Search Results (56)

This study investigates the influence of experiential programs (EPs) on enhancing consumer experience offerings at luxury resorts. EPs encompass a variety of activities, amenities, and services designed to immerse consumers in the local culture, scenery, and authenticity. The research focuses explicitly on EPs related to fitness, evening entertainment, children’s activities, and personalized experiences. By analyzing data from 30 resorts, significant trends and typologies within each category of EP emerged, highlighting the diverse ways in which resorts meet consumers’ desires for immersive and status-enhancing experiences. Valuable insights were gained through semi-structured interviews with two hoteliers, providing a deeper understanding of the strategic integration of EPs. Fitness EPs highlight activities, including hiking and yoga, whereas evening entertainment encompasses experiences like mixology, music, and astronomy education. For children, EPs prioritize cultural immersion through hands-on experiences, while personalized EPs—including romance packages and private dining—allow for consumer exclusivity. The research underscores how these EPs align with contemporary trends in conspicuous consumption, where luxury resorts leverage unique, high-quality, and culturally rich experiences to reinforce affluence and societal standing. The findings emphasize that EPs are a vital strategy for luxury resorts to differentiate themselves in a competitive market, enhancing consumer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive self-image. Full article

Background: Gait disturbance in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) significantly impacts quality of life and is not completely mitigated by dopaminergic treatment. Auditory cueing has been shown to help improve certain aspects of gait, but its effects when matched to individuals’ preferred walking rate remain unexplored. Methods: Nine individuals with PD walked at their preferred rate across a GAITRite^® mat under three separate conditions: self-paced, metronome-cued, and music-cued. Spatiotemporal gait measures were collected and analyzed using repeated measures ANOVAs and post-hoc paired-samples t-tests. Results: A main effect of condition was revealed for step width (F = 3.533, p = 0.054, η_p² = 0.306), with reduced step width revealed during the music-cued condition. Post-hoc analysis revealed no significance (p > 0.063). Conclusions: The trend in step width data suggests a potential benefit of music cueing for enhancing gait stability in persons with PD. Results of this pilot study provide valuable framework for future research and the development of therapeutic interventions to enhance gait stability, reduce fall risk, and improve overall quality of life. Full article

One of the quintessential goals of musical instrument acoustics is to improve the perceived sound produced by, e.g., a violin. To achieve this, the connections between physical (mechanical and geometrical) properties and perceived sound output need to be understood. In this article, a single facet of this complex problem will be discussed using experimental results obtained for six violins of varying back arch height. This is the first investigation of its kind to focus on back arch height. It may serve to inform instrument makers and researchers alike about the variation in sound that can be achieved by varying this parameter. The test instruments were constructed using state-of-the-art methodology to best represent the theoretical case of changing back arch height on a single instrument. Three values of back arch height ($12.1$, $14.8$ and $17.5$ mm) were investigated. The subsequent perceptual tests consisted of a free sorting task in the playing situation and three two-alternative forced choice listening tests. The descriptors “round” and “warm” were found to be linked to back arch height. The trend was non-linear, meaning that both low- and high-arch height instruments were rated as possessing more of these descriptors than their medium-arch height counterparts. Additional results were obtained using stimuli created by hybrid synthesis. However, these could not be linked to those using real playing or recordings. The results of this study serve to inform violin makers about the relative importance of back arch height and its specific influence on sound output. The discussion of the applied methodology and interpretation of results may serve to inform researchers about important new directions in the field of musical instrument acoustics. Full article

