Does Knowing Who The Artist Is Affect A Listener’s View Of A Song?

1. Does Knowing Who The Artist Is Affect A Listener’s View Of A Song? Aim To determine if knowing the artist affects a person’s view of the song. By Hannah Coombe, Alice Killaleaand Lauren Maddock

2. HypothesisIt is believed that once people find out the title and artist of a song their opinions of the particular song will alter, due to their opinions of the artist. Equipment • Speakers and iPad • Survey sheets, one for each stage of the experiment • 5 relatively unknown songs by well known artists • Stay Beautiful – Taylor Swift • Spies - Coldplay • Never Hold You Down - Guy Sebastian • Show Me - Bruno Mars • Summer Love - One Direction

3. Method • A sheet listing songs, without the title or artist, was handed out to the participants and the songs were played for one minute. The participants were then given time to record their rank for each song. • This sheet was then collected from all participants, while a second sheet, requiring artists to be ranked 1-5 on personal preference, was handed out. • After the participants finished ranking the artists, from favourite to least favourite, the sheets were collected and a final sheet was handed out. • This third sheettold participants the artist and the song titleof the five songs. 40 seconds of each song was played through to the participants again, and they re-rated each song.

4. The table on the left shows how the participants ranked the songs before knowing the artist and song title. Results Tables The table on the right shows how the participants ranked the songs after knowing the artist and song title.

5. The table below shows how participants ranked the five artists, 1 being most favourite and 5 being least favourite. Results Table

6. The table below shows how much the participants’ results changed after knowing the artist and title of each song. Results Table

7. Discussion The results of the experiment show that people were influenced by whether they knew who the artist of the song was or not. However, due to only one minute of the song being played, some found it difficult to judge their opinion of the song. Also, people mentioned that because it was their first time hearing most of the songs they would have had a different opinion if they heard it again, or for a longer time. In some classes the results were not accurate as a couple of people who knew the artist of some of the songs told the people around them who it was. This may have affected the results, as they already knew who the artist was, which they were not supposed to find out until later in the experiment. 

8. Discussion Continued Overall the experiment worked well and even with a few minor dilemmas, our hypothesis of the experiment was still proven correct. Conclusion The results of the experiment show the hypothesis was proven correct. However, results could have been more accurate if the participants did not talk throughout the survey. The experiment does in fact prove that knowing the artist of the song affects people’s opinion of the song. Acknowledgements Thank you to those teachers who allowed us to conduct our experiment during their class time.