The role of background music in the experience of watching YouTube videos about death and dying
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20152.305.319Keywords:
Background music; death; memorial videos; grief; YouTubeAbstract
YouTube is the largest video sharing site live at the moment. It has been used to communicate a vast array of information, while it allows for user-generated content. This paper will focus on YouTube videos that communicate death, and in particular will present findings from a preliminary study undertaken by the authors considering the role that background music plays in these videos.
Specifically, this study explores the experiences of the viewers of death-related YouTube videos with and without background music while it makes comparisons in relation to the impact that music has on the viewers’ emotional experiences.
We conclude that background music elicits emotions and enhances feelings of sadness and sympathy in relation to the visual content of videos while recommendations for future research are made.
Downloads
References
Bolwerk, C. A. L. (1990). Effects of relaxing music on state anxiety in myocardial infarction
patients. Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, 13(2), 63-72.
Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chang, X., Dale, C., & Liu, J. (2007). Understanding the characteristics of internet short
video sharing: YouTube as a case study. arXiv preprint arXiv:0707.3670.
Christensen, D.F., & Sandvik, K. (2014). Mediating and remediating death. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Clark, M. S., & Isen, A. M. (1982). Toward understanding the relationship between feeling
states and social behavior. In: A. Hastorf & A.M. Isen (Eds.), Cognitive social
psychology (pp. 73-108). New York, NY: Elsevier.
Cohen, A.J. (2001). Music as a source of emotion in film. In: P. Juslin, & J. Sloboda (Eds.), Music and Emotion (pp. 249-272). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cohen, A.J. (2000). Film music: perspectives from cognitive psychology. In: J. Buhler, C.
Flinn, & D. Neumeyer (Eds.), Music and cinema, Music/Culture (pp.360-377). Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Cohen, A. J. (1999). The functions of music in multimedia: A cognitive approach. In: S.W. Yi (Ed.), Music, mind, and science (pp. 40-68). Seoul, Korea: Seoul National University Press.
Davis, W. B., & Thaut, M. H. (1989). The influence of preferred relaxing music on measures
of state anxiety, relaxation, and physiological responses. Journal of Music
Therapy, 26(4), 168-187.
Dissanayake, E. (2006). Ritual and Ritualization: Musical means of conveying and shaping
emotion in humans and other animals. In: S. Brown, & U. Voglsten (Eds.), Music and
manipulation: on the social uses and social control of music (pp.31-56). New York, NY: Berghahn Books.
Field, D., & Walter, T. (2003). Death and the media. Mortality Virtual Themed Issue, 1(4), 1-4.
Gardner, M. P. (1985). Mood states and consumer behavior: A critical review. Journal of
Consumer research, 12(3), 281-300.
Garrido, S., & Shubert, E. (2011). Individual differences in the enjoyment of negative
emotion in music: a literature review and experiment. Music Perception, 28(3), 279-
Gibson, M. (2007). Death and mourning in technologically mediated culture. Health
Sociology Review, 16(5), 415–424.
Gibson, M., & Altena, M. (2014). The digital lives of the dead: YouTube as a practice of cybermourning. In: D. Moser, & S. Dun (Eds.), A Digital Janus: looking forward,
looking back (pp. 15-27). Oxfordshire: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Lange, P. G. (2007). Publicly private and privately public: Social networking on YouTube. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 13(1), 361-380.
Li, X. M., Zhou, K. N., Yan, H., Wang, D. L., & Zhang, Y. P. (2012). Effects of music
therapy on anxiety of patients with breast cancer after radical mastectomy: a
randomized clinical trial. Journal of advanced nursing, 68(5), 1145-1155.
Mosco, V. (2004). The digital sublime. London and Cambridge: MIT Press.
Moser, D., & Dun, S. (2014). A Digital Janus: Looking Forward, Looking Back. Oxfordshire: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Pentaris, P. (2014). Memorial video tribute and the enfranchised grief of a gay widower. Thanatos, 3(2), 31-44.
Pentaris, P., & Yerosimou, M. (2014). Communicating death in YouTube videos: The
functional role of music. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 5(1), 206-217.
Silverman, D.(2011). Interpreting Qualitative Data: A guide to the principles of qualitative research (4th ed.). London: SAGE.
Smith, C. A., & Morris, L. W. (1977). Differential effects of stimulative and sedative music on anxiety, concentration, and performance. Psychological Reports, 41(3f), 1047- 1053.
Wahlberg, M. (2009). YouTube commemoration: Private grief and communal consolation. In: P. Snickars, & P. Vanderau (Eds.), The YouTube Reader (pp. 218-235). Lithuania: Logotipas.
YouTube (2009). In Memory Of Our Little Jack. Retrieved from
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
CC-BY
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. All authors agree for publishing their email adresses, affiliations and short bio statements with their articles during the submission process.