Background/Objectives: Both language and music are capable of encoding and communicating semantic concepts, suggesting a potential overlap in neurocognitive mechanisms. Moreover, music training not only enhances domain-specific musical processing but also facilitates cross-domain language processing. However, existing research has predominantly focused on Indo-European languages, with limited evidence from paratactic languages such as Mandarin Chinese. In addition, the impact of variations in musical expertise on these shared processing mechanisms remains unclear, leaving a critical gap in our understanding of the shared neural bases for semantic processing in language and music. This event-related potential (ERP) study investigated whether Chinese sentences and musical chord sequences share semantic processing mechanisms and how musical expertise modulates these mechanisms. Methods: This study recruited 46 college students (22 musicians and 24 non-musicians). Participants read Chinese sentences presented word-by-word visually, while chord sequences were delivered auditorily, with each word temporally aligned to one chord. Sentences included semantically acceptable or unacceptable classifier–noun pairs and chord sequences ended with in-key or out-of-key chords. Participants were instructed to focus on reading sentences while ignoring the concurrent music. ERP signals were recorded, and time-locked to final words to capture neural dynamics during semantic integration. Results: The behavioral results showed that musicians were influenced by musical regularity when reading (acceptable: F(1, 44) = 25.70, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.38; unacceptable: F(1, 44) = 11.45, p = 0.002, η_p² = 0.21), but such effect was absent in non-musicians (ps > 0.05). ERP results showed that musical semantic processing had a substantial impact on both P200 (F(1, 44) = 9.95, p = 0.003, η_p² = 0.18), N400 (musicians: F(1, 44) = 15.80, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.26; non-musicians: F(1, 44) = 4.34, p = 0.043, η_p² = 0.09), and P600 (musicians: F(1, 44) = 5.55, p = 0.023, η_p² = 0.11; non-musicians: F(1, 44) = 8.68, p = 0.005, η_p² = 0.17) components. Furthermore, musical expertise exerted modulatory effects during later stages, as evidenced by divergent N400 and P600 latency patterns between musicians and non-musicians. Specifically, ERP amplitudes exhibited opposing trends: musicians showed an enhanced N400 and diminished P600, while non-musicians displayed a weaker N400 and stronger P600. Conclusions: Our findings provide novel evidence that Mandarin Chinese and chord sequences engage partially overlapping neural mechanisms for semantic processing both in the early (P200) and the late (N400 and P600) stages. Crucially, this study is the first to demonstrate that musical expertise may gradually reorganize these shared mechanisms, enabling two initially independent but functionally analogous semantic mechanisms into a domain-general processing system. These insights deepen our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying linguistic and musical semantic processing and highlight how expertise shapes the neural architecture of cross-domain mechanisms. Full article

This study enhances the music-listening experience and promotes Thai artists. It provides users easy access to Thai songs that match their current moods and situations, making their music journey more enjoyable. The system analyzes users’ emotions through text input, such as typing their current feelings, and processes this information using machine learning to create a playlist that resonates with their feelings. This study focuses on building a tool that caters to the preferences of Thai music listeners and encourages the consumption of a wider variety of Thai songs beyond popular trends. This study develops a tool that successfully creates personalized playlists by analyzing the listener’s emotions. Phrase and keyword recognition detect the listener’s emotions, generating playlists tailored to their feelings, thus improving their music-listening satisfaction. The classifiers employed in this study achieved the following accuracies: random forest (0.94), XGBoost (0.89), decision tree (0.85), logistic regression (0.79), and support vector machine (SVM) (0.78). Full article

Large-scale offline evaluations of user–project interactions in recommendation systems are often biased due to inherent feedback loops. To address this, many studies have employed propensity scoring. In this work, we extend these methods to session-based recommendation tasks by refining propensity scoring calculations to reflect dataset-specific characteristics. We evaluate our approach using neural models, specifically GRU4REC, and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)-based models on music and e-commerce datasets. GRU4REC is selected for its proven sequential model and computational efficiency, serving as a robust baseline against which we compare traditional methods. Our analysis of trend distributions reveals significant variations across datasets, and based on these insights, we propose a hierarchical approach that enhances model performance. Experimental results demonstrate substantial improvements over baseline models, providing a clear pathway for mitigating biases in session-based recommendation systems. Full article

Despite its growing prominence on social and media platforms, scholarly engagement with music criticism today remains unexpectedly limited, especially when compared to the extensive attention devoted to visual and literary criticism. This article seeks to revitalize the discourse by confronting the biases that have long undermined the credibility of music critics in the eyes of both musicians and the public. Inspired by the myth of King Midas—punished by Apollo for his “misguided” musical judgment—the discussion investigates the persistent critiques leveled at music critics, such as accusations of arbitrariness, inadequacy, and irrelevance. Central to this analysis are key questions: how can critics establish authority when their judgments are often shaped by prevailing cultural trends, what expertise distinguishes them from the average listener, and how do they articulate music’s ephemeral essence in words? To address these questions, the article examines the critic’s role through the lenses of journalism, musicology, and criticism itself, highlighting the tension between objectivity and subjectivity and identifying the distinctive skills necessary for effective critique. Full article

Objectives: To investigate the effects of music intervention on the vital signs, weight gain, feeding, hospital stays, and cost of premature infants. Methods: 100 premature infants were randomized into two groups: the experimental group (given music for 30 min at a time, once every day until discharge) and the control group (without music). To compare the vital signs (RR, HR, SPO₂) before, during, and after the music intervention, as well as the weight gain and feeding, follow up to 3 months after discharge. Results: Although respiratory rate (RR) showed a decreasing trend at certain time points during and after music exposure, these changes did not reach statistical significance after adjusting for multiple comparisons. The experimental group had a shorter time to regain birth weight (6.07 ± 2.47 days) compared to the control group (8.93 ± 4.31 days) and a shorter time of intravenous nutrition (8.6 ± 3.87 days vs. 11.66 ± 5.85 days). The experimental group also exhibited a lower fasting rate, a faster-sucking speed, a lower hospital stay (10.36 ± 4.36 days vs. 12.46 ± 5.73 days), lower cost, higher NBNA scores, and a lower re-hospitalization rate within 3 months after the first discharge. Conclusions: Early music intervention may contribute to the growth and development of preterm infants, improve feeding, reduce hospitalization duration and costs, and improve short-term prognosis, though effects on respiratory rate require further study with a larger sample size. Full article

