Laurence Yansunnu

Abbygale Kim

Professor Bae

COMM 402

Section 0104

The Effect of Music on Friendships

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 Step 1: ​For this research project, we have observed that the genre of music you listen to

greatly affects the people you surround yourself with. We chose to do research on this topic

because we have observed that the genre of music we enjoy can lead to changes in our fashion

sense, mannerisms/way of speaking, and the level of intimacy with those close to us. For our first

hypothesis we predicted that the relationship between an artist’s universal popularity/branding is

positively associated with the trendiness/commonality of their fan’s fashion sense. Meaning, the

amount of popularity and exposure your favorite artist has the trendier and more popular your

sense of fashion is. For our second hypothesis, we predicted that the relationship between similar

taste in music genres within groups of friends and the level of intimacy within said groups are

positively associated. Meaning, The more music artists a group of friends have in common, the

more the amount of intimacy and closeness within the group of friends increases. Lastly, for our

third hypothesis, we predicted that the more your favorite artists publicly disclose their

beliefs/mannerisms, is positively associated with how much your behavior/mannerisms match

theirs. Meaning, the more available an artist’s beliefs, behavior, and opinions are to the public,

the more prone you are to start mimicking said behaviors.

Step 2: ​For our first theoretical linkage we are linking the commonality of a fashion

trend (or type of style) with how marketable the prefered music genre/artist is. The more popular

and marketable your preferred music genre/artist is the more reach they will have in communities

outside of music, including fashion. The easier it is to market an artist to broad group of people,

the more access to their fashion is available to the general public. The more access there is for

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the general public, the more people will dress the same way as said artists of said popular genre

of music. For the second theoretical linkage, we’ve linked the notion of identification and the

heightened feeling of a sense of community within friends. With the amount of access to

technology and streaming software available to this generation, access to music is incredibly

easy. Most of us listen to music more than 4 hours a day. To some, music is a very important part

of our daily routines, therefore our music preference could too be a very important part of our

identity. If someone were to not value or hold the same feelings towards our prefered genre of

music, it potentially could be grounds for a lack of connection and friendship.

For our third theoretical linkage, we linked the idea of an artist’s openness to their

audience with an increase in imitation of their behavior by fans. Meaning, when an artist is more

open and honest about their behavior, opinion, and actions the more access fans have to this

opinion. If this artist is your preferred artist, and somewhat of a role model, you will most likely

begin to imitate their behavior. This would all be done out of endearment. When you start

mimicking said behavior, you become a part of fandom of people who most likely do the same

thing. Therefore you insert yourself and align your behavior to fit in an environment full of

people just like you, with enough of a foundation for friendship.

Step 3: The three concepts this project focuses on are (a) Patterns in Fashion. (b) Level

of intimacy, and (c) Imitation of Mannerisms. For the first concept of trendiness in one’s fashion

sense, it’s important to note that we believe that most genres of music are usually associated with

some kind of fashion trend. For example, when asked what a metalhead would look like, most

people would mention the widely perceived notion of a man with long hair, wearing jeans, a

black band T-shirt, and a piercing of some kind. For some reason, that sense of style would be

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associated with someone who was known to enjoy Metal music. In this sense, genre of music

does seem to have some sort of effect on the way one chooses to present themselves in their

daily, casual lives. The way one chooses the present themselves to the world, often influences

who they attract. Through this process, one can attract people with similar interests which then

attracts friendship. This process essentially means that preferred music genre affects one’s sense

of style and outward visual expression which in turn affects how one is perceived in the world

and who is attracted to this expression in terms of similarities - which then creates friendships

through shared outward expression of interests. This can be seen in groups, like mentioned

before, of metalheads who dress alike or scene kids who dress and color their hair a specific way,

fitting the image associated with their preferred music genre, and group of peers.

Our second concept is on the level of intimacy within a friendship and its relation to

similar musical preferences. Due to growing access to music at all times, music has become a big

part of most of our lives. Therefore, a lack of interest in the same music as someone, may cause a

lack of connection with someone - resulting in a lack of intimacy/closeness within the friendship.

Our third, and final, concept is that of the similarities in mannerisms (between artists and fans).

The way one acts, speaks, or carries themselves can be a direct product of their environment

and/or who they choose to idolize. Most people behave the same way as those they surround

themselves with. This serves as direct correlation between similarities in beliefs between you,

your favorite artist, and those close to you. If you are a big enough of fan of an artist, you might

be more prone to act similarly to them or have the same opinions as them. Meaning that if an

artist is more public about their personal beliefs, values, and behavior, this could affect you as a

fan by causing you to mimic their mannerisms/values. This could also mean that if your

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mannerisms and values align with that of your favorite artist and you gravitate towards them, it is

more likely for you to garner close friendships with those in their fan base; because they most

likely share your same mannerisms and values. This creates a similarity in mannerisms between

you and your favorite artist, and could in turn create potential for friendships through shared

mannerisms and values.

