INFLUENCES OF MINORITY STATUS AND SOCIAL IDENTITY ON THE ELABORATION OF UNFAMILIAR MUSIC BY ADOLESCENTS Marco Lehmann and Reinhard Kopiez Hanover University of Music and Drama, Germany Hanover Music Lab ABSTRACT Adolescents highly appreciate music and use it as a badge of identity. They elaborate on music-related topics in their own terms regarding two informational qualities: musical knowledge in terms of descriptive categories and musical meanings as they relate to the self and to social groups. This study investigates adolescents' (N = 101) music elaboration in the social context of minority status, social identity and expert status. In a controlled experimental setup, subjects listened to unfamiliar music and obtained discussion topics from an alleged group of earlier participants. In turn, they indicated their interest in the topics and invented their own. We report empirical effects on interest in discussion topics about music and on the initiative for the subjects’ own contributions. The results are discussed regarding theories in social psychology and also the status of the music teacher in school. 1. BACKGROUND Adolescents highly appreciate music as a badge of identity (Hargreaves, Marshall, & North, 2003). Their musical activity, namely listening, happens outside of school (North, Hargreaves, & O'Neill, 2000; Lamont, Hargreaves, Marshall, & Tarrant, 2003) and also entails informal learning (Folkestad, 2006). Our study considers the conditions of minority influence and social identity which facilitate or hinder music elaboration. We define music elaboration as adolescents' corresponding activities of thinking, talking, and making judgments about music. It focuses on the two informational qualities of musical knowledge and musical meanings which have been investigated in several studies in the last decades. Musical knowledge designates descriptive categories about music as an object. On the one hand this could be governed by acquired music theoretical constructs, such as the tonal hierarchy (Krumhansl & Shepard, 1979), or by more psychophysical listening capacities already present in infancy (Trehub, 2003). On the other hand, adolescents use their own descriptive categories when writing about music in an open response format (Kleinen, 1986; Kleinen, 1999; Flowers, 2003). Thus, they do not play the "language game of Western musicianship" (Cook, 1994, p. 69). Moreover, the aesthetics of pop music yield new descriptive categories, such as authenticity or the possesion of music (Appen & Doehring, 2000; Frith, 2004). Additionally, style sensitivity (Hargreaves, North, & Tarrant, 2006) is an adequate framework for such musical knowledge, whose content is not restricted to music theoretical terms. However, music elaboration does not merely focus on musical knowledge, but also on the relation between music and the self or social groups. These aspects relate to musical meanings and develop music's impact as a badge of identity. Appropriate studies with open response formats focus on mood management with music (Saarikallio & Erkkilä, 2007) or on the uses of music in everyday life (Vorderer & Schramm, 2004). Vorderer and Schramm asked subjects to describe aspects of the music they would prefer in provided scenarios (e.g., a romantic dinner). In fact, adolescents can already write about the relationship between aesthetical judgments and corresponding uses of music: for instance, in making social contacts (Kleinen, 1986). Moreover, the beneficial effects of group singing highlight musical meanings related to group cohesion (Bailey & Davidson, 2005), and adolescents can use others' musical preferences to evaluate potential friends (Knobloch, Vorderer, & Zillmann, 2000). Accordingly, Zillmann and Gan (1997) stress that adolescents use language to convey their assumptions about causes and effects of music, elaborating on subjective musical theories (Behne, 1987). In summary, adolescents apparently spend considerable effort on music elaboration, and thereby focus on two musical aspects of knowledge and meanings. Music elaboration happens in various settings in which the social influences originate from different sources: for instance, from peers, adults or music experts (e.g., teachers). How do these sources influence adolescents' music elaboration? How do social sources modify interest in music related topics, and what informational quality becomes the focus of music elaboration, knowledge or meanings? What condition facilitates innovative ideas and the initiative to express such ideas? We propose that music elaboration is influenced by social sources with varying degrees of social power, social identity and musical competence, as depicted in Figure 1. The influences operate in a three-way relationship between music, relevant others and the self. The self as a term in social psychology signifies each person in relation to its social environment, either in-group or out-group. In a paradigmatic situation, relevant others judge music respecting its two qualities, and the self obtains a message about this judgment. Then, in an appropriate task, music elaboration of the self manifests in five dimensions of (a) strength of interest in music, (b) focus of interest on musical knowledge or ISBN: 1 876346 62 0  2010 ICMPC 11 Proceedings of the 11 th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC 11). Seattle, Washington, USA. S.M. Demorest, S.J. Morrison, P.S. Campbell (Eds) 21