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Feeling the Beat and Feeling Better: Musical Experience,

Emotional Reflection, and Music as a Technology of
Mental Health

Article  in  Sociological Inquiry · July 2017

DOI: 10.1111/soin.12194

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Feeling the Beat and Feeling Better: Musical Experience,
Emotional Reflection, and Music as a Technology of
Mental Health

Daniel C. Semenza, Emory University

Using data from the 1999 Arts and Religion Survey, this article builds on the work
of Tia DeNora and the understanding of music as a technology of health by focusing on
an important aspect of music’s impact on mental health, emotional reflection. The study
first examines the relationship between musical experiences and the perceived effective-
ness of music as a coping tool in everyday life. The results indicate that musical experi-
ence is positively associated with the perception of music as an effective coping
mechanism, controlling for relevant demographic and artistic factors included in the sur-
vey. The analysis then assesses the relationship between music’s perceived effectiveness
as a coping mechanism and emotional reflection, indicating a positive association
between the two. Aesthetic disposition and parental education are also positive predic-
tors of using music to cope and emotional reflection. The study demonstrates that those
who value music as a means of coping may be more emotionally reflective and in turn,
experience benefits related to positive mental health. The results also highlight the
importance of considering both micro- and macro-theoretical approaches to
understanding musical practices and their role in health improvement.

Introduction
Music continues to be a site for interdisciplinary inquiry as researchers
explore its role and potential within the lives of human beings (Martin 1997;
Roy and Dowd 2010). In recent years, social scientists have begun to study
music not only as a static cultural object (e.g., reading a piece of sheet music
or listening to a song) but also as a dynamic activity and process of meaning-
making in everyday life as a “technology of the self” (DeNora 1999; Grazian
2004; Kleiner 2009; Roy and Dowd 2010; Schnable 2012; Small 2011). Tech-
nologies of the self are defined as cultural resources used for self-construction
and improvement toward personal, emotional, and physical betterment (DeNora
1999; Foucault 1988). This paper begins by providing an overview of the the-
ory of technologies of the self and how musical engagement may help people
to conduct emotional and biographical “work” in everyday life (DeNora 1999).
Importantly, the ways that people engage with music in their lives may be
shaped by their upbringing and background factors such as parental education

Sociological Inquiry, Vol. 88, No. 2, May 2018, 322–343

© 2017 Alpha Kappa Delta: The International Sociology Honor Society
DOI: 10.1111/soin.12194
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 323

and personal disposition toward art in general. The article then discusses how
individuals use music to improve their own mental health, including emotional
reflection (DeNora 2007). Following this discussion, I offer five related
hypotheses and present an analysis of Wuthnow’s Arts and Religion Survey
(1999) to first examine how musical experiences affect the perception that
music is a helpful means of coping with everyday difficulties, and then assess
how this is utilized as a tool for emotional reflection, taking into consideration
the role of class background factors including parental education and aesthetic
disposition. The final sections discuss the results, limitations of the study, and
suggestions for future research.
Study Contribution
This article expands upon DeNora’s theory of music as a technology of the
self (DeNora 1999) and its role as a health resource in everyday life to show how
musical practices may help to improve emotional health. The analysis shows that
certain musical experiences are related to better perceptions of using music as a
means for coping while also indicating a positive relationship between the use of
music to cope and emotional reflection. Taken together, the results demonstrate
that musical experiences may encourage individuals to use music as a coping
mechanism, potentially resulting in greater emotional reflection and improve-
ments in mental health. Although a substantial body of qualitative and therapeutic
research has assessed the import of music’s role for improving health, little
research has provided quantitative evidence of the particular mechanisms that
may underlie this relationship. The results presented here provide one of the first
quantitative assessments of how music may be used as a technology of mental
health in everyday life using a nationally representative survey.
The present research also serves to contextualize the “micro-level” work of
DeNora regarding music as a technology of the self within macro-approaches to
understanding cultural practices and disposition toward art developed by Pierre
Bourdieu (1984). Some people may be more equipped to use music in their every-
day lives than others and background context is critical when understanding
musical practice across groups. This article brings these micro- and macro-
approaches to musical interaction in conversation with one another, highlighting
some of the constraints that individuals experience when using music as a means
of coping influenced by class and upbringing. This approach illustrates that music
may be considered a technology of the “collective,” as well as the self, since some
people are more apt to utilize music for different purposes than others (Bourdieu
1984; Roy and Dowd 2010). The two approaches ultimately temper one another,
pointing toward significant potential for further research to better examine daily
musical practices for improving lives within the context of class considerations,
life opportunities, and aesthetic disposition.
324 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

