Term of Award

Spring 2015

Degree Name

Master of Science in Kinesiology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Health and Kinesiology

Committee Chair

Daniel R. Czech

Committee Member 1

Brandonn Harris

Committee Member 2

Samuel Todd

Abstract

Athletes report listening to music prior to their sport participation for a number of reasons, including: mood-regulation, arousal control, and concentration (Laukka & Quick, 2011; Sorenson, Czech, Gonzalez, Klein, & Lachowetz, 2008; Stevens & Lane, 2001). Researchers have found that many athletes report their music preferences for everyday listening are different from what they listen to around sport participation (Laukka & Quick, 2011). Music preferences have been found to be related to both gender and aspects of an individual’s personality, such as aggression (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003; Colley, 2008; Rubin, West, & Mitchell, 2001;). The purpose of the current study is to examine the sport music preferences (SMP) of NCAA Division I athletes. A secondary purpose is to examine SMP from a gender and contact sport type (collision, contact, limited-contact) perspective. The 21 participants (13 male, 8 female) were NCAA Division I athletes from a southeastern university. The consensual qualitative research (CQR) protocol was used to analyze the data pertaining to the music athletes prefer to listen to prior to participating in their sport. The results suggest that, overall; athletes prefer music that is fast and upbeat, pay more attention to the beat than the lyrics, and like rap and/or hip-hop music. Female and limited-contact sport athletes also reported listening to multiple genres of music, while male and collision sport athletes pay attention to the lyrics in select songs.

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