Step 4: In order to test our hypotheses, we would use three of the following heuristics

that we have learned in class. First, we would use heuristic number one which is to analyze our

own experiences by examining past and current friendships and tastes in music. Our music tastes

have changed and grown throughout the course of the years. We have been exposed to various

types of music, friends, fashion trends and beliefs throughout our lives, through attending formal

school events, religious events, cultural events, plays, and concerts or music festivals and etc.

We can analyze the different genres that we used to listen to and currently listen to now. We can

analyze our previous and current social groups and friendships Also, we can analyze our past and

current fashion trends. In addition, we would use heuristic number two which is the use of case

studies by creating polls, interviews or surveys. We can form questions in relation to our

hypotheses and interview or survey students at the University of Maryland or our close friends.

We can form various questions that ask about people’s daily and festival outfit looks they

gravitate towards, their favorite artist and genre, specific kinds of music events they enjoy

attending, their mannerisms and morals that they believe in and how they like to communicate

with others at music events. This heuristic will allow us to learn about different perspectives on

music and social groups and analyze our results. Lastly, we would use heuristic number six

which is to engage in participant observation by observing live music festivals or concerts. This

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is a fun and interesting heuristic for us to engage in because we are already personally enjoy

attending these current or future events and it will be educational for us to learn about individuals

and groups of friends. In addition, we will be able to get a closer look and focus on certain

aspects that we were not able to notice before at these events. For instance, we can attend a

popular EDM festival in the spring or summer time which showcases various tents, stages and

genres of EDM. We will be able to expose ourselves to various people with fashion trends, look

at the groups and cliques people are joined in and bonded together, and tune into totem poles,

posters or banners created by fans that are expressed to particular music cultures and artists.

Step 5: Like mentioned previously, we chose to evaluate this topic by observation,

research, and analysis of our own experiences. For the first hypothesis concerning

trendiness/commonality of fashion sense, we asked a bonus question on a survey we created,

about what fashion trend our participants associated with the most currently. After going through

all of the answers individually and linking each answer with its respective preferred artist, it was

apparent that the less popular your music genre preference was, the less common the fashion

trend you associated with would be. Not a lot of individuals, however, wore the same trends

typically associated with their preferred genre of music. This begs the question that perhaps

societal pressure may be a moderating factor in how these participants choose to present

themselves to the world. Through more research on this very topic, it was studied and found that

music and fashion sense are indeed connected in some way or another (Na, 2013).

We then decided to analyze the ways in which we made friends with our close group of

peers. We observed that between the two of us, most of our closest friendships began with music

and similar musical preferences. For example, my (Laurence’s) level of intimacy with my best

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friend today was rooted in our common middle school musical interest in bands like Pierce The

Veil, Mayday Parade, and The Story So Far. This then prompted us to visit music festivals like

Warped Tour together. Through this music genre preference we began to dress like the typical

demographic of fans associated with that kind of music. It helped us identify not only with the

artists but with people within said fan base which, from personal experience, permits me to say

that our musical preferences were very much related to our identity and who we saw ourselves as

(North & Hargreaves, 1999). There was a study done by Benson P. Fraser and William J. Brown

concerning the very topic of identification and fandom. Their study was solely based on the

media’s portrayal of Elvis Presley and its impact on the way his fans’ behaviors were modified

because of this portrayal. Fan bases seem to closely identify with preferred artists due to their

view of the artists (or celebrity) as a role model (Fraser & Brown, 2002). ​Role models according

to Fraser and Brown are “people whose values, beliefs, and behavior are likely to be adopted by

others within their sphere of influence” (Fraser & Brown, 2002). The way your preferred artist

chooses to shape their image and change their behavior will ultimately shape the way you change

your behavior. The hypothesis that the imitation of an artist’s mannerism can lead to behavioral

changes within those who identify with said artist is tested and supported. The second part of the

hypothesis is that, a similar sense of personality and behavior leads to friendship. These two

parts are not normally linked in most of the experiments/research that we’ve had the chance to

do. However, it is researched that “friendships typically are characterized by strong emotional

bonds, thereby increasing the likelihood that friends will imitate each other’s behavior” (Berndt

& Perry, 1986). These separate research findings seem to indicate that when analyzed step by

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step with the addition of music as a variable, a preferred artist’s behavior affects your behavior,

which in turns affects and formulates friendships with those similar.