Technologies of the Self

DeNora (1999:2) defines the self as a “unitary, autonomous, individual in
possession of an essential subjectivity” and notes that it is a “linchpin of mod-
ern social organization.” The development of the self and one’s identity takes
place over a long period of time through processes of self-interpretation, articu-
lation of self-image, and the modulation of emotional states (Foucault 1988).
Thus, a tool that is employed to help better one’s self is considered a “technol-
ogy” of the self. In the aesthetic terms used by DeNora, these technologies
include cultural resources that people utilize for the ongoing process of self-
construction and “emotional, memory, and biographical work” (DeNora
1999:32). Individuals may employ culture imbued with meaning in various
configurations as part of a “tool kit” of habits, skills, and strategies to solve
problems that may be associated with identity formation and everyday cultural
navigation (Swidler 1986). In sum, technologies of the self are tools that peo-
ple use to better themselves emotionally, improve their own perceptions of
themselves and their place in the world, and ultimately craft an individual
identity.
DeNora’s research on music as a technology of the self provides specific
examples of the means by which people use musical practices to regulate and
improve the self. In DeNora’s research, particular musical practices and strate-
gies have been examined that relate to self-constitution, reflection, and identity
construction including self-programming and knowing what one “needs” musi-
cally, emotional regulation, and identity construction through musical participa-
tion and personal biographical reconstruction (DeNora 1999). DeNora’s
research shows that people calibrate their moods and emotional states in every-
day life by raising the volume of a particular song to “get pumped up,” engag-
ing in micro-performances such as singing in the car or the shower, or playing
a particular song attached to a fond memory. Music effectively helps people to
tap into how they are feeling and then shift those emotions toward an improved
outcome. Additional research shows the role of popular music, such as the rock
‘n’ roll idiom that many adults grew up with, in everyday life as a tool for
meaning-making, cultural exchange, maintaining authenticity, and helping indi-
viduals define themselves across many different social situations (Kotarba
2005, 2009, 2013).
Scholarship on the relationship between music and religion supports the
claim that music can be a tool across many areas of personal development and
spirituality (Wuthnow 1999). Research on Sacred Harp singing shows that
“ritual spaces” created by religious musical engagement help people to create
community among individuals, create social solidarity, and transcend differ-
ences through common practices, experiences, and commitments (Clawson
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 325

2004; Heider and Warner 2010). Within a religious framework, music and art
are tools that bolster the construction of what might be called the “religious
self” through images and songs that evoke God’s presence, quiet anxieties dur-
ing prayer, and help better express grief and anguish in a spiritual way (Wuth-
now 1999). Wuthnow finds that a significant majority of church members
consider art and music very important for both their personal and spiritual lives
and religious attendance provides exposure to art through the examination of
religious artwork and musical participation during services. Thus, self-construc-
tion through musical engagement is not only related to symbolic outcomes in
everyday life but also has consequences for the development and maintenance
of spirituality.
Class Context and Aesthetic Disposition
When considering the musical practices that people engage in every day,
it is important to take into account the context and background factors that
may shape these practices. Aesthetic disposition, defined here as one’s orienta-
tion or “habitus” toward art in general, has been shown to position how people
consume culture and use it across different domains of daily life (Bourdieu
1984). In this paper, “art” refers to all general forms of creative expression,
including music, dance, and visual forms such as painting and sculpture. Bour-
dieu claims that nothing stratifies people quite like music and his theory of
social reproduction asserts that the development of cultural capital—an effi-
ciency and familiarity with dominant cultural codes and practices—is mainly
affected by one’s social background and class position (Ibid. 1984). The
unequal distribution of access to cultural capital and the means to succeed per-
petuates class inequality and ensures that the higher class is provided a greater
chance at success than those below them.
Given this, it may be the case that some people adopt a more cerebral,
reflective approach toward the use of art and music in everyday life to help
with identity construction and self-interpretation based on how they are raised
and the disposition imparted by their parents. Growing up in a well-educated
family may expose children to a greater breadth of musical experiences, the
opportunity for serious music lessons, and a familiarity with many different
types of music that fosters a learned approach toward the appreciation and
utilization of music. On the other hand, those that are not raised in a well-
educated family and “trained” to use music as a technology of the self because
they have not learned to do so from their parents may be more passive in their
consumption of music. Research has shown that musical tastes and uses in
everyday life stratify not only along class lines, but also by age (Hayes 2006;
Kotarba 2013), race (Haynes 2013), education (Chan and Goldthorpe 2007),
and gender (Katz-Gerro 1999). The importance of class necessitates an
326 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

examination of music as a technology of the self that considers group differ-

ences to fully understand the different ways that music can be used to better
one’s self in everyday life.
Using music or “musicking” is a dynamic and fluid process (Small 2011)
that may differ across groups, depending on their disposition toward music
developed during childhood. Thus, a theoretical approach that synthesizes con-
tributions from both DeNora (1999) and Bourdieu (1984) draws upon the
strengths of each while providing a more robust framework for examining
musical practices. While music may be used in the betterment of the self in
everyday life as well as within spiritual contexts, recent research indicates that
it may also play a significant role in health improvement.
Music as a Technology of Health
Researchers have begun to assess how musical experiences affect health
in both clinical and everyday settings (Bonde and Trondalen 2012; DeNora
2000; Hallam and MacDonald 2008; MacDonald, Kreutz, and Mitchell 2012;
MacDonald 2013). In a recent meta-analysis of more than 80 studies on the
use of music in therapeutic settings, music was shown to make people hap-
pier, more relaxed, less anxious, and less overwhelmed as a result of
improvements in both physiology and psychology (Kemper and Danhauer
2005). In contexts outside of therapeutic settings, music has been identified
as a folk medical practice that aids in world-making and identity construc-
tion (Batt-Rawden 2006). Ruud (2002) notes that music may act as a “cul-
tural immunogen” that helps to distance individuals from the physical
burden of disease while transforming the experience of illness into an expe-
rience of recovery and coping through emotional regulation and
self-reflection.
The use of music as a folk medical practice can be applied to the everyday
lives of individuals as they engage in monitoring their own health. DeNora’s
research on music as a technology of the self provides a means of conceptualiz-
ing music as a tool for health promotion or as a “technology of health”
(DeNora 2007; Ruud 2002). Actors utilize music as a means for emotional reg-
ulation, mood and body improvement, and narrative development. In this
framework, music is implicitly a resource for self-stabilization and maintenance
in association with positive mental health, including the ability to cope with
stress and adversity in everyday life (DeNora 2007). Recent research has begun
to pay more attention to music’s capabilities in everyday health experiences
beyond a strictly therapeutic setting including using music to relax and fall
asleep, move from one mood to another better mood, act as a distraction from
pain and symptoms resulting from illness, and remind individuals of better
times when they were their “best selves” (Batt-Rawden 2006, 2010; DeNora
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 327

