The concept of ‘beauty’ has been studied by several categories of researchers, including philosophers, neurobiologists, and psychologists. A recent study provides interesting insights for cultural managers (Fleckenstein et al. 2025). The authors asked three Free-Response Questions to a sample of 32 people: “How do you define beauty?” “What is the most beautiful piece of music you have experienced?” and “Why is this the most beautiful piece of music you have experienced?”
Respondents note two elements in response to the first question: their experience with the music and the music’s intrinsic characteristics. The research identified 12 general answers. For example, one of the participants define the experience of beauty this way: “Beauty is attraction to something that helps your soul find liberation from pain and gives it momentum toward joy and resolve, peace and comfort” (page 511); and one wrote this about the attributes: “Beauty is found by people in systems of order, i.e., systems of musical notes, in music, or of painterly elements such as colour, lines and perspective, in painting” (page 511).
In the second question about the piece of music they liked the most, their answers correspond to eight musical genres: Classical (53 percent), Rock (13 percent), New-Age (10 percent), Jazz (8 percent), Popular (22 percent), Soundtrack (19 percent), Singer/Songwriter (16 percent), and Country (3 percent). Since the respondents came from an educated background (students and university staff), it is not surprising that classical music predominates. However, it should be noted that other music genres are also present. Some popular songs can be considered ‘beautiful’ by participants.
Finally, why is it the most beautiful piece of music? The respondents mention different aspects of the piece–23 in total–but the one that comes up most frequently (63 percent of respondents) is the emotions the listener feels while listening to it. And these emotions can be just as joyful as they are melancholic or nostalgic.
This explains why beauty can be perceived not only in high arts like classical music but also in popular music, because both the experience produced by the song and the quality, as defined by the listener, can make a musical piece ‘beautiful’ in the mind of a consumer.
Source: Fleckenstein, Abbigail Marie, Jonna Katariina Vuoskoski, and Nicola Dibben. 2025. “Understanding musical beauty.” Empirical Studies of the Arts 43 (1): 505–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/02762374241253771.
Credit: Jonas Mohamadi on Pexels.
François Colbert is MMIAM Codirector, Remi-Marcoux Chair in Arts Management, author of the book Marketing Culture and the Arts published in 15 langages along its five editions.
For a more complete discussion please see:
Colbert et al. 2018. Marketing Culture and the Arts, 5th edition. Montréal: Carmelle and Rémi-Marcoux Chair in Arts Management, HEC Montréal.
Browse our abridged research articles here.