ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 is the second of two background chapters. The text provides a wide picture from the field of music psychology, and highlights several overriding issues concerning the use of music as a background to non-musical activities. Initially, five conceptual foundations about music listeners are outlined, and then the chapter focusses on background music as experienced in everyday life (with the exception of music listening in automobiles that appears separately in the Chapter 3). Nevertheless, as the text unfolds, we can envisage the impact that each fundamental concept might have on driving, whether related to the driver as a listener, the music selections as background for driving, or responses to the music itself while on the road. Each of these principles is considered in Chapters 4 and 5 when deliberating on the contraindications and ill-effects of in-car music listening. The chapter concludes by targeting research efforts that have employed the use of music in real-life everyday and commercial settings. It is expected that some insights from these studies will widen our understanding about the conceivable effects of music in other milieus – such as an automobile. The culmination of the chapter is the presentation of a model developed by David Hargreaves referred to as the Reciprocal Feedback Model of Musical Responses (Hargreaves, 2012; Hargreaves, MacDonald, & Miell, 2005; Hargreaves & North, 2010; Hargreaves, North, & Tarrant, 2006). This model is by far the most comprehensive conceptual scheme with which the determinants and aspects of human responses to background music can be described. The model accounts for a three-way interaction between the individual characteristics of the listener, the music being heard, and the environment in which the exposure of background music occurs.
