Major Findings

Pre-College Arts Exposure
To gauge students’ exposure to the arts prior to coming to Holy Cross, we asked three sets of questions. First, we asked about parents’ encouragement of interest in the arts when respondents were growing up. In general, students received relatively strong encouragement. Three in five students reported that their parents listened often or occasionally to classical music or opera; nearly four in five said their parents took them to plays, dance, or classical music performances; and three-quarters of respondents’ parents took them to art museums or galleries. Finally, 98 percent of the respondents indicated that their parents occasionally or often encouraged them to read books that were not required reading. Compared with the adult national sample in the 1997 SPPA, these figures reveal a much higher level of childhood exposure to the arts among Holy Cross students. For example, in the 1997 SPPA, 40 percent or fewer parents listened to classical music or encouraged interest in the arts by taking respondents to museums or performances; and only 47 percent of the national sample, compared to 84 percent of the Holy Cross sample, reported that their parents “often” encouraged them to read.

A second set of questions asked if, prior to coming to Holy Cross, respondents had ever taken lessons or classes in four arts areas: music, visual arts, theater, and dance. Over three-quarters of the sample had taken music lessons--either voice training or playing a musical instrument; two-thirds had taken lessons in the visual arts such as sculpture, painting, print making, or photography; 44 percent had had lessons in ballet or other forms of dance; and one-quarter had taken classes in acting or theater. Except for the dance item, all these questions also were asked in the 1997 SPPA. Once again, by comparison, even though the SPPA items asked about the entire life span, not just pre-college lessons, and even when compared with college graduates, Holy Cross students’ levels of participation were higher. For example, compared with the 78 percent of the Holy Cross sample, 48 percent of the SPPA sample and 68 percent of the SPPA sub-sample of college graduates had taken music lessons.

Third, we asked if the respondent played a musical instrument; if so, how long they had been playing; and if they performed in a high school band or sung in a high school choir, church choir, or a cappella group. Over 40 percent had played one or more instruments; of those students who played, the majority played the piano (57%), followed by the guitar (18%), clarinet and flute (13% each), and saxophone (11%). Respondents reported playing an instrument an average of 7 years, with nearly three-quarters playing for 5 or more years. Of those who played, more than half had played in their high school band or other high school musical group. Finally, 44 percent of the respondents said that they had sung in a musical group prior to coming to Holy Cross.

In general, women were more likely than men to have been encouraged to participate in the arts. Female students were more likely than male students to report that their parents had taken them to art museums and plays, dances, or classical music performances. They were much more likely to have had lessons in the fine arts; for example, 70 percent of women students had taken dance lessons as compared with only 6 percent of the men, and twice as many women as men had taken lessons in acting or theater. Only in the area of music did men approach the level of participation of women, as men were just as likely to play a musical instrument and to have performed in the high school band. On the other hand, women students were much more likely to have sung in a musical group (53% versus 32%).

Recent Participation in the Arts
The SPPA’s primary indicator of participation in the arts was attendance at live performances and events. In the fall 2002 HCSS, 88 percent of Holy Cross students reported attending at least one of seven arts activities (ballet, classical music, opera, jazz, musical plays, non-musical plays, or art museums), not including school performances, in the past 12 months. The most popular activity was visiting an art museum, which 75 percent reported, followed by attending a musical play (35%), non-musical play (34%), jazz performance (23%), ballet or dance (27%), and classical music or opera (18%). As in the SPPA we also collected information on other related arts activities. Seventy percent of our respondents reported that they had visited an historic park or monument, or toured buildings or neighborhoods for their historic or design value, and 40 percent said that they had made art or craft objects during the previous 12 months.

Once again, comparisons with the SPPA revealed that Holy Cross students have a much higher level of participation in the arts than the U.S. adult population. For example, fewer than half the SPPA sample attended at least one of the seven primary arts activities; and the highest attendance figures--35 percent had visited an art museum, 24 percent a musical play, and 16 percent a non-musical play--were well below those for Holy Cross students. On the other hand, the rates of attendance for Holy Cross students tended to be lower than those of college graduates in the SPPA. Also, by comparison, Holy Cross students reported much higher rates of attendance at live concerts other than jazz or classical (85%) and at professional sports events (82%) than at any of the fine arts activities. These different consumption patterns probably reflect age differences in the tastes and habits of college students versus older adults.

In the SPPA, women tended to participate in the arts at a somewhat higher rate than men; however, with the exception of attendance at jazz performances, the gender difference was much greater in the HCSS. Among Holy Cross students, for example, women were far more likely than men to go to a ballet or dance performance, to visit an art gallery, to make art or craft objects, and to attend musical and non-musical plays.

Participation in the Arts at Holy Cross
We asked several questions about participation in the arts at Holy Cross, including performance in musical groups and theater, attendance at arts activities, and coursework beyond the common area requirements. With regard to personal participation, 15 percent of the respondents reported that they had performed with one of the college-sponsored musical groups such as the College choir, Chapel choir, marching band, or jazz ensemble, or with some other musical group. In addition, 7 percent had performed in a theater or dance production at Holy Cross, and 9 percent had taken music lessons or given a recital in the Music Department. Overall, 22 percent of the respondents had engaged in one or more of these activities.

