Effect of Video Presentation on Asian Music Perceptual Dimensions

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of video presentation on perceptual dimensions in perceiving Asian musics and on preferences for Asian musics. Asian musics comprised 15 musical excerpts selected from a video anthology. Forty-nine undergraduate non-music majors were randomly assigned to receive video-audio stimuli or audio-only stimuli. The author analysed the data using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) techniques. A three-dimensional solution was found for each group (video group and audio group). The first dimension of both groups shared 83 83% of variance (stimulus characteristics and preference). Dimension 3 of the video group and Dimension 2 of the audio group shared 6139% of variance (danceability and preference). However, Dimension 2 of the video group (active visible movement and setting) and Dimension 3 of the audio group (undetermined) were unique in that they did not share significant variance with any dimension of the other group. In addition, geographic region did not help interpret any of the perceptual dimensions in either group. Implications of this study are that teachers who use video stimuli should be aware of visual qualities as well as musical characteristics. Teachers may use both video and audio materials in classes to enrich students' musical experience. Teachers should be cautious when organising an Asian music curriculum according to geographic region.