World music and its potential for bridging diverse cultures: Effects of increased explanation of social, historical and cultural contexts of world music on listeners' understanding of the human condition in song lyrics

The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn whether listening to world music increases understanding of others and in particular whether educating radio listeners about the cultural context of world music songs can lead to better understanding of the basic human condition expressed in the lyrics. The inquiry was conducted with the hope that increased understanding may lead to increased empathy and a reduction in human hatred. A group of listeners to the radio broadcast Higher Ground (produced, directed and hosted by the researcher) listened to three African American songs including a spiritual, a jazz ballad, and a blues composition. Participants were divided into three groups and before listening to a given song, each group received either very little, some or a substantial amount of advanced explanation of the cultural context. Each group received very little advance information on one song, some information little on a second and a substantial amount of information on a third song. After hearing each of the three songs, listeners were invited to chronicle their personal reflections on the meanings of the lyrics. The main conclusions were: (1) listeners did generally understand the basic messages in each song, but understandings of subtle messages varied greatly among individuals; (2) understandings did not increase with explanations. Limitations included small sample size and variation among individual and group scores. Results were found to align with the basic hypothesis.