Irena Mitevska

UKIM FM Students Attitudes Toward Music

        The principal subject of this research is the influence of music education on the UKIM FM students’ taste in music. Our aim was to establish the relation between music education and the taste in music of this specific group of the student population. We also kept in mind the fact that throughout their entire music education, classical music is the dominant music genre.

        We chose to survey the students who are in their last year of studies at the Faculty of Music - the year of the completion of their education. Thus, on December 25, 2003, we surveyed the entire student population of the fourth year in all the departments at UKIM FM, which amounted to 72 students. We used a questionnaire as the basic instrument of our research.

        The questionnaire consisted of one basic question according do the Lickert Scale:

      To what degree do you agree with the following statement?

        I like listening to...

This was followed by 11 categories of choice:

1. Classical music
2. Contemporary Macedonian music
3. Contemporary world music
4. Macedonian popular music
5. Macedonian folklore music
6. Macedonian traditional music
7. Jazz
8. Rock
9. Electronic music
10. R’n’B
11. Other (please specify)

Each category involved five blank areas which were to be graded according to the Lickert Scale. The ratings were as follows: I completely dislike it, I dislike it, I somewhat like it, I like it, and I really like it. Throughout the statistic processing of information, each rating was substituted with numbers from 1-5. A sixth rating “I don’t know” was added, and matched with zero value.The categories one, two, three and five represent the genres studied at UKIM FM. The remaining genres are currently popular with the young population.

        The following table presents the results of the survey:








In order to achieve greater comprehensibility, we shall employ graphic presentations for our comments on the responses, i.e. on the preferences for a particular genre.

The positive skewness is obvious and proves that the UKIM FM students prefer this genre, i.e. that education is effective.
 
 

        As far as contemporary Macedonian and contemporary world music are concerned, the occuring “bell curve” shows that there is normal distribution. The frequency of the responses in the central region determine that these genres are not as popular as they should be, given the education of this segment of population. We may even state that there is greater positive skewness for the preference of contemporary world music.
             Among the students at UKIM FM, Macedonian popular music is more popular than contemporary Macedonian music. The difference is particularly visible in the negative responses.

            In these two genres the difference in skewness is apparent. Macedonian folklore music has positive skewness, as opposed to Macedonian traditional music, which marks negative skewness. This also attests the quality of education that students receive at UKIM FM.


        We may directly state that the frequency of responses in these two genres is positive.
 
 

        These two genres show normal distribution, with slight negative skewness in electronic music.

        Only ten students specified other genres in the eleventh field. We encountered the following: Bulgarian music, Montenegran, traditional Montenegran, turbo folk, heavy metal, world ethno music, music for films, ambient music (for films and effects), progressive rock (precisely, “Dream Theatre”), Bulgarian folk and individual experimental music. Judging by some of these answers, various students obviously approached the questionnaire carelessly.
 In addition to frequent distribution, we shall also present the means values for each of the listed categories.

        If we consider the responses according to the means, then three, or six genres (classical music, contemporary world, Macedonian popular, Macedonian traditional folklore, jazz, rock) are above the average, i.e. on average the students show greater preference for them, as opposed to the genres contemporary Macedonian music, Macedonian new style folk, electronic music and R’n’B, where the preference is lower.

        In the end we may conclude that our research verified our initial theory - that within this specific segment of population, music education influences the taste, i.e. preference for music genres. Of course, this does not exclude other factors that might have influenced the formation of such preferences.

        One of the methods of determining the relevance of the responses and the significance of the achieved results is to carry out a similar survey with an experimental group composed of the remaining student population in Macedonia.