Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 10(1): 43-51 (2002) ISSN: 0128-7702© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Music Preferences of Malaysian Students andKBSM Curriculum Implications

MINNI K. ANG' & MIRANDA P. YEOH21 MusicmaU, Inc.

14-2 lalan Dagang SB4/1Taman Sungai Besi Indah

43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia2 Faculty of Education

Universiti Putra Malaysia43400 UPM Serdang

Selangor, Malaysia

Keywords: Music preference, music education, pedagogy, Malaysian music, teen culture, listenercharacteristics, music familiarity

ABSTRAK

Pilihan muzik segolongan pelajar remaja telah dikaji dari segi muzik Malaysia yang mempunyaiasas etnik dan yang bebas daripada pengaruh etnik, termasuk kesan terpilih ciri-ciri pendengariaitu kebiasaan dengan muzik dan latihan kemuzikan. Sepuluh klip muzik Malaysia yang mempunyaiasas etnik dan dua puluh klip muzik yang tidak mempunyai kaitan etnik yang terdiri daripadasepuluh klip muzik popular dan sepuluh klip muzik klasik barat telah digunakan. Penilaian 139pelajar remaja yang dipilih secara rawak dari dua sekolah kerajaan di Serdang terhadap pilihanmuzik, kebiasaan dengan muzik dan latihan kemuzikan telah dikumpulkan. Hasil kajian inimenunjukkan bahawa pelajar remaja amat menyukai muzik yang bebas daripada pengaruh etnik,khasnya muzik popular. Kebiasaan dengan muzik telah ditunjukkan banyak mempengaruhipilihan muzik terhadap muzik Malaysia yang mempunyai asas etnik dan bebas daripada pengaruhetnik. Implikasi penemuan ini adalah dalam bentuk cadangan untuk memperkenalkan strategibaru dalam pendekatan kaedah pengajaran dan persediaan bahan meng~ar untuk subjek muzikdi bawah Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah iaitu KBSM.

ABSTRACf

Preferences were investigated of a sample of teenage students for ethnic-based and non ethnic­related Malaysian music, and the effects of selected listener characteristics: familiarity and musicaltraining. Ten excerpts of ethnic-based Malaysian music and twenty excerpts of non ethnic-relatedmusic comprising ten popular music excerpts and ten Western art music excerpts were utilised.Ratings of preferences, familiarity, and musical training were gathered from 139 randomlyselected teenage students of two public schools in Serdang. The results showed that the teenagestudents had a strong preference for non ethnic-related music especially popular music. Familiarityproved to be a significant determinant of preferences for both ethnic-based Malaysian music andnon ethnic-related music. Implications of these findings include the proposal of new strategiesin teaching approaches and preparation of learning materials for the music subject of theMalaysian Integrated Secondary School Curriculum or KBSM.

INTRODUCTION

The curriculum of school-based music education in Malaysia has always been based on musicexamples selected by Education Ministry officials, without taking into consideration music preferencesof the target learner groups. The officially documented objectives (Ministry of Education 1998) ofthe Malaysian secondary school music education curriculum are as follows:

Minni K. Ang & Miranda P. Yeah

• To enable students to express theirperceptions, feelings and ideas throughspeech, writing and creative behaviour.

• To develop communication and interactionabilities as well as to build musical skills andunderstanding through performance.

• To widen the scope of awareness andsensitivity towards what is seen, heard,touched, felt and experienced.

• To appreciate, value, analyse and discussmusical compositions and performances.

• To increase students' knowledge of the folkmusic of the communities in Malaysia andrelated cultures, including music from othercultures.

In the light of these objectives, it is expectedthat the content and approaches of the musiccurriculum of the Kurikulum Bersepadu SekolahMenengah or Integrated Secondary SchoolCurriculum, popularly known as KBSM, wouldbe geared towards effectively fulfilling the specifictargets.

Two primary factors should be consideredwhen selecting the actual music examples to beused as teaching material within the school musiccurriculum: firstly, what elements actuallyconstitute the music culture of the communityconcerned (Chan 1998), in this case what exactlymakes Malaysian music Malaysian; and secondly,what music do the students listen to in reality, inother words what is their actual music preference(Temmerman 2000). When these two factorshave been addressed, then only can an effectivecurriculum be developed.

This paper presents the results of a surveydone on music preferences of teenage studentsin Malaysia, with specific reference to ethnic­based and non ethnic-related Malaysian music,including the effects of the selected listenercharacteristics of familiarity and musical training.It is hoped that the results obtained throughthis research will be useful in future KBSMmusic curriculum reviews, for reasons presentedin the following section.