This study examines the influence of K-pop consumers’ (online/offline) fandom activities on their happiness and their contemporary Christian music (CCM) listening intention and does so considering two base theories: activity theory and the content theory of motivation. In this context, we also examine the influence of happiness and CCM listening intention on CCM loyalty (word of mouth/purchase). We focus on global consumers of K-pop (people with experience in online/offline K-pop fandom activities) from two countries: the US and the UK. For our investigation, we surveyed these consumers between 1 April and 30 September 2022 through two global research agencies, namely Entrust Survey and META G DATA lnc. We received valid responses from 331 participants. We then used structural equation modeling to analyze the data and found the following: First, although K-pop consumers’ online fandom activities did not have a statistically significant effect on their happiness, their offline fandom activities did. Second, their fandom activities had a statistically significant positive effect on their CCM listening intention, although their offline fandom activities did not. Third, their happiness also had a statistically significant positive effect on their CCM listening intention. Ultimately, their happiness and CCM listening intention had a statistically significant positive effect on their loyalty (CCM word of mouth/purchase). We identified a new trend and applied it in the context of K-pop culture and CCM, thereby contributing to consumer psychology studies through creative/innovative empirical research. Full article

External motivational stimuli have been shown to improve athletic performance. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this improvement remain poorly understood. This randomized crossover study investigated the effects of music and verbal encouragement on measures of muscle excitation and myoelectric manifestations of fatigue in the biceps brachii and brachioradialis muscles during an endurance task. Fifteen untrained (mean age 29.57 ± 2.77 years) and 13 trained individuals (mean age 32.92 ± 2.90 years) were included. The endurance task, performed to exhaustion, consisted of keeping the dominant arm flexed to 90 degrees while holding a dumbbell loaded to 80% of 1RM with a supine grip in three randomized conditions: standard, with self-selected music, and with verbal encouragement. The untrained subjects showed an increase in task duration of 15.26% (p < 0.003) with music and 15.85% (p < 0.002) with verbal encouragement compared to the condition without external stimuli. There were no significant differences in the myoelectric manifestations of fatigue between the different conditions. Regarding the muscle excitation metrics, although the mean amplitude, peak value, and area under the curve remained unchanged across conditions, a significant reduction in the trend coefficient, indicating motor unit recruitment over time, was observed with both music (biceps brachii: −10.39%, p < 0.001; brachioradialis: −9.40%, p < 0.001) and verbal encouragement (biceps brachii: −7.61%, p < 0.001; brachioradialis: −6.51%, p < 0.001) compared to the standard condition. For the trained participants, no significant differences were observed between conditions in terms of task duration and outcome measures related to muscle excitation and myoelectric manifestations of fatigue, suggesting the possible presence of a ceiling effect on motivation. These results highlight the important role of external motivational stimuli, such as music and verbal encouragement, in improving task performance in untrained subjects, probably through more effective and efficient recruitment of motor units. Full article

With the processes of urbanization and population migration in China, local traditional folk beliefs are facing a crisis of inheritance, including the loss of believers and the decline of religious buildings. However, in the southeastern coastal areas of China, with the development of society and the advancement of science and technology, folk beliefs have shown a trend of modernization, gained widespread attention from young people, and shown a good trend of inheritance. This study focuses on the modernization of folk beliefs in the southeastern coastal areas of China, exploring how folk beliefs are adapted to contemporary life and the key role of information technology in the protection of religious buildings. The study found that the modernization of folk beliefs in China’s southeastern coastal areas is mainly reflected in the portrayal of gods in cartoonish images, the popularity of music, and the modernization of communication methods. By analyzing the modernization process of folk beliefs in the southeastern coastal areas of China, this study reveals the adaptation and development of folk beliefs in modern society. Based on the reality of contemporary Chinese society, this study also explores the future modernization trend of folk beliefs and discusses the possibilities and potential risks of the application of digital technology in folk belief inheritance. Full article