One-third of the respondents said that they had taken a course in music, visual arts, or theater beyond the one-course requirement in the arts. More than half the students had visited the Cantor Art Gallery. A majority of students also had visited the Worcester Art Museum; however, only 6 percent had attended a concert at Mechanics Hall, site of many fine arts performances. On the other hand, nearly four of five students reported attending a fine arts event at the College: 46 percent had attended the performance of a non-musical play, 44 percent a performance of the Holy Cross choir, 43 percent a musical play, 40 percent the performance of the Holy Cross jazz ensemble, chamber orchestra, or chamber singers, and 39 percent some other concert in Brooks Concert Hall. As expected, all forms of participation--personally performing, attending, or taking classes--increased with class year. With first-year students only midway through their first semester at the time of the HCSS interviews, the biggest difference was between first- and second-year students in terms of attendance and taking classes.

Music Preferences
Both the SPPA and the GSS asked respondents what kind of music they liked and what kind of music they liked best. The HCSS also asked about most of the music categories in these surveys, but with modified wording in a few instances to reflect current understandings. Table 3.1 shows the percentage of Holy Cross respondents who “liked” or “liked very much” each of 17 different kinds of music; the percentage of 1997 SPPA respondents who “liked listening to” each musical genre; and the percentages of Holy Cross and SPPA respondents who reported the kind of music that they liked best. A majority of Holy Cross students reported that they liked classic rock, contemporary pop/rock, rap or hip hop, alternative, and jazz; 30 percent said that they liked classic rock best, followed by contemporary pop/rock (17%), rap or hip hop (16%), and alternative (12%). The musical genres they disliked most, based on the percentage that said they “disliked” or “disliked very much,” were opera, heavy metal, country-western, and folk. By comparison, a majority of the SPPA sample reported that they liked, in order, mood or easy listening, country-western, blues or rhythm and blues, rock, and hymns or gospel. Country-western was liked best by 21 percent of the SPPA sample, followed by rock (18%) and hymns or gospel (14%). Many factors may have produced the differences in musical tastes between the two samples. We suspect that it is a combination of age, social class, and region raised.

Table 3.1. Music Preferences of Holy Cross Students in Fall 2002 HCSS (N = 256) and the National Sample in the 1997 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (N = 4,452).

Note. The SPPA did not ask about “alternative” and “heavy metal,” used a single category for “rock,” and had additional categories not included in the HCSS, such as new age, soul, and barbershop.

Popular Culture Consumption Patterns
How much time do students listen to music, listen to the radio, and watch television? How often do they see movies? How often do they read the newspaper? The HCSS revealed that music and television take up a significant part of each student’s day. Eighty-five percent of the respondents reported that they listened to music for one or more hours a day; 60 percent reported two or more hours; and one-quarter reported three or more hours. In fact, 5 percent of the students said that they listened to music for six or more hours each day. Although we did not ask about the context in which students “listened,” it stands to reason that they often did so while performing other tasks, from reading and doing other coursework to working out at the gym.

Respondents further reported that they watch one or more hours of television “on the average day.” The modal response was one hour, but 40 percent of the sample reported watching 2 or more hours and 10 percent watched 3 or more hours. Few students said that they watched little or no television, and 80 percent said that they watched one or more shows on a regular basis. When asked how often they watched different kinds of television shows, respondents reported the highest rates for world or national news programs, followed closely by prime-time drama or situation comedy and sports. Two-thirds said that they watched the national news and prime-time programs 1-2 times a week or more; by contrast, 15 percent watched public television shows this often. Male respondents reported that they watched television an average of 25 minutes more per day than female respondents; and first-year students watched 15-20 minutes less per day than second-, third-, and fourth-year students. The additional time that men spent in front of the television was reflected in two differences in their television fare: Men watched sports and national news programs more often than women.

Three-quarters of the respondents also reported that they listened to the radio. The modal time that they listened was one hour; however, 40 percent reported 30 minutes or less. Unsolicited comments by respondents suggested that many of the latter respondents only listened to the radio while riding in a car.

Virtually all students also watched films. When asked how many movies they had seen in a movie theater in the past 12 months, students’ median response was 7; about one-quarter of the respondents had attended twelve or more--that is, had gone to the movie theater on average one or more times a month. When asked how many movies they viewed on a VCR or DVD player in an average month, two-thirds of the sample said that they had seen between 2 and 6 films and one in five had seen 10 or more.

Finally, the majority of Holy Cross students read the newspaper at least once a week. One in five students said that they read a newspaper every day; one-half read the paper a few times a week or more. Few students get their news from newspapers, however. The primary news sources, they report, are television (40%) and the Internet (32%), followed by newspapers (17%), with radio, magazines, and other sources used by small minorities of students. Nor do they read comic strips in the local newspaper on a regular basis. About one-half of the respondents reported that they never read the comics. Of those who did, the majority read comic strips less than once a week.