Review of Related Literature

Asmus (1989) found that affect for music wasone of five factors that significantly explainedmotivation in music learning; the other fourwere effort, background, classroom environmentand musical ability. Consequently, an importantobjective in the planning of any musical

programme is to acknowledge the learners'interests in and attitudes to different musicalactivities (Temmerman 2000). Fung (1995)concluded that music preference acts as amediating agent in the process of music learningor as a springboard for further music learningso that a novice may develop into a musicallyeducated individual with sound aestheticjudgement. This indicates that the knowledge ofmusic preferences is important to musiceducators. However, other than research doneby Yeoh (1999), little has been published onmusic preferences of Malaysians.

To return to the objectives of the KBSMmusic curriculum, it is apparent that knowledgeof Malaysian students' music preferences wouldgreatly aid in motivating students in the learningof music, specifically in attaining the first fourobjectives listed in the officially documentedKBSM objectives. In terms of the fifth objectivelisted, that is to increase students' knowledge ofthe folk music of the communities in Malaysia,something of the background of Malaysianmusical culture must first be presented before aconcrete plan to fulfil this objective can beeffectively drawn up.

That Malaysia is truly a multi-eultural societyis evident from the peaceful co-existence of itsdifferent major ethnic communities, eachadhering to its own distinctive cultural practiceswhile yet attaining a degree of integration andassimilation. These distinctive cultural differencesare apparent in food, clothing, reading material,religious practices, and of course, music. Thevarious Malaysian music genres have beendiscussed at length by Matusky and Tan (1997),Aug (1998) and Aug et al. (1998) and will notagain be presented here. Suffice to say, themusic of Malaysia, as is also true of other culturalelements of Malaysia, has long been dividedalong ethnic lines. This division is also apparentin the fifth of the officially documented KBSMmusic curriculum objectives, which highlightsthe fact that there are indeed differentcommunities in Malaysia, each with their owndifferent folk music. In view of this, it isreasonable for this study to focus on the musicpreferences of teenage Malaysian students interms of 'ethnic-based' and 'non ethnic-related'music.

One other significant point must beconsidered when studying the music preferencesof any group of listeners. It has been found that

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Music Preferences of Malaysian Students & KBSM Curriculum Implications

familiarity and musical training both significantlyinfluence musical preferences. (Siebenaler 1999;Finnas 1989; LeBlanc 1982, 1987). These twofactors must thus be considered when studyingthe music preferences of teenage Malaysianstudents.

METHODOLOGYThe research involved three active stages. ThefIrst stage was the development of the ListeningTest on Compact Disc (CDLT) to contain themusic stimuli. Ten excerpts of ethnic-basedMalaysian music were randomly selected:Gamelan, Dikir Barat, Ulik Mayang, DondangSayang, foget, Keroncong, Ghazal, Dangdut, aChinese Classical and an Indian Classical piece.Twenty excerpts of non ethnic-related musicwere also used, ten each of Western art musicand popular music. The former were classifiedaccording to conventional divisions based onhistorical eras: Baroque, Classical, Romantic,Early Twentieth Century and Contemporary.Similarly, popular music was represented by avariety of genres: Jazz, Country, Latin, Disco,Metal Rock, Western Pop and Malaysian Pop.The excerpts were randomised so that subjectswould not receive an expected flow of musicexamples of one type after another. The lengthof the CDLT was limited by the concentrationspan of expected respondents. A previous study(LeBlanc et al. 1988) has shown that subjectstend to be restless if listening tests exceed 30minutes. The running time for all 30 excerptswas therefore set at 22 minutes. Each excerptranged from 23-54 seconds, with an averagelength of 40 seconds, depending on the logicalending of the musical phrase.

Stage Two was the administration of theCDLT on the randomly selected subjects fromtwo secondary schools in Serdang. Their agesranged from 12 to 14 years (n=139), the sexratio was 66 male to 73 female and the ethniccomposition was 41 Malays, 78 Chinese and 20Indians. The respondents provided informationconcerning music preferences, familiarity andmusical training. Preference was anchored at 1('hate it') to 7 ('love it') with 4 signifying aneutral score; familiarity was on a 3-point scaleof 1 ('not familiar'), 2 ('somewhat familiar')and 3 ('know it well'). 'Total Preference' was asummation of preference scores for all 30excerpts of a respondent. Mean Preferencevalues, 'Preference Ethnic' and 'Preference Non

Ethnic', were calculated for ethnic and nonethnic-related music, by dividing the firstsummation of preferences of a respondent forethnic music excerpts by ten, and the secondsummation of preferences for non ethnic-relatedmusic excerpts by 20 since there were tenexcerpts of the former and 20 of the latter.