2000). Additional research supports the finding that music may be used an
effective coping strategy for everyday stressors, showing that listening to self-
selected music after exposure to a stressor significantly reduces negative emo-
tional states and physiological arousal (Labbe et al. 2007).
Research shows that individuals conduct a wide range of musical self-help
behaviors or emotional “work” including selecting specific songs to fit particu-
lar moods, performing momentary musical “compositions” throughout the day
to foster a sense of happiness or excitement such as singing in the shower or
absentmindedly drumming one’s fingers on a desk, regulating their moods
through dancing, using music to focus and concentrate on work, and engaging
in identity formation through small group participation (Batt-Rawden 2010;
DeNora 1986, 1995, 1999; Hassan and Tessler 2010). Those that find art and
music to be useful for coping with difficulties in life may be more inclined to
consciously engage with music to feel better, or simply be more involved with
music in an everyday context. Whether through conscious practice or the devel-
opment of a natural disposition toward music in an everyday context that is lar-
gely taken for granted, the implications may be similar for helping to improve
certain areas of mental health like emotional regulation.
Emotional Reflection and Regulation
Individuals may use music to improve themselves in everyday life through
continuous engagement with and reflection upon one’s own emotions. Emo-
tional regulation is defined as “the heterogeneous set of processes by which
emotions are themselves regulated, including changes in emotion dynamics, or
the latency, rise time, magnitude, duration, and offset of responses in behav-
ioral, experiential, physiological domains” (Gross and Thompson 2007:7–8).
The practice of emotional regulation is an important component in the develop-
ment of positive mental health while also helping to combat the experience of
mental health problems (Gross 1998; Gross and Munoz 1995; Thompson 1991,
1994; Walden and Smith 1997). The ability to dynamically engage with one’s
own feelings requires emotional intelligence, the capacity to monitor and under-
stand one’s own and others’ emotions and feelings while discriminating among
them and using the information to guide both thought and action (Salovey and
Mayer 1990).
The related process of emotional reflexivity requires looking back at one’s
own emotions through the eyes of another to establish one’s sense of self
(Mead 1967; Rosenberg 1990). Emotional reflexivity has been shown to be par-
ticularly important in the dynamic regulation of emotions (Rosenberg 1990).
Musical engagement has been shown to help individuals reflect upon and regu-
late their emotions while also helping to reduce stress and its negative effects
(Batt-Rawden 2006, 2010; DeNora 1999, 2000). These strategies may be more
328 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

common for those that grow up with exposure to musical experiences and
develop a disposition toward music and art that expands beyond entertainment
purposes. Those that view music as a means for coping with difficulty, either
through conscious musical practices or a more natural inclination toward “us-
ing” music, may be better equipped to engage in positive emotional regulation
than those that do not view music as an important coping tool. Thus, viewing
music as a coping tool may reflect a person’s affinity toward conscious musical
engagement, taken-for-granted musical practices in an everyday context, or
some combination of the two. In the same way that the use of music in every-
day life to improve and build one’s self may stratify across certain class
groups, it may also differentiate across groups as a technology of mental
health.
In sum, emotional reflection may be aided by musical engagement in
everyday life. Reflecting on one’s emotions has been shown to play a signifi-
cant role in emotional regulation, which contributes positively to the develop-
ment of the self and mental well-being in everyday life. The following section
presents an empirical assessment of how experiences with music are associated
with the perceived effectiveness of using music as a coping mechanism as well
as how this relates to emotional reflection.
Objectives and Hypotheses
The purpose of this study is to assess (1) how musical experience is
related to the use of music as a means of coping and then (2) how the use of
music to cope relates to emotional reflection. In addition, I examine the rela-
tionship between two important background factors, parental education and aes-
thetic disposition, and the use of music to cope in everyday life. DeNora’s
theory of music as a technology of the self and its implications for improving
aspects of mental well-being, paired with Bourdieu’s class-based approach to
aesthetic disposition, inform five key hypotheses. To examine the dynamic pro-
cess of using music in everyday life across social groups, the present study also
considers important demographic factors such as race and gender. The hypothe-
ses are presented as follows, controlling for all pertinent factors:
Perceived Effectiveness of Music as a Means of Coping
H1. Greater participation in musical activities growing up will be
positively associated with the perceived effectiveness of using music as a
means of coping.
H2. Greater participation in recent musical experiences will be positively
associated with the perceived effectiveness of using music as a means of
coping.
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 329

