ABSTRACT
The music that people choose to play at funerals provides an interesting reflection of attitudes towards death and grief in society at large. This chapter expresses that the three main motivations for funeral music choices had emerged: following tradition, personal expression and mood creation. It explores the tension between ’appropriateness’ and the need for personal expression in funerals as illustrated by music choices. Following tradition was a much less significant motivation to most people. The motivations for choices appear to be related to personality and coping style. People with a religious coping style were more likely to choose traditional music and not popular. When personal expression was the primary motivation, Traditional/Sacred music was much less likely to be the chosen music. People whose motivation was primarily aesthetic tended to prefer sad music, while people with high scores in nostalgia-proneness often made music choices based on the desire to create a certain mood whether happy or sad.
