Music Style Preference

Today's music educator must attempt to remain aware §of prevalent styles of music in popular culture and§the rapidly changing musical landscape in today's§popular culture makes this a challenge. The purpose§of this study was to review the music preference§findings of Leblanc (1979) utilizing the most common§styles of popular music in today's media. Seven§styles of popular music along with traditional jazz,§and Romantic classical music were rated for§preference by students in the fifth grade and college§non-music majors. These preference indications were§compared based on age, gender, environment of§upbringing, and amounts and types of music training.§ Results indicated greatest preference for punk rock§music among fifth graders and pop rock among college§non-music majors. All subjects least preferred§country music, traditional jazz, and Romantic§classical music. Responses were found to differ§significantly based on gender, music training, and§types of music training. These results may be§helpful to music educators as they consider content§for their classes,while preference researchers will§benefit from the continued study of style preference.