Omar, 75

I just got off the phone with my Grandpa (Omar, 75). He doesn’t listen to music very often and he doesn’t like his current stereo—it’s too complicated for him. He has a separate component system where you have to turn on the preamp, amp, receiver, and cd player separately. The reward of music isn’t worth the hassle of working the system. He emphasized that if it was simple to turn on and off without many other complications then he would listen.

He likes the model of radio in that you simply turn it on and off, providing background music. He’s not really interested in picking a certain album or musician he just wants pleasing and soft background music. He noted he likes music of the 50s and 60s, but nothing too jarring. He doesn’t listen to the radio though because he says it’s all crap.

Judy (white female 65 years old)

Her favorite type of music is oldies. She was a 50’s baby. She doesn’t really like the music now, but she does like nsync and backstreet boys. Her favorite is Earth Angel. She doesn’t like classical music. She’ll listen to music in her car either on the radio (99.7) or cds. She will also listen to music at home but usually only while she is working out. She listens to it for enjoyment for herself and she doesn’t usually just sit down and listen. She just listens while working out in the mornings before work. She doesn’t care about aesthetics b/c the actual music system is in the basement in a workout room so it doesn’t matter. They will play music for company during the holidays but they just have a speaker in the living room constantly playing music during Christmas (the music system is still in the basement). She buys cds for her gradnchildren if they ask for something. What she likes about her system now is that she has buttons set to what she likes (50’s/60’s/70’s). She doesn’t like when other people change her settings because she wears glasses and she can’t really see that well so she does it mostly by feel and familiarity. She just likes things set to what she wants so that she can find it without having to search for anything. She usually uses it as background music. She was wearing glasses, a red sweater, plaid skirt, clogs. She says she has a big clunky cell phone but only carries it around for emergency. She won’t use it just to talk on socially. She also does not have a computer at her home and she hates earphones. She says that young people should not wear earphones because it makes them in their own world and blocks them out. she says her granddaughter always has them in when she comes to visit and makes her take it out because she says that people need to learn to interact with people to learn to get along with them. direct quote “No matter how smart you are, if you don’t learn to interact with people or get along with people, you will be a big ZERO in life.” And she usually watches tv at home instead of listening to music.

Ruth (white female 62 years old)
She wasn’t very helpful. She basically just said that she listens to music in the car usually. She doesn’t really listen to music at home. She gets her music from her daughter. Her daughter will burn her a cd if the daughter knows that the Ruth will like the music. She likes 50s music too. She has music in her living room. She doesn’t really listen to music though, only in the car. She’ll only listen while she is cooking or reading so just as background music. She doesn’t really care about aesthetics and its integration into her living surroundings. She carries around in her purse, medication, wallet, drivers lisense, keys. She wore glasses, brown button up sweater, brown shoes, brown pants, and black shirt underneath.

Charlie (asian male 65 years old)
His favorite type of music is taiwanese folk songs. When I walked in, there was classical music in the background but its usually not on. He says its b/c right before I came, he was in the garage playing golf and he listens to it only during that time. He says the only other times he listens to music is when he karokes. He likes to have karoke parties. He also uses the internet to listen to programs online (mactv.com) The website is done by the Taiwanese government to station through internet priority designed for oversees Taiwanese people)Aesthetics is not a problem. He had glasses/ wore fleece and jeans.

Patti (asian female 62 years old)
She only likes classical music and she uses cds. She will usually only listen to it in her Victorian style sitting room where there are antiques, art pieces, collections. She’ll listen to chopin, list piano solos. She will listen to the radio in the car. Sometimes she listens to it in the kitchen while she is cooking. She listens to it as background music while reading a book/magazine. She really cares about the aesthetics b/c she hates how some contemporary thing is in her victorian style sitting room. She is really really really picky about aesthetics. She listens to things by herself because her husband does not listen to music at all. She tried to hide the music player under her antique table and put a table cloth over the table but it made the sound muffled. Her son just bought her a new music player, its small and silver and compact so she can easily hide it. She says its neat and simple. She really just only cares about integrating it into the room. She says if music relaxes her and usually when she wakes up, she will turn on music. Also, if she were to redesign one, she would make sure there was a conteporary version and an antique version. She also wants full speakers but if it doesn’t match, she doesn’t want to use it. She doesn’t want to hook it up either if its too hard. She also HAS TO HAVE IT IN HARMONY WITH THE ROOM) She also redecorates her house around once a month.

Sandy (63) and Sammy (65)

Both of them primarily listen to music in the car, while commuting to work or going somewhere together. Additionally, Sandy sometimes listens to music from her tv/radio (see photo) in the kitchen while she is cooking or snacking, however this is quite rare. Sammy explained that he will sometimes put on the radio in his office (see photo) when he is doing something that doesn’t require much concentration. They used to have a cd player in their bedroom, but they gave it away 6 months ago.
What they listen to:
They both listen exclusively to the radio. Sandy prefers 92.9 because they talk about things that interest her and they play “normal” music. When asked what that is, she said “you know everyday music, some rock, but nothing too noisy”. Sandy is quite satisfied with the content on the radio currently. Sammy however, wishes there were fewer commercials. He looked into satellite radio, but was dissuaded by the monthly fees and startup costs. He said it wasn’t worth it considering the amount of time he listens to the radio

Lonnie Adams (61)

I talked to Lonnie Adams who is 61 years old and lives in Gobels, Michigan. He listens to Bluegrass, Blues, and Rock & Roll from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He mainly uses CDs but has a lot of older LPs he never listens to. He keeps them as a collection but has replaced many of them with the CD version.

His music player is a Bose Wave System (like the one we found in our advertising research) that he keeps in the kitchen. It’s small size is important but he emphasized the sound quality. Previously he had a very similar system but with lower sound quality. His main complaint is that it’s only a single CD player rather than a changer. He would like to keep music playing without having to get up and change the CD.

He goes to concerts from time to time, though he never did when he was younger. In general he is more involved in music today than he was in the past. This is because he grew up in a very rural area of Illinois with little access to music and no money.

He usually finds out about music by listening to NPR. They will often highlight a musician or he’ll hear something in the background that he likes. He uses their website to look up what the name of the band was. He just got DSL though he doesn’t think he’ll get involved in music downloading because of the hassle and copyright issues. The DSL comes with three free months of a music download service though so he might try that out and burn copies of the music he gets.

Overall he’s not interested in listening to music on the computer or with headphones, which he hates because they isolate people. He listens in the kitchen mostly and more often when he’s by himself. This is because he thinks music playing can hinder conversation and because it gets too quiet when he’s all alone.