Emotional Reflection
H3. The perceived effectiveness of music as a means of coping will be
positively associated with the likelihood of emotional reflection.
Parental Background and Aesthetic Disposition
H4. Higher parental education will be positively associated with the per-
ceived effectiveness of using music as a means of coping and emotional
reflection.
H5. Greater aesthetic disposition will be positively associated with the per-
ceived effectiveness of using music as a means of coping and emotional
reflection.
Data and Methods
Data
The survey data come from the 1999 Arts and Religion Survey. The study
was designed by Robert Wuthnow and conducted by the Gallup Organization
in Princeton, New Jersey. In-person, in-home interviews were conducted with a
random nationally representative sample of 1,530 non-institutionalized U.S.
adults ages 18 and over. Each interview lasted approximately fifty minutes and
included more than 300 questions. The sample is a probability sample down to
the block level, after which households and persons within households were
selected through an enumeration process. Wuthnow’s survey is used primarily
in his examination of the relationship between religion and the arts, including
music’s role in the potential revitalization of churches and religious life (Wuth-
now 1999). Respondents were also asked questions about arts-related activities;
attitudes toward the arts; religious activities, behaviors, beliefs, and affiliations;
spiritual experiences; attitudes toward religion and spirituality; the role of the
arts in religious contexts; the relationship between art and spirituality; and
involvement in charitable activities.
Dependent Variables
The two dependent variables are (1) the perceived effectiveness of music
as a coping strategy and (2) emotional reflection. The first dependent variable,
perceived effectiveness of using music to cope, was measured with the ques-
tion, “How helpful was music during a time when you were ill, lonely, trou-
bled, or grieving the loss of a loved one?” Responses are dummy coded as 0
for “Not Helpful” and 1 for “Helpful.” This question is a follow-up to an initial
inquiry asking whether the participant had ever felt ill, lonely, troubled, or
grieved for the loss of a loved one, in any context; 1,314 respondents
responded affirmatively to this initial question (86% of all respondents) and
330 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

were then prompted to answer if music specifically had been helpful during a
difficult time. As a result, the sample used in the present analysis is a “subsam-
ple” of individuals that had ever experienced illness, loneliness, trouble, or
grievance for the loss of a loved one. This question is used as an approxima-
tion of the respondent’s use of music as a coping tactic for dealing with diffi-
culty. Given the modeling strategy of this study, this variable is analyzed first
as an outcome measure to examine its relationship with musical experiences
and then as an independent variable in relation to emotional reflection, control-
ling for all other factors.
Emotional reflection is measured using the question, “I spend a lot of time
reflecting on my life and trying to understand my feelings,” to which respon-
dents can agree or disagree. Emotional reflection is a key component of posi-
tive emotional health and is therefore appropriate to assess within the present
framework (Gross 1998; Gross and Munoz 1995; Thompson 1991, 1994;
Walden and Smith 1997).
These dependent variables are artifacts of the secondary data used in the
present analysis and provide the most approximate means of examining these
experiences within the confines of the data. The Arts and Religion Survey pro-
vides one of the only surveys that examines musical behaviors and experiences
in concord with aspects of emotional well-being, and therefore, these data
enable the best glimpse available into the relationships under investigation.
While discrete measures of mental health such as the presence of mental illness
or discrete levels of negative emotional states (such as anxiety or depression)
would be optimal, these data are currently unavailable in association with
extensive measures of musical practice. However, the single variable does oper-
ationalize a unique aspect of mental well-being, emotional reflection, and can
be used to assess the theoretical considerations of the article. Prior cultural
research using single-item indicators for complex processes has been conducted
with informative results, though the results presented here may be a conserva-
tive estimate given the one-dimensional measure of perceived effectiveness of
music to cope and emotional reflection used in the analyses (Beyerlein and
Vaisey 2013; Vaisey 2009).
Musical Experiences
The Arts and Religion Survey provides in-depth measures of musical
experience not found in other nationally representative surveys. Two index
measures were created to assess (1) the participant’s recent musical engagement
and (2) the participant’s musical experiences growing up. All descriptive infor-
mation is available in Table 2 for these indexes. The first index is comprised
of seven binary measures (Yes/No), which ask whether the participant has done
any of the following activities in the past 12 months: listened to the radio,
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 331

