The relationship between musical features and perceived emotion was investigated by using continuous response methodology and time-series analysis. Sixty-seven participants responded to four pieces of Romantic music expressing different emotions. Responses were sampled once per second on a two-dimensional emotion space (happy-sad valence and aroused-sleepy). Musical feature variables of loudness, tempo, melodic contour, texture, and spectral centroid (related to perceived timbral sharpness) were coded. Musical feature variables were differenced and used as predictors in two univariate linear regression models of valence and arousal for each of the four pieces. Further adjustments were made to the models to correct for serial correlation. The models explained from 33% to 73% of variation in univariate perceived emotion. Changes in loudness and tempo were associated positively with changes in arousal, but loudness was dominant. Melodic contour varied positively with valence, though this finding was not conclusive. Texture and spectral centroid did not produce consistent predictions. This methodology facilitates a more ecologically valid investigation of emotion in music and, importantly in the present study, enabled the approximate identification of the lag between musical features and perceived emotion. Responses were made 1 to 3 s after a change in the causal musical event, with sudden changes in loudness producing response lags from zero (nearly instantaneous) to 1 s. Other findings, interactions, and ramifications of the methodology are also discussed.

Why do People Seek out Music that Makes Them cry? This paradox is a complex one that appears to have no single answer. Rather, numerous factors appear to be interacting in the diverse responses of individuals to music. The present study tested the hypothesis that individual differences in dissociation, absorption, fantasy proneness, empathy, and rumination would be related to the enjoyment of negative emotion in music. Fifty-nine participants completed a survey pertaining to this question. Results revealed statistically significant positive relationships between enjoyment of evoked negative emotion in response to music with both absorption and the recently reported construct of 'music empathy,' Factor analysis and a regression model confirmed these results, and the approach suggests that further study of individual differences will continue to provide new insights into some of the subtleties of the enjoyment of negative emotions in music.

In his seminal paper, Gabrielsson (2002) distinguishes between emotion felt by the listener, here: ‘internal locus of emotion’ (IL), and the emotion the music is expressing, here: 'external locus emotion' (EL). This paper tabulates 16 such publications published in the decade 2003-2012 consisting of 19 studies/experiments and provides some theoretical perspectives. The key findings were that (1) IL ratings was frequently rated statistically the same or lower than the corresponding EL rating (e.g. lower felt happiness rating compared to the apparent happiness of the music), and that (2) self-select and preferred music had a smaller gap across the emotion loci than experimenter selected and disliked music. These key findings were explained by an ‘inhibited’ emotional contagion mechanism, where the otherwise matching felt emotion may have been attenuated by some other factor such as social context. Matching between EL and IL for loved and self-selected pieces was explained by the activation of ‘contagion’ circuits. Physiological arousal, personality and age, as well as musical features (tempo, mode, putative emotions) were observed to influence perceived and felt emotion distinctions. A variety of data collection formats were identified, but mostly using continuous rating scales. In conclusion, a more systematic use of terminology appears desirable with respect to theory-building. Whether two broad categories, namely matched and unmatched, are sufficient to capture the relationships between EL and IL, instead of four categories as suggested by Gabrielsson, is subject to future research.

The validity and reliability of the two‐dimensional emotion‐space (2DES) was examined in three experiments. This computer‐controlled instrument measures direct, self‐reported emotion expressed by stimuli along two bipolar dimensions: happy/sad valence (VA) and aroused/sleepy (AR). In Experiment 1, responses to 24 words and five pictures of faces were collected from 28 participants. The intuitive nature of the 2DES was supported; the instrument had an average resolution of 21 for VA and 25 for AR on a 201‐point scale, and demonstrated high test‐retest reliability (r> 0.83, p = 0.01 for all). Construct validity was supported by significant correlation coefficient between hypothesised responses (generated from Russell's circumplex of emotion and Whissell's dictionary of affect) and actual responses (r > 0.84). In Experiment 2, 67 participants responded continuously to four complete musical movements. Good agreement was obtained between averaged continuous, overall, and checklist response, supporting the construct validity of the continuous 2DES. In Experiment 3, 14 participants repeated Experiment 2 six to twelve months later (test‐retest r = 0.74). The causes of and solutions to problems related to scaling and semantic density are discussed. The 2DES is proposed as a convenient, parsimonious alternative to investigation in semantics and as a means of collecting emotional responses to music within an ecologically valid framework.

The aim of this paper was to investigate if a general consensus could be established for the term “musician.” Research papers (N = 730) published between 2011 and 2017 were searched. Of these, 95 papers were identified as investigating relationships of any sort connected with a musician-like category (e.g., comparison of musically trained vs. non-musically trained people), of which 39 papers detailing comparative studies exclusively between musicians and non-musicians were analyzed. Within this literature, a variety of musical expertise criteria were used to define musicians, with years of music training (51% of papers) and years of music lessons (13% of papers) being the most commonly used criteria. Findings confirm a general consensus in the literature, namely, that a musician, whether or not selected a priori, has at least six years of musical expertise (IQR = 4.0–10.0 years). Other factors such as practice time and recruiting location of musicians were also analyzed, as well as the implications of how this definition fits in relation to the complexities surrounding the construct of the musician. The “six-year rule,” however, was robust overall.

This study investigated the inverted-U model of preference for music as a function of collative variables (especially familiarity and complexity) over the last 115 years. The results of 57 studies on music preference were categorized according to their patterns of preference. Fifty of the 57 studies (87.7%) were categorized as compatible with an overarching (segmented) inverted-U model, while the results of five studies (8.8%) were interpreted as mixed, showing both compatible and incompatible results. Two studies (3.5%) were categorized as completely incompatible with the model. In contrast to authors who describe the model as defunct, this review has observed that studies producing results compatible with the inverted-U are still prevalent. We propose that while there may be inconsistencies with Berlyne’s psychobiological theory from a scientific, arousal-based standpoint, the inverted-U model is able to explain a considerable amount of data. Rather, it seems that research interests have moved elsewhere, but caution is urged in asserting denial or dismissal of the relationship in music preference research.