These consumption patterns differ from adults nationally, as might be expected of college students. For example, Holy Cross students watch much less television. In the 2000 GSS, the average number of hours per day that respondents watched TV was nearly 3 hours, twice the average for the HCSS sample. Nearly one-half of GSS respondents watched 3 or more hours of TV per day, compared with one-quarter of Holy Cross respondents. Although we only have GSS data for the year 1993, these data suggest that nationally adults also differ from Holy Cross students in what they watch on TV. In the 1993 GSS, the vast majority of respondents (86%) reported that they watched world or national news programs daily or several days a week; a majority (59%) viewed prime-time drama or situation-comedy programs and a near-majority (49%) viewed public television shows this often. By comparison, Holy Cross students reported that they watched national news only slightly more often than prime-time shows: 37 percent watched national news 3-4 days or more per week; 26 percent watched prime-time shows 3-4 days or more per week. In addition, nearly 70 percent of the Holy Cross sample reported that they rarely or never watched public television.

Reflecting the pattern for this age group nationally, Holy Cross students are far more likely than older adults to see movies at a movie theater. A March 2002 Gallup Poll, for example, indicated that one-third of adults nationwide had not attended a movie theater in the past 12 months; 37 percent had seen between 1 and 4 films in a theater, and 29 percent had seen 5 or more films. Fewer than 1 percent of the Holy Cross sample reported that they had not seen a movie in a movie theater and over three-quarters had seen 5 or more films in a theater in the past year. On the other hand, Holy Cross students watch fewer films on a VCR or DVD player than the average American. A March 2001 Gallup Poll showed that Americans view an average of 6.8 movies at home each month on a VCR or DVD player, as compared with an average of 5.5 “at-home” movies each month for Holy Cross students. Also, the same Gallup Poll showed that young adults (age 18-29) nationally watched about the same number of films in a theater but more films at home than Holy Cross students: an average of 7.8 films per year in the theater and 12.6 films “in the past month” on a VCR or DVD player.

While Holy Cross students are much less likely than adults nationwide to read a newspaper on a daily basis (17 percent in the fall 2002 HCSS versus 37 percent in the 2000 GSS), they are equally likely to read a paper once a week or more (75 percent). On the other hand, the news sources of Holy Cross students differ from those of adults nationwide. Whereas television and the Internet were the major news sources for Holy Cross students, a Media Studies Center national poll conducted in 1999 showed that 65 percent of respondents got their news from television, 21 percent from newspapers, 9 percent from radio, and only 2 percent from the Internet. A December 2002 Gallup Poll also indicated that respondents most often got their news from television and newspapers, and used the Internet less often than radio.

Holy Cross Favorites
Periodically, polling agencies ask the American public about their favorite cultural icons. Table 3.2 reports Holy Cross students’ top-five favorite television shows, singer/musicians or musical groups, movie stars, comic strips, and clothing brands, and the radio station that they most often listen to. On most of these questions there were a broad range of choices. For example, students identified over 100 favorite singers, 60 different favorite film stars, and nearly 50 favorite TV programs. Yet, in most cases, the top-ranked favorite was clearly number one. The television show “Friends” was a favorite among nearly one-quarter of the respondents, followed by “The Simpsons” with 16 percent and “Seinfeld” with 7 percent. One in eight students named The Dave Matthews Band as their favorite musician or musical group; U2 was next with half as many votes, followed by Billy Joel with half again as many. Thirty-six students, or 14 percent of the sample, named Julia Roberts as their favorite film star; Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks were next, with 6 and 5 percent, respectively. (According to a March 2001 Gallup Poll, Julia Roberts also led the list of film stars that Americans make a special effort to see.) Nearly 20 percent of the students said they most often listened to WJMN; WXLO and WCHC were next with 7 percent.

There were some sharp differences in the choices of men and women, but fewer differences in terms of academic class. Nearly all the votes for “Friends” were by female respondents, and nearly all the votes for “The Simpsons” were by men. Similarly, women liked The Dave Matthews Band and U2, while the men preferred Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam. Not a single male respondent selected Julia Roberts as their favorite film star, and only five men identified a female film star as their favorite. Consequently, among student favorites, male film stars outnumbered female film stars by a ratio of greater than 2 to 1. Men and women respondents preferred much the same clothing brands, except that Polo replaced Express (which until recently made only women’s clothing) among the men’s top five.

First-year and second-year students were more likely than third- or fourth-year students to select The Dave Matthews Band, whereas upperclass students preferred U2. First- and second-year women also were far more likely than upperclasswomen to choose Julia Roberts as their favorite actress, but otherwise there were few differences in terms of academic class standing.

Table 3.2. Top-Five Ranked Favorite Television Show, Favorite Singer/Musician or Musical Group, Favorite Movie Star, Favorite Comic Strip, Favorite Clothing Brand, and Most Listened to Radio Station.

Note. Favorite comic strip was asked only of respondents who reported that they read the comic strips, and most listened to radio station was asked only of those who listened to the radio; otherwise Ns vary as a function of those who gave a response other than “don’t know” or “none.”