purchased music, played an instrument, attended an opera or a concert, danced,

attended a school concert or play, or helped children with art or music. This
index measures the level of recent musical experience and ranges from 0 (no
recent musical activity) to 7 (a lot of recent musical activity). Since the data
are from 1999, the range of activities related to musical consumption is limited
by the technology available at the time. Therefore, it includes a much higher
rate of purchasing music (on tape or compact disk) than what would be
expected to find today due to an increase in digital streaming services such as
YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify, as well as the illegal digital consumption of
content. The data do not include any measures of digital consumption.
The second index measures the participant’s musical experiences growing
up, comprised of four binary measures (Yes/No), asking whether or not the
participant did the following when growing up: learned to play an instrument,
played in a band or orchestra, sang in a school choir, or sang in a church choir.
Both of these composite measures are variety scales that utilize the musical
activities provided by the Arts and Religion Survey data in an attempt to
encapsulate the individual’s range of musical experiences both as a child and
over the last year.
Aesthetic Disposition
Those with a greater disposition toward art in their lives may be more
likely to find using music to be an effective coping strategy simply because
artistic engagement is higher on a day-to-day basis in their lives. These individ-
uals may also be more disposed to use music to help cope because they have
been raised in an environment that encourages these strategies. Art is defined
here as inclusive of all forms of creative self-expression. I operationalize aes-
thetic disposition based on the level of importance that respondents place on
art in their lives. A variable measuring the importance of art is included in all
models using the question, “If we think of the arts as including painting, sculp-
ture, music of all kinds, dance, theater, and creative literature, how important
would you say the arts are to you in your own life?” Responses included “Not
at all important,” “Not very important,” “Fairly important,” “Very important,”
and “Extremely important.” These were then recoded into a binary measure,
where those responses indicating that art is not at all or not very important
were coded as “Not important” (reference category = 0) and those that indi-
cated that art is fairly, very, or extremely important were coded as 1 for
“Important.”1
Demographic Variables
Musical engagement varies across a number of individual attributes that
results in stratification across race, age, class, and gender (Atkinson 2011;
332 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

Bourdieu 1984; Holt 1997; Katz-Gerro 1999; Shephard 1986). To account for
potential differences in the way that people engage with music across groups,
demographic controls are included in the analysis. Gender (dummy coded 0,1
with male as the reference category) and race are included as social group vari-
ables. Race is coded with white as the reference category (0) followed by black
(1) and mixed/other Race (2). The mixed/other category is included here as a
result of a very small population of Asian, Latino, and mixed-race participants
in the original survey. Age is included as a continuous variable.
Family income is comprised of three categories: <$30K (reference),
$30K–$75K, and $75K+. In addition, a fourth category, “Don’t Know” is
included as a discrete response, rather than excluding these as missing
responses, to help preserve sample size. Participant education is measured using
six educational categories: No High School Degree (reference), High School
Degree, Vocational Degree or Some College, College Degree, and Professional
Degree. Parental education is categorized as Neither Parent with College
Degree (reference), At Least One Parent with College Degree, and Both Parents
with College Degrees. This variable is used to approximate class background
and examine how educational differences may impact the use of music as a
technology of mental health.
Strategy for Analysis
Logistic regression using Stata 14.2 is used to regress the two dichoto-
mous dependent variables on all independent variables. The first analysis
regresses “Perceived Usefulness of Music to Cope” on all demographic corre-
lates and the importance of art to establish a “baseline” assessment. Recent
musical experiences and musical experiences growing up are then added into
the model to examine how these factors are associated with using music to
cope in times of difficulty while controlling for all other variables. The second
analysis regresses “Emotional Reflection” on all variables, including “Music
Helpful to Cope” to examine the relationship between the use of music to cope
and emotional reflection, accounting for all other factors.
Odds ratios (ORs) and accompanying standard errors are presented after
conducting listwise deletion for all variables in each model. The analysis con-
sists of 1,222 cases resulting in a loss of about 20 percent of the total sampled
population, largely due to the fact that the analysis is conducted on a “subsam-
ple” of the data that responded affirmatively to having ever experienced any
kind of loss, difficulty, trouble, or grievance for a loved one (N = 1,314).
Given this subsample, only about 7 percent of the subsample population is lost
due to missing data assumed to be missing at random across all variables
included in the analysis, considered an acceptable rate of case loss (Allison
2000).
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 333

Results
Summary
Results of the analyses indicate first that both musical experience growing
up and recent musical experiences are positively related to the perception that
music is a helpful way to cope with everyday difficulties in life. Additionally,
the importance of art in one’s life and having two parents with college degrees
are significantly associated with the perception of music as a useful coping
means, indicating that a strong disposition toward art and parental education
are both related to how people view the utility of music in everyday life for
purposes beyond entertainment. The results of the second analysis show that
the perception of music as a useful way to cope is significantly associated with
emotional reflection. The importance of art is also positively related to emo-
tional reflection. The following sections offer a detailed look at the descriptive
results and the results of both analyses.
Descriptive Results
Table 1 provides an overview of the main descriptive statistics for the par-
ticipants in the 1999 Arts and Religion Survey. About 72 percent of the sample
indicates that music has been helpful during a time of difficulty, illness, trou-
ble, or loss and about 40 percent of the sample spends time reflecting on life
and their emotions. The sample is comprised of slightly more females (50.7%),
mostly whites (79.5%), and an average age of 47.5. The largest education
group is a high school degree (32.4%) and about 86 percent of the sample has
a family income of <$75K. Most participants have two parents without a col-
lege degree (73.9%) and about 10 percent of the sample has two parents with
college degrees. About 44 percent of the sample considers art to be important
in their lives.
Table 2 shows that the average number of recent musical activities is
about 3.1 out of a possible seven total activities (SD = 1.73) and the average
number of musical activities growing up is about 1.6 (SD = 1.32).
Analysis #1—Musical Experience and the Use of Music to Cope
Table 3 shows the results of the first analysis with “Perceived Usefulness
of Music to Cope” as the dependent variable. In Model 1, being female signifi-
cantly increases the likelihood of perceiving music as a useful coping means
by about 34 percent and having two parents with college degrees significantly
increases the likelihood of viewing music as an effective coping means by
about 2.6 times (OR = 2.579; p < .01). Aesthetic disposition is also signifi-
cantly associated with perceived usefulness of music to cope. Those that con-
sider art an important part of their lives have an increased likelihood of finding
334 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for 1999 Arts and Religion Survey

