Summary
Hypothesis
Due to upward social comparison, we hypothesized that exposure to reality television
singing (a technically demanding style of contemporary commercial music singing) would
negatively influence singing self-concept compared to hearing amateur singers or plain,
unembellished singing by professionals.
Study Design and Methods
A between-subjects, online experiment was used. A sample of 212 individuals (Mage = 33.14;
69.30% female) participated in the study. After completing a background section, participants
were randomly allocated into one of the experimental conditions (hearing one of four
versions of a well-known song: a control version with piano and no singing, amateur
singing, professional plain singing, and professional singing in the style of reality
television singing). Participants were then asked to judge the performance they heard
and to respond to items concerning their singing self-concept (including singing ability).
Results and Conclusions
A series of ANCOVAs was used to examine the impact of the experimental condition on
the participants’ performance judgments and singing self-concept. The amateur singing
was judged as the lowest quality. While there was no significant difference by experimental
condition regarding possessing good singing ability, the experimental condition did
affect people's singing aspirations and perceived ability to sing along with the performers.
The pattern of results suggests that exposure to reality television-style singing
may have negative impacts on people's singing self-concept via upward social comparison.
Self-concept has been identified as an important predictor of musical engagement and
participation and plays a role in motivating action. These results encourage music
educators, singing voice pedagogues, and community musicians seeking to promote musical
and singing participation to be aware of cultural influences on an individual's singing
self-concept.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 23, 2022
Accepted:
June 17,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
