MUSICONNEX

Prof. Katrina McFerran 
Professor in Music Therapy, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

Presentation title: 
Choosing and using songs for music listening in therapy and everyday life

When young people choose to listen to music they initiate a powerful chain of events that links their decisions with context, experiences and outcomes. That highlights choosing songs as an important process warranting attention. This talk will explore the pleasurable and painful experiences of song listening and link them to healthy and unhealthy outcomes in ways that are sometimes counter-intuitive to dominant narratives. 

For adult guides who work with young people, this potentially changes the focus of our attention. Instead of relying on the umbrella term of ‘music preferences’ we might incorporate a more discerning exploration  of pleasure and pain, using the lenses of nostalgia and emotional resonance and aesthetics and motivation. In this talk we will unpack the assumption that non-directive choosing is always helpful. 

For young people it is the assumption of intentionality that needs further investigation. At this moment in time it is their freedom of choice and intuitive self-care practices that need protection. The greatest threat comes from algorithmic nudges that serve the capitalistic drives of streaming platforms and override the development of good instincts, connecting mind, body and context. However, we should also be careful not to assume that benefits necessarily flow from psycho-educational strategies that undermine the pursuit of instinctual drives such as sensations of pleasure, and equally, pain.

This talk will explore the intersection of healthy and unhealthy uses of music, focusing on the utility of choice in music listening. 

Prof. Hauke Egermann 
Professor in Systematic Musicology, University of Cologne

Presentation title: 
Social Bonding in the Audience – How does live music create social connection?

Spatial co-presence between performers and audiences and temporal simultaneity of performance and audience experience have been described as the two main characteristics of a live performance. These two factors allow for performer-audience interactions, which our research has shown to lie at the core of the audience experience of liveness (between performers/the music and audiences, and between audience members). Furthermore, previous research has demonstrated that synchronized movements during engagement with music lead to social bonding between those who move and entrain together. This keynote lecture will present theoretical models exploring how these interactions affect live performance audiences, including the 4E cognition framework, social psychological theories, and emotion induction mechanisms. I will then provide an overview of various methodological approaches to studying audience responses, including findings focusing on subjective, behavioral, and physiological measures. Finally, I will conclude by describing how mutual influences between performers and audiences could be studied in future research to further understand the social bonding effects of the live music experience.