Dependent variables

Yes—Music Helpful to Cope (%) 71.6

Yes—Reflecting Deeply on Emotions and Personal Feelings (%) 39.9
Female (%) 50.7
White (%) 79.5
Black (%) 13.8
Other (%) 6.7
Average Respondent Age 47.5
High School Incomplete (%) 14.3
High School Graduate (%) 32.4
Technical School or Some College (%) 29.7
College Graduate (%) 15.2
Postgraduate or Professional (%) 8.4
Less than $30K Family Income (%) 37.1
$30–75K Family Income (%) 36.8
$75K+ Family Income (%) 12.4
Don’t Know/No Answer 13.7
Neither Parent w/College Degree (%) 73.9
One Parent w/College Degree (%) 15.9
Both Parents w/College Degree (%) 10.2
Art Not Important (%) 56.0
Art Important (%) 44.0

music helpful to cope by about 2.6 times. None of the other demographic and
group predictors are significantly associated with the perceived use of music to
cope in the initial baseline model.
In the second model, recent musical experiences and musical experiences
growing up are added. Net of all other factors, recent musical experience has a
significant and positive relationship with the perceived usefulness of music to
cope, increasing the likelihood by about 18 percent (p < .01). Musical experi-
ence growing up also has a significant and positive relationship with musical
coping, increasing the likelihood of considering music as a useful coping
method by about 14 percent (p < .05). Although there is no longer an effect of
gender in the second model, having two parents with college degrees remains
significant even after introducing musical experiences into the model, although
the effect is diminished slightly (OR = 2.430; p < .01). Similarly, the
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 335

Table 2. Musical Experience Indexes

Mean Std.
Response Deviation Minimum Maximum Alpha

Recent Musical 3.13 1.73 0 7 .643

Experiences
Musical Experiences 1.63 1.32 0 4 .623
Growing Up

importance of art remains significant, though the effect size is decreased

(OR = 2.324; p < .01). Thus, once the model is fully specified, the results
indicate that both recent and childhood musical experiences as well as parental
education and the personal importance of art in one’s life are all positively
associated with the perceived utility of music to cope in times of difficulty.
Analysis #2—The Use of Music to Cope and Emotional Reflection
Table 4 presents the results of the regression of emotional reflection on all
variables in the first analysis. The perceived usefulness of music as a means of
coping is significantly and positively associated with emotional reflection,
increasing the likelihood of reflecting on life and one’s emotions by about 47
percent for those that view music to be helpful in coping with everyday prob-
lems (p < .01). No other demographic factors are significantly associated with
emotional reflection, including parental education. The importance of art in par-
ticipants’ lives increases the likelihood of emotional reflection by about 43 per-
cent (p < .01). Past and recent musical experiences were not significantly
associated with emotional reflection. The following discussion examines these
results and their relation to the overall theoretical framework of the present
study.
Discussion
The results provide support for all five hypotheses. The results show that
musical experiences, both recent and during childhood, are positively associated
with the perceived effectiveness of using music to cope during difficult times.
These findings have important implications for the work of DeNora and others
examining the use of music as a technology of mental health, indicating that
those who have engaged with music both recently and as a child will be more
likely to report that music was helpful in coping with troubles in everyday life.
The results of the second analysis support DeNora’s work by showing that
336 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

Table 3. Odds Ratios and Standard Errors (DV = Perceived Usefulness of

Music to Cope)

Model 1 Model 2

Female 1.336* (.180) 1.205 (.165)

Race (ref = white)
Black 1.353 (.284) 1.459 (.311)
Mixed or other race 1.121 (.330) 1.200 (.357)
Age .995 (.004) 1.000 (.004)
Family Income (ref = <$30K)
$30–75K 1.206 (.201) 1.085 (.184)
$75K+ .861 (.202) .747 (.180)
Do Not Know .785 (.162) .754 (.163)
Education (ref = No high school degree)
High School Degree .778 (.161) .724 (.151)
Vocational or Some College 1.113 (.249) .930 (.213)
College Degree 1.102 (.230) .842 (.262)
Professional Degree 1.317 (.432) 1.006 (.340)
Parental Education (ref = Neither degree)
One College Degree 1.195 (.229) 1.147 (.223)
Both College Degrees 2.579** (.805) 2.430** (.764)
Aesthetic Disposition (ref = Art not important)
Important 2.600** (.372) 2.324** (.339)
Recent Musical Experience – 1.179** (.059)
Musical Experience Growing Up – 1.139* (.067)
Constant 1.627 (.491) .844 (.289)
# of Observations 1,222 1,222
Pseudo R^2 .070 .086