The extent of musical training of therespondents was defmed and calculated in thefollowing manner. 'Musical Training' is asummation of the number of years of each areaof training (general primary school music or'KBSR', co-curriculum, and instrumental) addedto the grade attainment of practical plus theoryexaminations plus an extra point if the subjectsavailed themselves of informal training. Theassumption here is that students with formalinstrumental and theory lessons are expected tobe more extensively trained than those with onlya cursory knowledge of music theory, and thatstudents who took and passed formal musicexaminations would have more intense trainingthan those who did not enrol for suchexaminations. Other studies that used a similarmethod to measure musical training wereRawlings et al. (1995) and Yeoh (1999).

The third stage was the data analysis. Sincethe sample passed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Testof Normality for 'Total Preference', 'PreferenceEthnic' and 'Preference Non Ethnic' (theKolmogorov-Smirnov Statistic values were .050,.072, and .056 respectively, corresponding toSig. values of .200, .072, and .200), it wasconcluded that the whole random sample camefrom a normally distributed population. Thereliability for music preference and familiarityfor all 30 excerpts were consistently high andacceptable (Preference: n = 139, Alpha = .8464;Familiarity: n = 139, Alpha = .8799).

RESULTS

The results showed that the respondents had astrong preference for non ethnic-related music(mean=4.4363, S.D.=0.7048) as compared toethnic-based Malaysian music (mean=3.1799,S.D.=1.0499). The top ten preference ranks werefor non ethnic-related music, eight for popularmusic and two for Western art (Table 1).Respondents rated ethnic-based Malaysian musicless favourably. Eight of the ten least-preferredexcerpts were ethnic-based Malaysian items, whiletwo were Western art excerpts. A t-test showedthat the difference in the mean values of ethnic-

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 No.1 2002 45

Minni K. Ang & Miranda P. Yeah

TABLE 1Music excerpts and preference rankings

Order Title Composer/Performer Mean Rank

Non-ethnic (Popular)1 The Power of Love4 Coward of the County7 Star Wars10 When The Saints Go Marching In14 Bad Seed16 ight fever18 Beat It22 Didn't We Almost Have It All25 Getaran Jiwa29 Rhumba De Burros

Non-ethnic (Art)2 Brandenburg Concerto o. 4 in G5 Liure Paur Cordes8 Excerpt from La Boheme11 Excerpt from Die Zauberflote19 Excerpt from Nutcracker Suite23 Three American Pieces26 Symphony No.5 in C Minor27 Bassoon Concerto in E Minor28 Fanfare for the Wedding of Princess Elizabeth30 Children's Corner Suite

Ethnic Malaysian3 Ulik Mayang6 lrama Gamelan Kyaipranaja9 Joget Pahang12 Dangdut: Hati yang luka13 Indian Classical: Tal Posta15 Dikir Barat17 Seri Mersing20 Keroncong: Bengawan Solo21 Chinese Classical: Yu Da Ba Jiao24 Dondang Sayang

Celine DionKenny RogersJohn WilliamsLouis ArmstrongMetallicaB, R and M GibbMichael JacksonWhitney HoustonP. RarnleeIgnatius Jones

J.S. BachP. BoulezPucciniW.A.MozartTchaikovskyLukas FossL.BeethovenVivaldiBaxC. Debussy

Rohani AzizMinni AngSalomaAmelinaZakir HussainKumpulan Kijang EmasSharifah AiniHetty Koes EndangAnonymous (Folksong)Rahim Jan tan

5.654.635.374.964.575.426.025.33.674.20

3.732.693.174.174.174.264.754.093.864.02

3.303.463.603.133.022.992.452.954.192.70

28469315

1911

1829231313107151716

22212024252630271228

Note: 'Mean' is the Preference Mean for the music excerpt, with '1' for 'Hate It' and '7' for 'Love It'. 'Rank'is the Preference Rank; there is a tie at position #13.

based and non ethnic-related music wassignificant (t = -11.715, P = .0001, two-tailed).

The Pearson product-moment correlationanalyses showed that musical training did notcorrelate significantly with music preferences ofteenage students, although a previous studycarried out on undergraduate subjects showedslight positive correlation between the extent ofmusical training and preference of non-ethnicrelated music (Yeoh 1999). However, Familiarityshowed a positive correlation, with r at .302,between 'Total Preference' and 'TotalFamiliarity'; a stronger correlation between'Preference Ethnic' and 'Familiarity Ethnic' with

r at .574; and a pOSItiVe correlation, r at .239,between 'Preference Non Ethnic' and 'Familiarity

on Ethnic' (Table 2). The study has confirmedfamiliarity as an important variable affectingpreferences for ethnic-based Malaysian musicand non ethnic-related music.

