Young People’s Use and Subjective Experience of Music Outside School.

Few studies of everyday musical engagement have focused on the subjective 'feel' (phenomenology) of unfolding, lived experience. Additionally, the musical experiences of children and young adolescents are currently under-represented in the literature. This paper constitutes an in-progress report of the preliminary stage of a mixed method three year empirical enquiry, designed to explore psychological characteristics of the subjective experience of young people hearing music in everyday, 'real world' scenarios in the UK. The aims of the preliminary stage were to identify varied modes of listening, to pinpoint whether these are age-related, and to explore the extent to which young people use music as a form of escape (dissociation) from self, activity, or situation. 25 participants (aged 10-18) were interviewed and subsequently kept diaries of their music-listening experiences for two weeks. Data was subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Key themes identified include the use of music to create a sense of momentum, energy and excitement in mundane scenarios, to dissociate or 'zone out' from aspects of self and/or situation, to feel relaxed, to feel 'connected’, to articulate moods and emotions, to aid daydreams/imaginative fantasies and to provide a framework through which to explore emotions vicariously, using music as a template for modelling future emotional experience. Subjective experience was frequently characterized by a fusion of modalities.