Robust Standard Errors in Parentheses. **<.01; *<.05

those who do find music to be an effective means of coping are more likely to
engage in emotional reflection in an attempt to examine one’s own life and bet-
ter understand their feelings, an adaptive practice that can potentially lead to
improved emotional outcomes and positive emotional health.
Since music can be used as a means of improving one’s self and health
(DeNora 2000), factors that increase the likelihood of using music to cope are
important because they may enable individuals to improve their lives in every-
day situations. The results of the first analysis indicate that exposure to music
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 337

Table 4. Odds Ratios and Standard Errors for (DV = Emotional

Reflection)
Music Helpful to Cope 1.470** (.207)
Female 1.063 (.131)
Race (ref = white)
Black .692 (.133)
Mixed or other race .910 (.237)
Age .996 (.004)
Family Income (ref = <$30K)
$30–75K .992 (.148)
$75K+ .880 (.183)
Do Not Know .940 (.193)
Education (ref = No high school degree)
High School Degree .942 (.191)
Vocational or Some College 1.251 (.265)
College Degree 1.145 (.284)
Professional Degree 1.656 (.423)
Parental Education (ref = Neither degree)
One College Degree .940 (.158)
Both College Degrees .825 (.178)
Aesthetic Disposition (ref = Art not important)
Important 1.426** (.181)
Recent Musical Experience 1.063 (.046)
Musical Experience Growing Up 1.070 (.055)
Constant .391** (.128)
# of Observations 1,222
Pseudo R^2 .040

Robust Standard Errors in Parentheses. **<.01; *<.05

in recent experiences such as purchasing music, listening to the radio, attending

performances, or playing a musical instrument may prompt individuals to turn
to music in times of difficulty. It is possible that having recently engaged with
music in some capacity simply increases the salience of music as a viable
means of coping. However, childhood musical experiences also increase the
likelihood of using music to cope, indicating that early-life musical interaction
may have a long-term effect on the inclusion of music as an option in a per-
son’s aesthetic repertoire for coping with hardship or stress in life. Taken
together, increased exposure to music as both a child and an adult may make it
338 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

more natural to turn to musical activities to feel better and employ many of the
musical coping devices that DeNora (1999) has outlined. These experiences
may make music more salient in people’s lives and encourage them to use it
not only for entertainment purposes, but also to help them improve their own
well-being. People may get used to listening to music, practicing an instrument,
or attending a musical performance to deal with daily stressors, help improve
their mood, or simply distract themselves from the hassles and hardships in
their lives. Thus, these results provide support for both hypotheses 1 and 2 and
the expectation that greater musical engagement may prompt individuals to
employ music as a helpful means of coping.
The second analysis supports Hypothesis 3, showing that the perceived
effectiveness of music to cope is positively associated with emotional reflec-
tion. This indicates that those that find using music to cope to be an effective
technology of mental health are more likely to think deeply on their emotions
and try to understand their own feelings. Emotional reflection is an important
step in the process of emotional regulation and the improvement of one’s men-
tal and emotional health (Gross and Thompson 2007), and the effective use of
music as a technology of health is related here to one aspect of health improve-
ment as indicated by DeNora’s work. Listening to a meaningful song or think-
ing through song lyrics may allow individuals to examine their own emotions
through the work of others, providing a point of view that can help parse
through emotional difficulty or feelings of mental instability. Emotional reflec-
tion, encouraged by musical engagement, may also better help people under-
stand themselves and develop meaningful identities (DeNora 1999). Although
not examined here, musical participation may positively impact other elements
of mental well-being beyond emotional reflection, helping individuals to use
music to relax and de-stress, improve their mood, distract from pain and illness,
and reminisce of better times when they were their “well” selves (Batt-Rawden
2006, 2010; DeNora 2000). Ultimately, the results provide support for
DeNora’s theory that music can be a fruitful source of personal improvement
in everyday life.
Partial support was found for Hypothesis 4. The first analysis indicates
that having two parents with college degrees significantly increases the likeli-
hood of using music to cope by about 2.3 times, even after controlling for
musical experience. According to Bourdieu (1984), cultural capital across
classes is not equally distributed and those with higher class positions are better
endowed with cultural capital and the means to succeed through a particularly
endowed disposition or “habitus.” The first analysis shows that a disposition or
habitus to use music as a technology of mental health for coping may be
shaped not only by musical experience, but also by cultural or artistic training
afforded by parents with a high level of education. While the accessibility to
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 339

