Music Elicitation and the Art of Listening

The chapter discusses the potential of music elicitation for sensitive research, drawing on the work of other scholars who have used music as a method. This is a technique that has been commonly used in the media and popularised by the Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. In this programme, participants are asked to bring along seven music tracks which help them tell their life stories. This simple concept has been utilised in my criminological research to ask a similar question to ex-gang-involved men who experienced domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in childhood. I asked them this question: ‘Bring along three music tracks which help you tell parts of your life story.’ The function of this question was to situate the participant as the lead of the interview. They could choose what topics to share (as there were no pre-set questions), what music to choose, and when to play that music (and thus curate the interview space). This brought forward long, uninterrupted narratives. Music elicitation was an effective tool, particularly for sensitive research, as it was unintrusive and participatory. This follows in the tradition of other scholars who have looked at music as emancipatory.