Diurnal fluctuations in musical preference
Idea
Human behavior follows strong diurnal (daily) rhythms in our everyday life.
The basic idea of this thesis project is to analyze listening logs (from online streaming services) for diurnal patterns. These rhythms shape not only physiological processes but also cognitive and emotional states, which in turn affect cultural consumption—especially music.
Large-scale listening logs from streaming platforms provide an opportunity to study how music preferences fluctuate over the course of a day. Prior research has demonstrated that listeners tend to prefer different emotional qualities in music (e.g., valence, energy) depending on the time of day. This project aims to extend such findings by applying computational analysis to large-scale datasets, uncovering temporal listening patterns and their relationship to musical features.
Relevant references:
- Minsu Park, Jennifer Thom, Sarah Mennicken, Henriette Cramer, and Michael Macy. Global music streaming data reveal diurnal and seasonal patterns of affective preference. Nat Hum Behav 3, 230–236 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0508-z
- Ole Adrian Heggli, Jan Stupacher, and Peter Vuust. “Diurnal fluctuations in musical preference.” Royal Society open science 8.11 (2021): Art No 210885. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.210885