in white practitioners and consumers of South Asian music, one that ultimately leads them to perform their whiteness differently before the brown gaze. In calling this a “performance” of whiteness, I mean that these cross-cultural transgressions go beyond making whiteness visible, as Lott and Deloria suggest, towards actually producing a different kind of whiteness, one that is in dialogue with the perspective and demands of the non-white Other. Full article

The piano preludes of Borys Lyatoshynsky (1895–1968)—the Three Preludes, Op. 38, the Two Preludes Based on the Melodies of Ukrainian Folk Songs, Op. 38bis, and the Five Preludes, Op. 44, all composed during the 1942–43 wartime evacuation—have re-entered Western concert life as vehicles of Ukrainian identity. This article asks how performing and curating the preludes afford an experience of Ukrainian identity for the present-day listener, extending the Ukrainian analytical literature on the cycles outward into curation and Western wartime reception. Drawing on recent documented cases—Vadym Kholodenko’s recital programming of Op. 38 alongside the canonical European repertory, and Margaret Fingerhut’s curated album Ukraine: A Piano Portrait—it argues that performance and curation operate not as distinct operations but as interacting practices: different degrees and forms of mediation through which the preludes’ folkloric idiom is configured as Ukrainian for the listener they address. The preludes’ internal difference between literal folk-song quotation (Op. 38bis) and folk intonation (Opp. 38 and 44) becomes a resource that performers and curators mobilise. Situating these cases within three documented strands of Lyatoshynsky’s re-reception during the Russo-Ukrainian war—orchestral, pianistic, and scholarly—the article reframes the wartime prelude as a site where national identity is configured for present-day listeners through layered acts of mediation. Full article

Widely associated with third- and fourth-wave feminism, Ani DiFranco’s artistic practice creates and curates queer and feminist musical experiences through the tools of songwriting and spoken-word poetry. Since the release of her eponymous debut album in 1990, DiFranco has carved out a distinctive voice within American folk and popular music and has cultivated communities of affiliation across feminist and queer communities. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of performativity and David Halperin’s conception of queerness as a form of non-normative identity, this article offers close, textual readings of a selection of DiFranco’s earlier songs and spoken-word poems, including “The Whole Night”, “In or Out”, “Lost Woman Song”, and “Self Evident”. In doing so, the article demonstrates how DiFranco’s performances extend beyond musical expression to function as sites of queer and feminist cultural production, where audiences are invited to participate in broader conversations about identity, community, and social change. Full article

This study examines how school music teachers are represented in English-language television series and considers implications for professional identity, pedagogy and recruitment. Drawing on a novel, systematically coded database of 36 on-screen music educators from 28 television series from 1952 to 2026, quantitative description maps demographic attributes (age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status), narrative role (minor, major, protagonist), genre and institutional context. Our findings show music teachers are most often supporting characters, typically mid-career, male and predominantly white, with comedy—especially ensemble school comedy—dominating portrayals. Qualitative interpretation demonstrates persistent teacher archetypes and pedagogical tropes: the failed performer turned teacher, the inspirational mentor who singles out a talented student, and blurred teacher–student boundaries. These portrayals routinely privilege spectacle and rapid transformation over sequenced curriculum, assessment and routine labour, risking the creation of distorted public expectations about what music teaching entails. This article situates these findings within contemporary concerns about teacher shortages and declining occupational status in English-language contexts, arguing that mediated images may influence career choice, teacher retention and societal attitudes. Methodological advances include expanded time and geographic contexts of studied texts and detailed coding. The paper concludes by calling for reception and experimental studies to test causal effects on aspiring teachers and to inform teacher education curricula. Full article

Mixtapes are a form of autobiography and are a tool for storytelling. Summer Pierre’s graphic music memoir All the Sad Songs uses the mixtape to curate and deconstruct memories. Through a series of mixtapes discarded in her basement, Pierre details her relationships through music. The absence and presence of mixtapes haunt the narrative and create the scaffolding of Pierre’s memoir. This article explores how the hauntological nature of cassette tapes structures narrative in graphic music memoirs. Music memoirs are about identity building for the music memoirist and the reader. The graphic memoir differs from the traditional memoir format as the author must show as well as tell. Pierre’s graphic memoir demonstrates Pierre’s changing music identity through both text and illustrations. Memoir writing is a performative act, and the author, similar to the mixtape creator, is the curator of the narrative the memoir presents. By using a ‘dead media’ to aid life writing, Pierre presents her journey as a musician through a lifetime soundtrack. Full article

