Musicologica Olomucensia

The Relationship of the Population of the Czech Republic to Music

This study deals with the issue of what attitude each section of the population has to music and how this relationship is manifested in their purchase of music. The survey data suggest that people have quite an intense relationship to music but its intensity is not the same in the whole population. It confirmed that music is a major phenomenon for young people of up to 25 years of age but an even more important criterion than a person's age is whether they are students or if they are already in employment. While young students, in their own words, are fascinated by music and often cannot conceive of their life without it, young people in jobs tend to perceive music rather as a sound background. The intensity of the relationship to music decreases considerably after the ages of forty and seventy. Although the intensity of the relationship to music and the ways of listening to it are different in different age categories of the audience, it can be said that with some exceptions everybody expects much the same from music or associates it with similar values. For the majority of people music is a background for other activities, when it creates a sensation of well-being and harmony or when it stimulates relaxation and entertainment. A small percentage of the population perceive the structure of music or its verbal aspect or admit that their musical preferences are influenced by what kind of music is listened to by their friends or people they know.