The study has provided answers to the twomain questions: 'What types of music arepreferred by teenage Malaysian students?' and'Did musical training or familiarity influencemusic preferences of teenage Malaysianstudents?' To the first, respondents indicated astrong preference for non ethnic-related musicespecially popular music, while preference for

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Music Preferences of Malaysian Students & KBSM Curriculum Implications

ethnic-based Malaysian music was just below theneutral range. As for the second question,musical training did not show correlation withmusic preference but increasing familiarity didseem to correspond with increasing musicpreferences (Table 2).

DISCUSSION

Familiarity and Preference

Positive correlation between familiarity andpreference in this research is consistent withprevious research (Fung 1996; Siebenaler 1999).Students liked what they knew, and liked lesswhat they were not familiar with. Preference fornon ethnic-related music, that is popular andWestern art music (Table 1) is consistent withprevious studies (Larsen 1987; LeBlanc 1979,1981; LeBlanc et al. 1996; Webster and Hamilton1981). Preference for popular music could bedue to liking for the romantic content of thelyrics (LeBlanc 1981), or admiration of famousartistes like Michael Jackson and Celine Dion,but is most likely due to the high level offamiliarity the students had with this type ofmusic. Popular music is music of the mass media.In Malaysia, this type of music is prevalent overall radio stations and television channels. It isplayed incessantly in shopping malls and hawkercentres, and on public transportation vehiclessuch as buses and taxis. Indeed, other kinds ofmusic are rarely heard over any of the mediamentioned here. It is no wonder then thatMalaysian teenagers, indeed Malaysians of allage groups, are most familiar with popularcommercial music. This familiarity thus,significantly influences Malaysian teenagers'preference for popular music.

As for ethnic-based Malaysian music, themost preferred seemed to be the ChineseClassical piece, followed by Joget Pahang,

Gamelan and Ulik Mayang. It must be notedhowever that out of the 30 excerpts played intotal, 9 of the 10 ethnic-based music excerptsoccupied positions 21 to 30 in terms of students'preferences, indicating a marked dislike of thismusic by the teenage students. Given the factthat although the sample population passed thetest of normality with regards to musicpreferences ('Total Preference', 'PreferenceEthnic', and 'Preference Non Ethnic'), thesam pIe was also not proportionatelyrepresentative of the ethnic composition of thecountry. Four intact classes from two schoolswere randomly selected for the test, and thethree major races were represented within thesample. However, where the national ratio ofMalays to Chinese to Indians is approximately55:35:10 the corresponding ratio of the samplepopulation was 30:56:14. The result could thusbe due to the influence of familiarity: since theChinese were disproportionately represented itmight be expected that of the ethnic-based musicpresented, the Chinese Classical example wouldbe the most preferred of the entire selection asthe greatest proportion of the sample populationwere familiar with music of a similar genre.Besides this, there is a possibility of the influenceof instrumental timbre (a variable not consideredwithin this study) since both the Chinese Classicalpiece and Gamelan are instrumental excerpts.The preference for instrumental over vocaltimbre has been documented in non-Westernmusic (Fung 1995). All these points having beendiscussed, it is nevertheless true to say that thesample population of teenage Malaysian studentsdid not in general prefer ethnic-based Malaysianmusic. This result was of course also influencedby the students' lack of familiarity with this typeof music. Again, this lack of familiarity is notsurprising given the fact that it is not easy in

TABLE 2Correlations between music preferences and familiarity

Pearson Correlation

1. Total Preference2. Preference Ethnic3. Preference on Ethnic4. Total Familiarity5. Familiarity Ethnic5. Familiarity Non Ethnic

2 3 4

.302**

5

.574**

6

.239**

'Vote: **. Correlation is significant at the p = 0.01 level (2-tailed).

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 No.1 2002 47

Minni K. Ang & Miranda P. Yeoh

Malaysia to hear these ethnic-based music piecesin everyday life.

Understanding Malaysian Musical Culture

Random observations of Malaysian lifestyles revealthat music making as an activity is carried out byonly a very tiny fraction of the Malaysianpopulation. Singers and musicians are not foundubiquitously as in many other countries such asin Europe or Latin America. Malaysians generallylisten to their music, not perform or sing it. Inthis context, it can be easily understood whypopular or commercial music has dominatedMalaysian musical culture - this is the music thatis available for listening, available through themass media - this is the music that wants to beheard so that it can be sold. Folk music, whichis essentially what ethnic-based Malaysian musicis all about, is, on the other hand, essentially amusic of the people for the people. It is a musicto be practised, to be sung, to be performed,and not merely to be listened to throughrecordings. It does not generate huge profit,and is thus not promoted by the mass media.Given the fact that most Malaysians do not ingeneral sing, perform and practice music as apart of their everyday living, it is no wonder thenthat ethnic-based music is not easily heard and isis thus unfamiliar to many Malaysians, teenagestudents in particular.

