Interview's I carried Out for A2 Summer Project

Over the past few weeks I have been going round and asking my friends of both genders, questions to do with the way they listen to music. For example, I interviewed one of my male and female friends, and asked the following questions: (The demographic and occupation of my male and female friend's were 17 year old A level students, and I interviewed them in the city at the forum during the summer holidays, in order to find out their own personal opinions.

1. Do you tend to listen to the same genre of music and bands as your friends?

Male participants reply: “Well, it depends, for example if a friend recommends a band to me, I’ll listen to them and give them a try. However, I would never pretend to like a band just because my friends like them.”

2. Do you like to think that music gives someone a sense of their own identity?

Male participants reply: “More than anything, I think that listening to music is a personal thing, and that yes, music can help someone gain a sense of identity, as a person can relate very heavily to song lyrics."

3. In your opinion, do you think that females listen to music to construct a collective identity, or do you think that females just listen to the same music as their friends to become “part of the crowd?”

Male participants reply: “Judging purely just from my female friends, I believe that females music taste are largely influenced from their friends music tastes, and they use it to bond. For instance, If I look through my female friend’s Ipod’s, I bet that there play lists are very similar."

Furthermore, I also asked a female friend the same questions, and these were the responses that I was given:

Female participants reply to question 1: “Hmm I like some of the same genre’s as my friend’s, yet at the same time my music taste is very different compared to other friend’s. I also became friends with people from meeting them at gigs.”

Female participant’s reply to question 2: “Yes, I do think that music does give someone a sense of identity. For example, some of my friend’s who are Goths, emo’s etc, have all formed there identity in dressing that way from music bands and artists such as Marilyn Manson."

Female participants reply to question 3: “I disagree with the comment that females listen to the same music as their friends just to be part of the crowd. I know plenty of females that have completely different music taste to their friends. Maybe perhaps some girls do listen to music to not form an identity, instead they listen to music to fit in, yet with most of my female friends this certainly isn’t the case."

Both these interviews show both similar and different opinions, for example, with the first question more or less similar answers, that they don’t listen to the same genre of music as their friend’s do just because they want to follow them, yet instead they do have similar tastes as certain friends, and use it as a talking point. (When my female participant stated that she met some of her friend’s from gigs.) Furthermore, with question 2, both participants said that they do indeed think that music gives you a sense of identity. However, when it came to question 3, my male participant thought that females tended to just “follow” each other in terms of music tastes, yet my female participant disagreed with this by stating that this wasn’t the case at all! Also, in terms of question 3, the type of language used could be taken as "bonding language," from words used such as bond and identity. This shows that males believe that females tend to listen to music in order to form relationships with other people, where as males seem to enjoy music individually. The type of language also indicates that audiences receive certain pleasures from listening to muisc constructively with a group of friends, as it is a way for you to bond with your peers, and form relationships based on having the same opinions as another person. This overall suggests, that perhaps males don’t listen to music in order to construct a collective identity to a greater extend than females, yet more interviews would have to be carried out to prove this theory.

Evaluation of Methodology
The evaluation of using interviews however, is that my participants may have acted differently due to pressure of having other audiences hearing their replies, therefore making my results from this part of my investigation not as reliable as they could be. However, using the method of interviews is quicker and easier compared to the method of questionnaires. This is because with questionnaires you have to wait until the participants have filled them in to receive the answers, as opposed to interviews where you just record their voice, Furthermore, interviews allow you to interview as many participants as you like; thus making it quicker than handing out dozens of questionnaires.