A Mixed-Method Exploratory Approach to Identifying the Utilitarian Functions of Music Listening

Advances in portable music listening technology have increased the extent to which music is integrated into everyday life, providing it with the ability to accompany listeners at any time, anywhere. Previous research has attempted to understand and parse the functions of music listening (FML). However, there is a tendency for subsequent models to be oriented towards purely cognitive domains (e.g., mood regulation), without considering the impact that contexts may have on listeners’ experiences. Rarely do such models provide a unified construct that captures the breadth of functionality more broadly (i.e., contextually-determined utility). In this study, we employed a mixed-methods exploratory approach to initially assess FML qualitatively through bibliometric analysis and a comparative experience sampling method (ESM) study, resulting in an exhaustive model of FML with 53 distinct functions. Following this, a list of 114 items intended to reflect the content of these functions was generated. This reflected the conceptual content of the qualitative model. These items were rated through an online survey, leading to dimension reduction through factor analyses. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) implied a latent construct across five dimensions to explain the resulting underlying construct of FML (Identity and Social Bonding, Emotion Regulation, Focus and Concentration, Background and Accompaniment, and Physiological Arousal). This was subject to model constraints through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in which a measure containing 23 items based on the stabilized EFA was fit. The five-factor model was a good fit for the observed data, presenting a latent structure of utilitarian FML generated from the previously identified qualitative framework. This article concludes with suggestions regarding the potential re-application of this model to ecologically valid data to cross-validate this psychometric structure in future work.