We then tested our theory by creating a survey that asked our respective community

about their music listening behaviors and friendships. The results came to be a little bit broad and

overall not very telling of any specific trend or commonality. This is a problem that we did not

see ourselves running into while creating the survey. Specifically because, not everyone’s

definition of “friend” is quite the same. For example, a question we asked on this survey, “what

genre of music do you identify with the most?” 10 out of the 58 responses we got were for Hip

Hop while, 14 out of the 58 chose Indie/Alternative. However when another question like “what

genre of music does your group of friends listen to when together?” was asked, 22 out of 58 of

the responders chose Hip Hop while 7 out of 58 responses chose Indie/Alternative. This does not

necessarily confirm or reject our hypothesis, but rather shows a trend in how individuals tend to

modify their behaviors when around others/peers. Because they are in a bigger group of

individuals, it is easier to listen to the most popular genre of music at the moment, than to listen

to your specific preference of music. This also highlights the importance of defining variables

being tested. When most of the survey takers read “group of friends” they essentially took it as, a

big group of individuals being around one another as opposed to the intended definition being a

close group of friends with previously established commonalities. This survey did not serve to

challenge or endorse our hypotheses but did provide us with important information concerning

difficulties in operational methods.

Another interesting observation made with my (Laurence’s) group of friends was that

which involved my a cappella group. Being that it is literally a group of people coming together

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to sing because of a common interest in music, it is quite normal to observe that we are all

coming from different musical backgrounds with differing musical interests. However, it is

important to note that although we came into the group with different musical preferences, over a

period of time in the group, musical preferences seemed to align into a specific genre of music

which is pop or “popular music” (meaning which ever genre is popular during our time in the

group). This seems to have some sort of connection with what was found in the survey results

and also with the statement that “given the strong emotional bonds between friends… it is

plausible that friends might mimic each other’s behavior.” (Barry & Wentzel, 2006).

Step 6: ​Overall the theory is confirmed based on direct and indirect correlations of

variables that have been proven to be linked. The relationship between artists and behavior is

showcased through observations of festivals like Warped Tour, Afropunk, and Electric Daisy

Carnival. Not only is this assumption warranted through observation, but it is also researched,

analyzed, and proven to be true through case studies involving Elvis Presley fans and

impersonators (Fraser & Brown, 2009). The relationship between behavior/fashion and

identification is observed through our analysis of the relationships around us, and the

observations that we made within our university community and our outside communities. When

Abby goes to an EDM show, she is sure to be dressed head to toe in PLUR fashion just like

everyone else in the crowd, whereas if Laurence were to go to a Black Veil Brides concert, she

would wear black skinny jeans, vans, a black band t-shirt, straightened (and teased) hair with a

side of super dark eyeliner. These separate and differing looks are individually correlated with

specific kinds of music, this shapes and creates a specific mold and community for those like or

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similar to you. Through this, a form of belongingness and identification is created. It is then in

these kinds of environment that friendships can then be formed.

It is ​very important to make note that our initial survey showed that everyone defines

“friends” differently. Our results weren’t necessarily inconclusive but they brought up an

important issue when using operational methods because although people would have one

specific kind of music preference, when they got together with other friends they would

generally play Hip Hop music, which is considered the most popular genre of music currently.

So, survey takers associated “friends” with a general group of people they happen to be around,

and not their closest best friends. This phenomenon is addressed in Delsing, Bogt, Engels, and

Meeus’s research about the correlation between music preference and personality. According to

this research, social gatherings can promote a feeling of agreeableness within individuals

(Delsing et al, 2008). The music genre that is most commonly associated with agreeableness, as

in a sense of satisfaction in helping or being with others, is urban and pop which can explain why

most survey takers chose to listen to Hip Hop when gathering with friends. This essentially is

still along the lines of wanting identify with those around you by aligning your tastes with what

you think they would enjoy. When combining all these different pieces of linked information, the

theory that music does have an effect on who you hangout with, is a warranted assumption that is

essentially confirmed.

Step 7:​With this newly established confirmation, we predict that (a) the more popular

your preferred genre of music is, the less emotional bond you feel with the artist due to their

seemingly unattainable and unrelatable standard of living. Secondly, we predict that (b) the older

you get, the less important identification through music is to you. Both of these predictions work

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because, for prediction (a) it is already proven that we tend to mimic the behavior of those we

admire through whatever means necessary, but it is plausible for fans to have an emotional

reaction to the music but not to the artist themselves due to a seemingly perfect life. The second

prediction would work as well because as we get older we tend to be secure in our beliefs,

personalities, and opinions so the need to identify with a single group of people solely based on

musical preference would be considerably unimportant due to the number of other things you are

focused on.

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Appendix A. Survey results

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 Bibliography:

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motivational factors and friendship characteristics. ​Developmental Psychology,​ ​42​(1),
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Benson P. Fraser & William J. Brown (2002) Media, Celebrities, and Social Influence:
Identification With Elvis Presley, Mass Communication & Society, 5:2, 183-206,
DOI: 10.1207/S15327825MCS0502_5

Delsing, M. J., Bogt, T. F., Engels, R. C., & Meeus, W. H. (2008). Adolescents music preferences and
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Wilson, R. E., Harris, K., & Vazire, S. (2015). Personality and Friendship Satisfaction in Daily
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