The Music of Our Childhood: Changes in Infant Directed Singing in Recent History
When I think of the music of my childhood I think of classic children’s songs such as “You Are My Sunshine” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, popular Macedonian folk songs such as “Makedonsko Devojche”, and Bach (but only at the dinner table). My early musical exposure reflects my American upbringing as well as my mother’s heritage and my father’s musical tastes. While this eclectic array of music is not something you may be able to relate to fully, I’m sure there are certain tunes you associate with your childhood. Early music exposure is incredibly subjective but, at the end of the day, it is something we all experience and hold on to as we grow and develop our own music tastes. So what factors contribute to this global experience? Does socioeconomic status impact the frequency of early musical exposure? How does musical exposure change as we get older? Is it primarily driven by live or recorded music?
These are questions researchers attempted to answer in a recent self-report study. Using a sample of 945 parents located in North America, Yan et al. (2021) looked at the influence of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender differences in infant-directed singing (a parent singing “towards”/for their infant), the frequency of infant-directed singing as infants develop into toddlers, and how early musical exposure has changed over time. Parents of 3- to 31-month-old infants completed a self-report measure that asked how often they sing to their child and how often they play recorded music for their child. These measures were analyzed independently and then compared to measures of early musical exposure from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s to assess present factors influencing early music exposure and whether early music exposure has changed significantly due to the technological advancements (does anyone use cassette players anymore?) that have happened over the past 30 years.
Yan et al. (2021) found that ethnicity and socioeconomic status (measured through reported income and college degree status) did not have a significant effect on the amount of music infants hear (daily versus less than daily) nor did they have an effect on the type of music being played(live versus recorded music). These results were partially expected given that prior research hasn’t found any differences in infant-directed singing based on ethnicity. One thing to note about the present study in this regard is that it was not particularly diverse in terms of ethnicity (76.1% European or White-American, 6.6% African or African-American, 5.5% Asian or Asian-American, 5.7% other). While these results would most likely be replicated with a more diverse sample this limits the generalizability of the current study.
In terms of gender differences in infant-directed singing, Yan and colleagues found that mothers engaged in infant-directed singing daily at a significantly higher rate than fathers did. These results supported previous findings that mothers engage in infant-directed singing more so than fathers. Why is that? I decided to ask my father whether he sang to me when I was a child and he simply replied, “If I tried to sing to you, you would’ve cried”. Seeing as no one in my family is particularly musically talented, I am inclined to agree with his conclusion. Jokes aside, the researchers believe this can be attributed to the fact that mothers tend to be more involved in caregiving than fathers (Yan et al., 2021). I personally wonder whether societal gender norms impact this gender difference as previous research has suggested that, in America at least, certain forms of singing are viewed as feminine or stereotyped as “girly” (Franklin, 2019). When you picture a person singing a lullaby do you picture a man or a woman? What about when you envision a rapper? Or a pop singer? While the music industry may be a male-dominated field (Smith, 2021), certain genres and styles are oftentimes perceived as masculine or feminine and these perceptions could possibly explain some of the gender differences in infant-directed singing.
When it comes to differences as infants develop into toddlers, Yan et al. (2021) found that parents engage in significantly more infant-directed singing the younger their child is and, as the age of the infant a parent was reporting on increased, the amount of live early music exposure occurring (daily versus less than daily) decreased. Interestingly, although live early music exposure decreased as the age of the child the parent was reporting on increased (i.e., 3-month-old versus 31-month-old), recorded early music exposure did not, indicating that, while parents may sing less as their children get older, music is still very much a part of childhood. The researchers theorize that this can be attributed to the fact that, as children transition into the toddler stage, they become more verbal, and parents begin introducing book reading rather than lullabies or singing as a bonding activity. This is obviously an area that deserves more exploration in the future.
The last, and most interesting in my opinion, question Yan et al. (2021) explored was how early music exposure has changed over time. In the past three decades accessibility to recorded music has increased tremendously. What was once available only via CD or through a tape recorder is now available with the press of a button or through a simple tap on a screen. One would therefore assume that the music home life may have changed as a result of this increase in access to recorded music. Yan et al. (2021) found that this was not the case. While Yan et al. (2021) only looked at maternal infant-directed singing over the years, they still found that there was no significant change in the amount of live music occurring. Why has live early music exposure persisted despite the ever-growing availability of recorded music? One could argue that infant-directed singing plays an important role in the formation of the parent-child bond or, as Yan et al. (2021) suggest, this could be a result of a norm that mothers should sing to their infants.
So what exactly can we conclude from this? First off, ethnicity and socioeconomic status don’t seem to have an effect on the type of early music exposure a child experiences or the frequency of that exposure. Additionally, mothers are more likely to engage in live infant-directed singing than fathers and, while plausible explanations have been posed, this is an area of early music exposure that demands more attention. One could even explore whether there are benefits from more paternal infant-directed singing (would I be a completely different person if my dad had subjected me to his singing?). We also saw that as infants develop into toddlers, early music exposure decreases, and again, while there are theories as to why this happens, there is no conclusive explanation. Lastly, we saw that maternal infant-directed singing hasn’t decreased in the last three decades despite the increase in recorded music accessibility. Is this something that will continue in the coming decades as well? This generation and future generations will be brought up with this easy access to recorded music that current parents did not necessarily grow up with. Will this difference have an impact on the persistence of infant-directed singing? Why sing your child a lullaby if you can ask Alexa or Siri to do it for you right? These are questions that could potentially be addressed in the future exploration of early music exposure.
While lullabies and classic children’s songs are common in early music exposure, made-up melodies created by mothers and fathers are a part of early music exposure as well. My mother’s favorite tune to sing to me was and still is “хан-чи-ча бело маче” (han-či-ča belo mače) which roughly translates to “Hanna white kitten” (it sounds a lot better in Macedonian). While I don’t have any early memories tied to this tune it has been a constant throughout my life and I always feel a nostalgic happiness when I hear it. While no one is arguing that infant-directing singing is bad there is a belief that it may possibly decrease due to the accessibility of recorded music. This is my attempt at arguing that, while recorded music may seem easier and possibly better due to the diversity in music exposure it offers, infant-directed singing can create a parent-child bond that persists through time and, while there may not be a concrete/physical benefit to this, that feels important.
REFERENCES
Cash, J. (2003). You Are My Sunshine [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AtvXdmPe3A
Franklin, A., “Gender and Singing in the American Classroom” (2019). Honors Program Theses. 86. https://scholarship.rollins.edu/honors/86
Hristovski, J. (1964). Makedonsko devojče [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU2_WW8kxHg
Smith, S. L., Pieper, K., Choueiti, M., Hernandez, K., & Yao, K. (2021, March). Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters & Producers across 900 Popular Songs from 2012–2020. USC Annenberg.
Twinkle Little Songs — Nursery Rhymes. (2015). IITSY BITSY SPIDER — Song for Children [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_lCi8U49mY
Yan R., Jessani G., Spelke E. S., de Villiers P., de Villiers J., Mehr S.A. (2021, July). Across demographics and recent history, most parents sing to their infants and toddlers daily. Philosophical Transactions Royal Society B. R. Soc. B 376: 20210089. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0089
