Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listener

Abstract Music can evoke powerful emotions in listeners. However, the role that instrumental music (music without any vocal part) plays in conveying extra-musical meaning, above and beyond emotions, is still a debated question. We conducted a study wherein participants (N = 121) listened to twenty 1...

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Main Authors: Karleigh Groves, Morwaread Mary Farbood, Brandon Carone, Pablo Ripollés, Arianna Zuanazzi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-01-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86089-6
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author Karleigh Groves
Morwaread Mary Farbood
Brandon Carone
Pablo Ripollés
Arianna Zuanazzi
author_facet Karleigh Groves
Morwaread Mary Farbood
Brandon Carone
Pablo Ripollés
Arianna Zuanazzi
author_sort Karleigh Groves
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Music can evoke powerful emotions in listeners. However, the role that instrumental music (music without any vocal part) plays in conveying extra-musical meaning, above and beyond emotions, is still a debated question. We conducted a study wherein participants (N = 121) listened to twenty 15-second-long excerpts of polyphonic instrumental soundtrack music and reported (i) perceived emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness) as well as (ii) movie scene properties imagined during listening (e.g., scene brightness, character role). We systematically investigated how acoustic features of instrumental soundtrack excerpts (e.g., tempo, loudness) contributed to mental imagery of movie scenes. We show distinct and mostly non-overlapping contributions of acoustic features to the imagination of properties of movie scene settings, characters, actions, and objects. Moreover, we find that negatively-valenced emotions fully mediate the relation between a subset of acoustic features and movie scene properties, providing evidence for the importance of emotional valence in evoking mental imagery. The data demonstrate the capacity of music to convey extra-musical semantic information through audition.
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publishDate 2025-01-01
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spelling doaj-art-558d5c3ee1b54d92a145d23d80c61aec2025-01-19T12:20:58ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-01-0115111710.1038/s41598-025-86089-6Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listenerKarleigh Groves0Morwaread Mary Farbood1Brandon Carone2Pablo Ripollés3Arianna Zuanazzi4Department of Psychology, New York UniversityMusic and Audio Research Lab (MARL), New York UniversityDepartment of Psychology, New York UniversityDepartment of Psychology, New York UniversityDepartment of Psychology, New York UniversityAbstract Music can evoke powerful emotions in listeners. However, the role that instrumental music (music without any vocal part) plays in conveying extra-musical meaning, above and beyond emotions, is still a debated question. We conducted a study wherein participants (N = 121) listened to twenty 15-second-long excerpts of polyphonic instrumental soundtrack music and reported (i) perceived emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness) as well as (ii) movie scene properties imagined during listening (e.g., scene brightness, character role). We systematically investigated how acoustic features of instrumental soundtrack excerpts (e.g., tempo, loudness) contributed to mental imagery of movie scenes. We show distinct and mostly non-overlapping contributions of acoustic features to the imagination of properties of movie scene settings, characters, actions, and objects. Moreover, we find that negatively-valenced emotions fully mediate the relation between a subset of acoustic features and movie scene properties, providing evidence for the importance of emotional valence in evoking mental imagery. The data demonstrate the capacity of music to convey extra-musical semantic information through audition.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86089-6
spellingShingle Karleigh Groves
Morwaread Mary Farbood
Brandon Carone
Pablo Ripollés
Arianna Zuanazzi
Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listener
Scientific Reports
title Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listener
title_full Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listener
title_fullStr Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listener
title_full_unstemmed Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listener
title_short Acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non-overlapping extra-musical meanings in the mind of the listener
title_sort acoustic features of instrumental movie soundtracks elicit distinct and mostly non overlapping extra musical meanings in the mind of the listener
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86089-6
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