Does Reality Television-Style Singing Influence Singing Self-Concept?

Amanda E Krause; Melissa Forbes; Xanthe Lowe-Brown

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.06.024

Does Reality Television-Style Singing Influence Singing Self-Concept?

J Voice. 2022 Jul 22:S0892-1997(22)00187-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.06.024. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Amanda E Krause¹, Melissa Forbes², Xanthe Lowe-Brown³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: Amanda.Krause1@jcu.edu.au.
² Centre for Heritage and Culture, School of Creative Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.
³ Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne, Southbank, Victoria, Australia.

PMID: 35879211
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.06.024

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Contemporary commercial music singing; Musical identity; Singing ability; Singing self-concept; Social comparison theory.