What is it about?
Music is more than just entertainment — it is also a powerful way for people to communicate feelings, ideas, and identities. This study looked at 25 years of research to understand how scholars around the world have studied the link between music and communication. By analyzing 742 academic publications from 1999 to 2023, the study shows that interest in this topic has grown steadily, especially in areas such as popular music, social media, streaming platforms, and music education. Researchers often explore how music connects people across cultures, promotes social messages, and reflects identity and emotion. The findings reveal that while most studies come from the United States and Spain, collaboration among countries is increasing. This trend highlights that music and communication are becoming global research topics. Overall, this study helps us see how music not only entertains but also shapes the way we understand one another in today’s media-driven world.
Featured Image
Photo by Lorenzo Spoleti on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This study is the first comprehensive bibliometric review to map how music has been studied within the field of communication. While many scholars have explored music from artistic or psychological perspectives, few have systematically examined how communication researchers understand music as a social, cultural, and media phenomenon. The research is also timely, emerging at a moment when music is increasingly produced, shared, and consumed through digital platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok. By analyzing 25 years of publications, this study highlights how technological change has reshaped the way music functions as a tool for identity, marketing, education, and social connection. By revealing key research trends, influential authors, and emerging themes, this work provides a valuable roadmap for future studies, encouraging new interdisciplinary collaborations between communication, media, and music researchers worldwide.
Perspectives
As a researcher in communication science, I have long been fascinated by how music functions as a form of symbolic interaction—how rhythm, lyrics, and sound communicate meaning beyond words. Working on this study allowed me to see how communication scholars across the world interpret music not only as art, but also as a social message, a cultural text, and even a strategic medium. What I found most inspiring was how the data revealed music’s evolving role in digital communication—how streaming platforms, social media, and global networks have transformed musical expression into a new language of identity and connection. This research deepened my conviction that studying music through a communication lens can enrich our understanding of human relationships, persuasion, and cultural transformation in the digital age.
Kholidil Amin
Universitas Diponegoro
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Music in communication: a bibliometric review, Cogent Social Sciences, January 2025, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/23311886.2025.2450292.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