Rolando Toro’s Biodanza (SRT) is a therapeutic strategy that uses movement, music, and emotions to induce integrative living experiences. The present study aims to explore the efficacy of a three-month SRT intervention on motor, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This study employed a randomized between-group design. Twenty-eight non-demented PD patients were enrolled in this study. Out of these, fourteen patients were assigned to the active treatment group using the Biodanza SRT system and fourteen to the untreated control group. The study group attended 2 h SRT classes once a week, completing twelve lessons in twelve weeks. All patients underwent: (i) a neurological examination to measure the severity of motor symptoms, balance, mobility, and risk of falls, and (ii) a neuropsychological battery to assess cognitive status, apathy, depressive symptomatology, and perceived quality of life (QoL), at study entry (T0) and at twelve weeks (T1, end of dance training). At T1, we observed a significant improvement in motor (i.e., severity of motor symptoms and balance) and cognitive parameters (i.e., working memory and delayed verbal memory) in all treated patients compared with the controls. Furthermore, a significant improvement in the social support dimension was found in all treated patients compared to the controls. A trend toward increased apathy was found in untreated patients at T1. The three-month Biodanza intervention significantly ameliorated the motor parameters of PD patients, with a parallel improvement in cognitive and QoL status. Hence, Biodanza intervention can, in the short term, represent a useful personalized medical intervention for the management of Parkinson’s disease. Full article

This article focuses on the influence of Western progressive rock music on some innovative members of the Union of Soviet Composers, who were open to new trends and influences. These Soviet composers’ interest in progressive rock was not only intellectual, but also had serious practical implications. During the 1970s, several composers made attempts to create original works following various styles of prog rock. Occasionally, they incorporated elements of prog rock into their otherwise experimental compositions. One can see the influences of prog rock in the works of prominent composers such as A. Pärt, S. Gubaidulina, V. Martynov, V. Silvestrov, V. Artemiev, G. Kancheli, and A. Schnittke. After discussing the development of the prog rock tradition in the USSR and dwelling on the peculiarities of prog rock as a genre, I focus on three works created by Soviet composers under the influence of prog traditions: the 4th Symphony for orchestra and rhythm section by Latvian composer Imants Kalniņš, which follows the traditions of symphonic rock; an avant-garde rock opera titled “Flemish Legend” by Leningrader Romuald Grinblat, written to the lyrics by dissident bard Yulii Kim and heavily influenced by the twelve-tone system; and a suite of art-rock songs titled “On the Wave of My Memory” composed by pop composer David Tukhmanov, based on the poems of poets with a “decadent” reputation in the Soviet ideological context. All of these composers had to create within the Soviet ideological restrictions on modern and rock music, in particular, and all of them had to engage in their own trickster-like antics to produce and perform their works. Although they are little remembered today, these works stand as unexpected and singular achievements of Soviet composers during complex times. Full article

This study quantitatively investigates the collaborative framework and competitive landscape of Thailand’s evolving music industry, driven by technological progress and changing consumer preferences. By examining data obtained from Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property, specifically 138,868 songs, it explores the complex network of relationships among music creators, artists, and various rights-holders, including those associated with recording, music, melodies, and lyrics. Utilizing social network analysis, this research uncovers a power law distribution in these networks, reflecting a scale-free market configuration. This characteristic is marked by a few dominant players exercising considerable market influence, contrasted with numerous less-interconnected participants. This investigation notes regular patterns of collaboration between artists and different rights-holders. Furthermore, the network of music creators displays small-world properties, with short collaborative distances fostering efficient information exchange and creative synergy. Crucially, this study identifies key influential players instrumental in directing the industry’s major trends, highlighting their role in market concentration. These significant findings will provide critical evidence for informing future policy development aimed at improving efficiency and equity in the digital content industries. Full article

Elaborate sound design, including background music, ambient sounds (sounds describing the game world), and character sounds (sounds generated by the character’s actions), plays a pivotal role in modern video games. However, the influence of these different types of sound on the player’s experience has not been extensively researched. This study examines the influence of these sound types on immersion, avatar identification, fun, and perceived competence. In two experiments, participants played League of Legends under four different sound conditions. The first experiment (N₁ = 32) revealed a non-significant trend in the effect of character sounds on avatar identification. Ambient sounds, however, were limited because the task restricted participants’ movement across the game map. Consequently, we adapted the task to allow for a wider variety of ambient sounds in the second experiment (N₂ = 32). Here, a significant impact of character sounds on immersion, avatar identification, and fun was observed, as well as an interaction effect of character sounds and ambient sounds on fun. Furthermore, we observed a trend, though not statistically significant, suggesting that ambient sounds may influence the player’s sense of flow. These findings underline the distinct effects of different sound types, and we discuss implications for the design of sound in video games. Full article