ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine the general characteristics of youths` recognition of Western music and to provide the basis for the ways of promoting the listening to and understanding of Western music among young people. To this end, a survey was conducted among 364 students at middle and high schools located in Seoul.. The collected data was analyzed with such methods as frequency analysis in application of SPSS WIN ver. 18.0, chi square test. The major findings of the analysis are as follows: First, 80% of the respondents stated that they experienced musical education. The experience of musical education included musical instrument lessons, musical theory lessons, vocal music lessons, and composition lessons in the order. About 80% of the respondents replied that they were interested in music. The genres of music included pop music and Western music in the order.Second, as a result of analyzing the reasons of listening to Western music and going to concerts depending on the gender and school years, it turned out that as for gender, there was significant difference among groups regarding the motivation of going to concerts only. As for school years, significant difference was found among groups regarding the reasons of listening to Western music, experience of going to concerts, motivation of going to concerts, and genres of concerts.Third, as a result of analyzing the experiences of playing the Western music instruments and desired musical instruments depending on the gender and school years, it turned out that as for gender, significant different was found regarding experience of performance, motivation of performance, instruments that were performed, whether there was a specially desired instrument, and desired instrument items. As for the school years of middle and high schools, significant difference was found only regarding the experience of performance.Fourth, as a result of analyzing the difference in appreciation of Western music between genders and among school years regarding, it turned out that there was significant difference regarding feelings and recognition of Western music after appreciation. As for school years of middle and high schools, significant difference was found regarding the ways and times of appreciation.Fifth, as a result of analyzing the difference in recognized necessity of Western music depending on the gender and school years, it turned out that there was significant difference between genders regarding the recognized necessity of Western music while no significant difference was found among different school years of middle and high schools.

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