This study applies Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory to music student psychology, with particular attention to the differentiated impacts of artificial intelligence across music student subgroups. Background: Music education requires intensive cognitive, motor, emotional, and social training. Methods: Employing a narrative literature review and conceptual framework approach, this paper draws on JD-R theory, technostress research, and cross-cultural scholarship to identify demands and resources in music education and examine their relationships with burnout and engagement. Results: Seven demands: technical, physical, temporal, performance, social–emotional, technostress, cultural identity. Resources: teacher support, peer collaboration, instruments, AI tools, curricula, and intrinsic motivation. Critically, AI-related demands and resources differ substantially across subgroups: composers face direct demand shocks (job displacement) and resource opportunities (creative augmentation) that vary by career stage, while performers experience more indirect impacts through recording market disruption and emerging self-media opportunities. Singers face a unique paradox whereby AI voice cloning creates short-term recording opportunities while potentially enabling long-term vocal replacement. Cultural identity demands arise from heritage-Western tensions in East Asia. Conclusions: This JD-R framework provides a nuanced lens for understanding music students’ well-being that accounts for subgroup-specific vulnerabilities and opportunities. Full article

This paper explores how non-formal music learning functions as a powerful agent in forging musical selves. Through a qualitative re-analysis guided by reflexive thematic analysis, this study re-examines data from three previously conducted case studies through the lens of non-formal learning as “site of becoming.” These cases represent diverse music-making practices in Hong Kong: an amateur sacred choir, a traditional Chinese Chaozhou xianshi ensemble, and diasporic Filipino music-makers. Through this analysis, I generate five distinct facets of their musical selfhood: the performer, spiritual, heritage, social, and transcendence self, reviewing how participants form and negotiate these facets. Ultimately, this study illustrates the interplay between these sites and the formation of lived, embodied musical selves, offering insights into the educative potential of non-formal learning. Full article

This article examines the use of reproduced music during a large-scale summer blót organised by Ása-samfundet in Sweden. Based on ethnographic observation, it traces the unfolding of the ceremony and identifies when music is introduced and the roles it performs within the ritual process. Rather than treating music as a vehicle of symbolic meaning or religious identity, the analysis conceptualises it as part of ritual infrastructure. From this perspective, music functions as a material and sensory resource that structures ritual time, supports continuity between ritual actions, and contributes to the organisation of a spatially dispersed gathering. Focusing on the use of music by the Nordic project Wardruna, the article argues that the ritual significance of reproduced music lies less in the transmission of specific meanings than in its practical role within the unfolding of the ceremony. Particular attention is paid to how music accompanies transitions, bridges temporal gaps between ritual actions, and provides a continuous sonic environment in situations where participants are distributed across a large ritual space. By shifting attention from representation to mediation, the article contributes to discussions of materiality, atmosphere, and the infrastructural dimensions of contemporary ritual practice. Full article

Taking the Liuyang branch of the Kong Clan in Hunan as a case study, this article examines how a migrant lineage associated with Confucian orthodoxy adapted to a heterogeneous local society and gradually transformed lineage identity into a broader sense of communal and national belonging. Drawing on fieldwork, genealogies, local gazetteers, temple inscriptions, and interviews, this study traces three connected processes. First, the clan used its recognized status as descendants of Confucius to obtain institutional protection, including tax and corvée exemptions, which helped stabilize population growth and local authority. Second, the Dahu Family Temple, sacrificial music, ritual dance, genealogy-airing practices, and modern clan activities show how Qufu-centered ritual codes were reworked through Huxiang architectural, musical, agricultural, and social rhythms. Third, in the modern period, practical statecraft, education, and revolutionary memory redirected lineage ethics from exclusive descent toward public responsibility. The case demonstrates that the consciousness of the Chinese national community can be generated at the grassroots level through the interaction of state institutions, local cultural adaptation, embodied ritual practice, and the reorientation of kinship memory toward inclusive patriotism. Full article

Background: Tinnitus is a prevalent auditory disorder associated with maladaptive cortical plasticity and aberrant neural synchronization across auditory and non-auditory brain networks. Acoustic desynchronization-based sound therapies, such as coordinated reset neuromodulation, aim to counteract pathological oscillatory patterns but commonly require prolonged daily listening sessions and specialized delivery formats, which may limit their accessibility and practicality in routine clinical settings. To address this limitation, a modified desynchronization protocol embedding therapeutic tones within music was developed to improve tolerability and engagement. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical effects of modified Music-Integrated Desynchronization Sound Therapy (mMIDST) on tinnitus severity in patients with chronic tinnitus. Methods: In this prospective, randomized, controlled, single-blind pilot trial conducted at the Otolaryngology Department of Hospital Clínico Universidad de Chile (Santiago, Chile) between July 2024 and July 2025, adults aged 18–75 years with chronic non-pulsatile tinnitus were assigned to receive either mMIDST or an active control intervention consisting of low-frequency stimulation (LFS) embedded within identical music tracks. Participants listened to personalized sound files for one hour daily, five days per week. Tinnitus severity was assessed using the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), with audiometric evaluations performed at baseline and after one, two, and three months. Between-group differences were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U test. Results: Twenty-five participants completed the study (15 mMIDST, 10 LFS). Baseline audiometric thresholds and THI scores were comparable between groups. The mMIDST group showed significantly greater reductions in THI scores than the LFS group at two and three months of treatment (p < 0.05). Conclusions: mMIDST was associated with time-dependent improvements in tinnitus-related distress compared with an active control condition. Embedding desynchronization-based tonal stimulation within music may represent a promising and well-tolerated non-invasive approach for chronic tinnitus management. Full article