music has increased tremendously as a result of new forms of musical con-

sumption and greater availability of musical instruction and training in schools,
musical taste and the way that individuals engage with music likely remain
somewhat stratified across class lines. Households where parents are better edu-
cated may expose their children to certain types of “highbrow” music like clas-
sical music or jazz at a young age, encourage children to seriously study music
as a form of art beyond a means of entertainment, or provide opportunities to
attend musical performances like opera and classical concerts that households
with lower levels of education simply may not have. The proliferation of new
musical genres and greater access to all forms of music has likely complicated
the simplistic dichotomy of “lowbrow” versus “highbrow” musical consump-
tion, but a learned approach toward musical engagement shaped by elements of
class may still have a significant bearing on how music is ultimately utilized as
a tool for self-improvement. A theoretical approach that considers the practice
of using music in everyday life to improve health within the context of class
background factors that might influence these practices may therefore be espe-
cially fruitful for further research. However, parental education does not appear
to be associated with the actual practice of emotional reflection, as the results
are not significant in the final model.
Finally, full support was found for Hypothesis 5. Aesthetic disposition,
classified here as the general importance of art in one’s life, was found to be
significant in both analyses. Those that consider art (including music) to be an
important part of their lives are about 2.3 times more likely to consider music
a useful means of coping with difficulty in life. While class and parental educa-
tion may increase exposure to musical experiences that impact the use of music
as a means of coping, one’s own opinion of art as a whole also appears to mat-
ter. A person who considers art to be important may be more apt to find ways
to use different kinds of artistic engagement to help deal with problems.
Although the two are not highly correlated in this study (.13), parental educa-
tion and the importance of art may be related, since research indicates that aes-
thetic disposition is likely developed in part due to the exposure of art from
parents during childhood (Bourdieu 1984). Aesthetic disposition is also associ-
ated with the likelihood of emotional reflection, as shown in the second analy-
sis. Those who consider art to be important in their lives are about 1.4 times
more likely to be emotionally reflective than those who do not consider art to
be important in their lives at all. Art may prime individuals to be more engaged
with their own emotions and use expressions of art to explore their own emo-
tional state with an eye toward improvement. Since the general importance of
art is shown to impact both the use of music to cope and emotional reflection,
an increased general salience of art and music in a person’s life may enable
340 DANIEL C. SEMENZA

them to better cope with difficulty and “use” art as a technology for improving
the self and one’s own well-being.
Limitations and Future Research
The present study is restricted by a few limitations. First, although the data
provide a unique opportunity for new analysis of the relationships of interest,
the data are cross-sectional. As a result, causality and temporality are difficult
to discern. Further research using longitudinal data is necessary to determine
the direction of the relationship between these important measures. Second,
although the dependent variables operationalizing the perceived usefulness of
music as a technology of mental health provide insight into the effects of musi-
cal practices on coping methods and emotional reflection, the variables in the
present study do not explicitly measure mental health through diagnostic
means. Although this type of measurement is currently unavailable within the
same survey as questions about musical behaviors and attitudes, future research
will benefit from data that include diagnostic measures of mental health and
self-management alongside questions about experiences in the arts and music.
This may include measures from the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Men-
tal Disorders (DSM), which is used to identify and diagnose mental illnesses.
However, the categories currently used within the DSM have been widely criti-
cized both within psychiatry and the larger field of health studies (DeNora
2015; Horwitz and Wakefield 2007). While the use of the DSM categories
should be approached with caution, this may enable future researchers to better
understand the importance of music within an everyday health context as well
as how musical experience and behaviors directly affect both self-management
practices and various categories of mental well-being outcomes.
Finally, the data analyzed in present study were collected in 1999 and do
not account for the evolution of digital technology and the means by which
individuals now consume music. New musical devices, services, and purchas-
ing models have proliferated since 1999, providing far greater access to musical
content and experiences than ever before (Prior 2013). Increasingly accessible
and affordable personal listening devices such as iPods and MP3 players have
been found to enable enhancement of subjective well-being and mental health
(Skanland 2011). In addition, the use of services like Spotify, Tidal, iTunes,
YouTube, and Pandora provides access to an essentially limitless amount of
content that enables a greater presence of music in the lives of those who seek
it out without substantial financial cost, potentially changing the degree of
impact of stratification on musical behavior and consumption (Tepper and Har-
gittai 2009). Since the present data do not reflect these changes, further
research will benefit from analysis of how new digital music advancements can
be used as technologies of the self and mental health improvement.
 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY HEALTH 341

Conclusion
With these caveats in mind, this study supports the assertion that music is
an active and dynamic process impacted by larger social processes and past
experiences (DeNora 1999; Small 2011). Both recent and past musical experi-
ences are associated with the perceived usefulness of music as a technology of
mental health. In addition, those that see the use of music as a technology of
mental health as a means to cope also have an increased likelihood of being
emotionally reflective, a key component of emotional regulation and the
improvement of mental health. Class considerations and aesthetic disposition
contextualize these behaviors and shape how some groups may be bounded in
their use of music in everyday life. Individuals and groups interact with music
for many reasons and often employ musical practices to establish who they are
as human beings while navigating their own social, physical, and mental well-
being. Utilizing this dynamic framework of musical engagement for future
research will inform the continued exploration of music’s impact on human
behavior across all walks of life.

ENDNOTES

Please direct correspondence to Daniel C. Semenza, Department of Sociology, Emory Univer-

sity, 225 Tarbutton Hall, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA; e-mail: dsemenz@emory.edu
A special thank you to Tim Dowd and Bob Agnew for the invaluable assistance in conceptualizing,
proofing, and editing this article.
1
Analysis using the five-category variable was also examined and showed similar results, con-
trolling for all other factors. The binary item is used here for simpler interpretation.

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