The STOMP-pop: A pragmatic approach to measuring preferences for Western popular music styles

Music preference, understood as individuals’ disposition to appreciate certain kinds of music more than others, has been found to be a fundamental determinant of how individuals respond to music in a variety of contexts. This study investigates the psychometric properties of the STOMP-pop (Short Test of Music Preference: Western Popular Music) questionnaire, which allows to measure individuals’ preference for Western popular music styles. The questionnaire presents respondents with the names of sixteen Western popular musical styles and asks them to rate their liking of the corresponding music. We used PCA to analyze the data of ten studies in which the STOMP-pop was administered to n= 2792 respondents. The PCA revealed four orthogonal underlying dimensions along which respondents’ music preferences vary: Some respondents appreciate many different styles (PC 1 Eclecticism), whereas others’ preferences are focused on only a few styles. Some respondents like rough, aggressive, and intense music styles (PC 2 Aggressivity), whereas others appreciate music that is smooth or mellow. Some respondents like music that is linked to dancing (PC3 Danceability) whereas others prefer music for less active listening. Finally, some respondents like more complex music (PC 4 Complexity) while others like simpler music. These four underlying dimensions were stable across different sub-samples (male/female, young/old, musician/non-musician) of respondents from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) countries (scores were highly correlated r>.89). In a small sub-sample of respondents (n=433) from non-WEIRD countries, PC 1 (r=.99) and PC 2 (r=.92) were stable. Yet PC 3 (r=.77) and PC 4 (r=.67) showed some instability. The STOMP-pop questionnaire offers a pragmatic approach to measuring individuals’ preferences for Western popular music styles. Results from non-WEIRD respondents need to be interpreted with caution.