Examination of high school students' music listening tendencies and emotional state (Kastamonu example)

This study aims to investigate the music listening orientations and emotional states of high school students. A quantitative research design was employed in this study. The population of the research consists of students enrolled in various types of high schools—namely Anatolian High Schools, Science High Schools, İmam Hatip High Schools, and Technical High Schools—located in the province Kastamonu during the 2024–2025 academic year. The sample group comprises 752 students attending 9th through 12th grades in selected high schools within the province, including Göl Anatolian High School, Kastamonu Science High School, Kastamonu Orhan Şaik Gökyay Fine Arts High School, 15 Temmuz Şehitler Anatolian High School, Abdurrahmanpaşa High School, Kastamonu Sports High School, Girls' Anatolian Imam Hatip High School, and various Vocational and Technical High Schools. Data collection was carried out through a structured questionnaire. In the analysis of the data, frequency and percentage distributions, cross-tabulations, and the Chi-Square Test were utilized. The findings indicate that the most commonly used device for music listening among students is the mobile phone. Moreover, students music preferences were found to be associated with demographic variables such as gender and school type. Turkish Pop-Rock emerged as the most preferred genre overall. Gender-specific preferences showed that female students predominantly favored Foreign Pop-Rock and Turkish Pop-Rock, whereas male students leaned toward Turkish Pop-Rock, Turkish Rap-Hip Hop, and Arabesque-Fantasy genres. The study also revealed significant differences between music listening frequency and both gender and school type. In particular, Fine Arts High School students exhibited the highest frequency of music listening. It was further determined that students' music preferences varied according to their emotional states. While Turkish Pop-Rock was the preferred genre during emotional states such as joy, happiness, fear, surprise, love, and anger, Arabesque-Fantasy music was favored in moments of sadness. In conclusion, the study provides several recommendations for future research in this field.