Christian communities and Churches in non-Western contexts, such as Lebanon, face numerous challenges, including the distancing of youth from religious practice and reduced belonging. Simultaneously, they experience tensions between attachment to tradition and emerging forms of outreach capable of engaging younger generations. The visit of Padre Guilherme, a Latin Rite Catholic priest known for blending electronic music with religious expression, generated a nationwide debate during his visit in January 2026. While some viewed his outreach as an innovative initiative capable of bringing youth closer to the Church, others rejected it, with some describing it as sacrilegious. This study examines social media reactions to his outreach to explore how contemporary forms of religious engagement are perceived within a tradition-oriented society. Comments from multiple social media platforms were analyzed through thematic reflexive analysis, complemented by a brief sentiment analysis. Positive reactions framed Padre Guilherme’s initiative as a strategy for reconnecting younger generations with the Church. Critical views emphasized the importance of preserving traditional forms of religious expression, particularly within Eastern Christian traditions, with some participants portraying the initiative as heretical or evil. The controversy highlights how new forms of religious outreach can trigger tensions related to identity, tradition, globalization, and institutional adaptation. Full article

Zhao’s Guzheng: Traditional Chinese Performance Techniques refers to a comprehensive pedagogical and performance framework within the Shandong–Northeast lineage of the Guzheng (Chinese plucked zither). This system is historically rooted in a 200-year family tradition that underwent a pivotal transition in 1953, when it migrated from Shandong Province to the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in Northeast China. It is formally defined by three primary evolutionary pillars: the physical transition from 16-string silk-string folk instruments to standardized 21-string S-shaped academic models; a rigorous right-hand symbolic codification system that serves as a technical grammar for practitioners; and its status as recognized Intangible Cultural Heritage. The tradition represents a sophisticated synthesis of regional folk esthetics, noted for its robust, vigorous acoustic identity and structured conservatory training. By bridging the gap between oral folk apprenticeships and formal institutional pedagogy, the Zhao lineage maintains its specific stylistic authenticity, known as Yun Wei (musical flavor), ensuring that the technical soul of the school remains reproducible within the modern global musical landscape. Full article

Taylor Swift’s songwriting is frequently analyzed through the lens of confessional songwriting, blurring the boundaries between factual and fictional storytelling. This article proposes understanding her work as transmedia meta-autobiographies, a genre characterized by self-reflexivity and the questioning of autobiographical rules. Drawing on Mueller-Greene’s definition of meta-autobiography and intersectional theories, the study analyzes Swift’s lyrics, music videos, and paratextual elements, specifically focusing on selected works after her split with Big Machine Records, as this marks a different era in her creative work and is also linked to the discourse around her re-recordings. The analysis demonstrates how Swift utilizes transmedia storytelling to perform the act of remembering and writing, effectively staging her “self” across various media formats. This self-representation could according to the rules of the genre function as a counter-narrative to traditional male-centric autobiographical forms by centering girlhood. However, the article also highlights contradictions regarding authenticity and the commodification of this identity. Full article

Autobiographical memory plays a central role in identity continuity, narrative functioning, and psychological well-being in later life. In nursing home residents, however, reduced environmental stimulation, cognitive vulnerability, and limited opportunities for self-expression may compromise autobiographical engagement. Music, as an emotionally salient and personally meaningful cue, may facilitate memory retrieval through affective and self-referential mechanisms. This exploratory pilot study examined whether personalized music listening influences the productivity and linguistic features of autobiographical narration in nursing home residents. Eleven older adults completed one baseline autobiographical recall session without music and three weekly music-assisted sessions focused on different life periods. Narratives were transcribed and analyzed using LIWC-22. Within-subject differences were tested with Wilcoxon signed-rank analyses. In addition, an exploratory qualitative paper-and-pencil analysis was conducted to identify recurrent narrative and experiential patterns in the music-assisted accounts. Music-assisted recall was associated with higher total word count compared with baseline, although this difference should be interpreted cautiously given the asymmetry between the single-session baseline and the three-session post-intervention format. No significant changes emerged in positive or negative emotion words. Qualitative observations of the music-assisted narratives highlighted recurrent features including vivid autobiographical scenes, references to meaningful social identities and former life roles, and emotionally salient communication. These preliminary findings suggest that personalized music may support autobiographical recall by increasing verbal output during narration and by facilitating meaningful self-expression and relational communication in later life. Larger controlled studies are needed to clarify its role in supporting autobiographical narrative processes in nursing home older adults. Full article