A Study on the factors affecting Arabesk music preference as it was perceived and felt emotions by participants Hissedilen ve algılanan duygular bağlamında Arabesk müzik beğenisini etkileyen faktörler üzerine bir araştırma

Arabesk music is an endemic genre to Turkey. Theoretically, it may be deemed to include depressive feelings of grief, an intense level of sadness and anger. However, in practice there has been no empirical research to date concerning what emotion the music contains or inspires in listeners. In this study, we examined the level of felt and perceived emotions in arabesk music; at what level lyrics, tempo, and maqam have an impact on the feeling and perceiving; and which individual/social factors have the biggest effect on preference arabesk. By the results obtained, albeit relative, we aimed to deduct a profile of emotion and empirically evaluate the musical, individual and social dimensions' impact on the reason why arabesk is preferred.  A total of (n=146) participants ranged from 15-49 year old (28%) female (72%) and men (n = 75) arabesk lovers and (53%) female (47%) and male (n = 71) music students. Both groups were given questionnaires prepared for them. Then, in five different maqams and tempos, eight different arabesk songs were played for participants. In the evaluation process, arabesk lovers were requested to grade their feelings and music students were requested to grade their perceptions in a 5-point Likert scale (1 = felt nothing, perceived nothing; 5 = felt a lot, perceived a lot). Geneva Emotion Music Scale, GEMS, which was developed by Zentner Grandjean & Scherer (2008), was used to evaluate the types of emotion. The findings obtained, as predicted, showed that the sadness factor is very distinctive in almost all instances. However, a feeling of sadness wasn’t found at a level predicted among arabesk lovers. Moreover, it was understood that together with the sense of sadness and tension, the music induced intense nostalgia, tenderness and peacefulness; and in a very low rate, it caused power, wonder and a transcendence factor. Also, statistically, there were significant differences between arabesk lovers’ feelings and music students’ perceptions. The arabesk lovers’ average turned out to be higher than music students for the factors of wonder, peacefulness, power, tenderness, transcendence and joy. On the other hand, the music students’ average came out higher than arabesk lovers’ in two instances regarding the sadness and tension factors. In terms of gender, men preferred it more. Additionally, as average age increased, arabesk preferred also increased. The largest determining factor in preference for this genre was found to be in the lyrics associated with listening needs, compliance with personality traits, reflection of inner world, relaxation and a need to calm down. In terms of social factors, as preference for arabesk increased, the level of education decreased; moreover, feelings of sadness were found more among men and people of a low income level. Additionally, ones social circle was found to be the determiner with the highest frequency value.   Ozet Arabesk muzik Turkiye’ye ozgu bir turdur. Teorik duzeyde yogun olarak uzuntu, ofke, keder gibi depresif duygular icerdigi kabul edilebilir. Ancak gunumuze kadar pratikte bu muzigin hangi duygulari icerdigi ya da hissettirdigiyle ilgili herhangi bir ampirik arastirma yapilmamistir. Bu calismada, arabesk muzikte hissedilen ve algilanan duygularin duzeyi; sarki sozu, tempo ve makamin hissetme ve algiyi ne duzeyde etkiledigi ve arabeskin tercih edilmesinde en cok hangi bireysel/sosyal faktorlerin etkili oldugu incelenmistir. Elde edilen sonuclarla bir duygu profili cikarmak ve bu turun sevilmesinde muziksel, bireysel ve sosyal boyutlarin etkisini ampirik olarak degerlendirmek amaclanmistir. Uygulama 15-49 yas araliginda (%28) kiz (%72) erkek (n=75) arabesk hayrani ve (%53) kiz (%47) erkek (n=71) muzik ogrencisi ile toplamda (n=146) katilimciyla gerceklestirilmistir. Her iki grup once kendileri icin hazirlanan anketleri doldurmuslardir. Sonra katilimcilara bes farkli makamda ve tempoda sekiz adet arabesk sarki dinletilmistir. Uygulama surecinde, arabesk hayranlarindan muzigi dinledikleri anda hissettikleri duygulari, muzik ogrencilerinden ise algiladiklari duygulari besli Likert olcekle (1= hic bir sey hissetmedim, algilamadim; 5= pek cok hissettim, algiladim) belirlemeleri istenmistir. Duygu turlerini degerlendirmede Zentner, Grandjean & Scherer’in (2008) gelistirdikleri Cenova Muzik Duygu Olcegi (Geneva Emotion Music Scale, GEMS) modelinden yararlanilmistir. Elde edilen bulgular, ongoruldugu gibi hem hissetme hem algilama boyutlarinda uzuntu faktorunun neredeyse butun orneklerde belirginlestigini gostermektedir. Ancak arabesk hayranlari arasinda uzuntu hissiyati varsayildigi gibi yuksek duzeylerde cikmamistir. Dahasi, uzuntu ve gerilim hissiyle birlikte yogun oranda nostalji, hassasiyet ve sakinlik , dusuk oranlarda ise guc, hayranlik ve askinlik faktorlerinin olustugu anlasilmistir. Bunun yani sira arabesk izlerkitlenin hissetme oraniyla muzik ogrencilerinin algilama oranlari arasinda anlamli farkliliklar olusmustur. Hayranlik, sakinlik, guc, hassasiyet, askinlik ve eglendirici faktorlerinde arabesk hayranlarinin ortalamasi muzik ogrencilerinin ortalamasindan daha yuksek cikmistir. Diger yandan muzik ogrencilerinin ortalamalari, iki ornegin uzuntu ve gerilim faktorunde arabesk hayranlarinin ortalamalarina gore daha yuksek cikmistir. Cinsiyet acisindan arabeskin erkekler arasinda daha fazla sevildigi, bununla birlikte yas orani yukseldikce arabeske duyulan hayranligin arttigi belirlenmistir. Muziksel ozellikler acisindan turun sevilmesinde en fazla etkiyi sarki sozlerinin yarattigi, dinleme ihtiyaciyla iliskili olarak kisilik ozelliklerine uygunluk, ic dunyada hissedilen bazi duygularin yansitilmasi ve rahatlama-sakinlesme faktorlerinin belirginlestigi gorulmustur. Sosyal faktorler bakimindan arabeske hayranlik arttikca egitim duzeyinin dustugu, diger yandan huzun hissiyatinin erkeklerde ve gelir duzeyi dusuk katilimcilarda daha fazla bulundugu anlasilmistir. Buna ek olarak turun benimsenmesinde frekans degeri en yuksek sosyal etken yakin arkadas cevresi olmustur.