The Significance of Music Characteristics

This research did not take into account theinfluence of specific music characteristics onmusic preferences; however, results gained wereindicative that these characteristics did influencepreferences. This conclusion may be drawn fromthe fact that in spite of the lack of familiarity ofthe respondents with Western art music, theseexcerpts received reasonably high preferencerankings (mostly below 20). Of these, theBaroque, Classical and Early Romantic excerptsgained the highest preference ratings amongthe respondents.

The significant factor differentiating thismusic from others (popular and ethnic-basedmusic) is the complexity of the music. Popularmusic comprises a main melody accompaniedharmonically and rhythmically by a small groupof instruments; ethnic-based folk music consistsof simple heterophonic structures while ethnic­based popular music is similar in style tomainstream pop, but with certain ethnic elements

added. Art music consists of melodies, counter­melodies, contrapuntal movement and otherintricate melodic, harmonic and rhythmiccomplexities. Add these complexities to thepleasing consonance of Baroque, Classical andEarly Romantic well-defined musical forms andtimbres - even Malaysian teenage students lackingfamiliarity with the music indicate a mildpreference for it, apparently due to thesesignificant musical characteristics.

CONCLUSION

Implications for the KBSM Music Curriculum

We have seen the results of the sUIVey on themusic preferences of teenage Malaysian students,and we have discussed at length the meaning ofthese preferences and its causes. What remainsis to draw implications from these results anddiscussions for the KBSM music curriculum.

Let us once again return to the objectivesset by the Malaysian Ministry of Education formusic education within the Malaysian schoolsystem. The first four objectives mentioned areall to do with general music abilities indudingappreciation, knowledge and performance skills,while the fifth objective deals specifically withimproving appreciation, knowledge andpresumably skills related to ethnic-basedMalaysian folk music.

We have already seen that teenage Malaysianstudents prefer popular music over any othersort of music, but that this preference is stronglyinfluenced by their familiarity with the music. Incontrast, and in direct confrontation with thefifth objective of the KBSM music curriculum,teenage Malaysian students do not like and arenot familiar with ethnic-based Malaysian music.

To attain the objectives of the KBSM musiccurriculum, strategies based on these researchfindings must therefore be ascertained. Broadstrategies are thus proposed here and havesignificant implications on the teachingapproaches and the learning materials used inthe KBSM curriculum.

Strategies

The first strategy proposed is to use thevocabulary of the familiar, which is also thepreferred, (in other words to use popularcommercial music as classroom learningmaterial) to teach the basic concepts ofexpression, communication and interaction whilebuilding musical skills and understanding (KBSM

48 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 10 No.1 2002

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Minni K. Ang & Miranda P. Yeoh

music objectives 1 and 2), using these to alsobridge the gap with the unfamiliar.

The understanding gained in this way wouldenable learners to appreciate, value, analyse anddiscuss musical compositions and performances(KBSM music objective number 4), thus wideningthe learners' scope of awareness and sensitivity(KBSM music objective number 3) throughincreasing the types of music that are studied.This would naturally lead up to the secondstrategy proposed: to define the actual elementsthat comprise authentic Malaysian music,including how it is experienced.

The third strategy is to gradually implementthese music practices in the learners' daily lives,thus breeding familiarity, which in tum increasespreference, which in its turn motivates learnersto further improve their knowledge and skills.In this way, KBSM music objective number 5 canbe attained.

The three strategies outlined above enableall KBSM music curriculum objectives to beattained effectively and with long lasting results.With familiar and well-liked music as its startingpoint, classroom music education becomes anexciting adventure for enthusiastic students. Whatthis approach necessitates however is a review ofthe existing teaching approaches and learningmaterials used within the KBSM musicenvironment. Fig. 1 summarises the strategiesfor effectively attaining the objectives of theKBSM music curriculum based on the researchfindings of teenage Malaysian students' musicpreferences.

Suggestions for Further Study

Further detailed research on music preferencesof Malaysian students should be carried out formuch larger sample populations, and acrossdifferent age groupings. Other factorsinfluencing music preferences should also bestudied, including further detailed research onthe effect of musical training, culturalbackground, familiarity and music characteristics.Studies should also be carried out in theMalaysian context as to the effect of musicpreferences on music learning attitudes andachievements.

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(Received: 24 April 2001)

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